I have a client that has a few old photos that they want converted to digital format so they can create a photo book. Can someone recommend a good company that I can contact in regards to scanning the photos to digital? I can use a regular scanner but I dont think the quality will be acceptable.
I'm sorry, I don't know of a company off the top of my head - I know they are out there but I've never used them. Do you know that most scanners can scan at resolutions higher than 300 dpi? You can scan them in at 600 or something like that ... if it's only a few photos why not give it a try and see what you can come up with yourself? Christa @cfile just posted an amazing photo restoration she did using PS's content aware feature ... in case any of the photos need work, you could also do something like that?
No recommendation either, but I will second @cfile 's recommendation of PS's built in restoration functions. I have PSE, and used the "Guided" old photo restoration, and was able to do a lot for some old family photos belonging to my husband's side of the family. We had some really faded and yellowed photos from the 1970s, some cracked and stained photos from the 1920s and 1930s, and even some older photos from mid 1800s. With a high scanner resolution, we had good success. Depending on the level of damage, expect to spend 5 minutes to half an hour editing each photo.
Scan them st 600 dpi as @jenn mccabe suggested.. old photos they you only have 1 of I would never send anywhere. My BFF had a brittle baby photo of her father - at least 90 years old now.. I had her take a cell phone photo of it and send to me.. I fixed it and printed & framed for her.. never send the original photos out in case of damage or loss
Be careful too, because some of the places send them overseas! I think as long as your client understand that the printed size creates limitations on how big it can be blown up afterwards, you should be okay. Maybe try scanning one and send it to her and see what she says? I've been happy to scrap with my scanned photos, and my scanned is only 300 DPI. I printed the layout too to see how it looked.
I've done some photo restoration for my mom and just used a good dSLR camera to take a photo of them and then use that for restoration. I was using a 12MP camera and the end result came out as well or better than it would if I'd sent it to be scanned.
I used my iPhone 5S and an app called "Photomyne" to "scan" my grandmother's old photo albums... hundreds of photos! It was fast and efficient. The camera on my iPhone is an 8 megapixel I believe... but there are other cell phones, Samsung for one, that have higher megapixels. Just another option if you don't want the hassle/risk of sending those precious photos by mail.