File Size
A quick note on file size: this industry is notorious for describing drum scans in terms of file size. However, we are not fans of this norm. File size is arbitrary and is the result of various factors, not the least of which can even be the brightness and color information in a particular image. Therefore, we are strong advocates of providing the actual resolution, pixel dimensions, and scanning DPI (see below for print vs. scanning DPI) of the image you are requesting. File size is most helpful to know only when needing to calculate how large of a hard drive to bring for larger jobs.

Print DPI Primer
TL;DR: When printing: 300 DPI is good. 100-150 DPI is workable. 450 DPI is overkill, but good for ultra-high-end.

Many files are saved with various DPI or PPI settings. These are completely arbitrary and usually tell a printer or web browser how large to print or display an image when no other information is available. This is mostly antiquated and not very helpful.

The main thing that matters is true resolution, which is a function of the actual number of pixels in your file and its relationship to how large you want to print or digitally display your image. The relationship of these two things determines how sharp your image looks in its final form.

For prints, the gold standard DPI is 300, with a sort of platinum standard at 450 DPI (though few can visually see the difference between 300 DPI and 450 DPI, even up close). This means for an image to be visually sharp, the file being printed should have enough pixels to have 300 pixels for every inch of the print (roughly the same goes for digital display on a screen). This can still vary greatly depending on viewing distance, but in our world, let’s assume we want most images to appear sharp when viewing on a wall in a home. The bare minimum for any print is about 100-150 DPI, so we can stretch this a bit. But for posterity, we highly recommend planning for at least 300 DPI relative to your final display size.

Scanning DPI Primer
TL;DR: Scanning DPI should always be significantly higher, assuming you are enlarging the negative and not printing 1:1.

Print DPI and scanning DPI are different. This is often where many get confused.

For example, our 35mm scans start at a whopping 4,000 DPI. However, this is the DPI the scanner is using to the scan the small, 35mm negative. This means it will create a file with 4,000 pixels for every actual inch of the negative. At just under 1” x 1.5”, this means a 35mm negative scanned at this DPI would create a final image of nearly 4,000 × 6,000 pixels (i.e. 1”×4,000 DPI x 1.5”×4,000 DPI) for a final resolution of 24 megapixels (4,000×6,000). We need many more than 300 pixels per inch from the negative’s scan because we usually intend to enlarge the image. If we only had 300 pixels for every inch in our scan, we would only create a sharp 1:1 reproduction.

If you want to know how large you can print this 4,000 DPI scan, you would then divide each side by 300 DPI (for a sharp print). This would give you an approximate print size of 13” x 20” (4000/300 × 6000/300). Similarly, if you wanted to stretch it at the cost of some clarity, you could print at roughly 2-3x that size at 26” x 40” at 150 DPI or 40”x60” at 100 DPI.

Finally, if you decided you would need higher fidelity at a larger size, at 8,000 DPI you could double the clarity and/or the size, meaning a 26” x 40” print would could be printed at 300 DPI from a 35mm negative scanned at 8,000 DPI. But if you knew you were never going to need an image from a 35mm negative to be printed or displayed larger than 20” on one side, it would be a waste of your resources to opt for the 8,000 DPI scan, for example, as a 4,000 DPI scan would suit your needs.

Final Note
This is all simple arithmetic, but it can still cause a headache for some. If you have any questions about calculating the appropriate scanning resolution for your needs, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

We can offer 8-bit or 16-bit scans. This refers to the color bit depth, or how much color information is capable of being stored in every pixel.

In practice, many do not and will not need 16-bit files. There are extensive articles online for us nerds (we’ll take care of this part for you) about whether 16-bit files are even truly 16 bits per channel.

What is important to know is that 16-bit files are useful for one thing: if you intend to edit the file a lot. For minor edits, 8-bit files are completely adequate. But if you plan on potentially tweaking your colors heavily, you can opt for 16-bit scans to give you a little more leeway and smoother gradients in solid areas such as skies or clouds. Do note, however, that the 16-bit files will be much larger than the 8-bit files, as 8-bit files can also be efficiently and losslessly (without losing information) compressed while 16-bit files cannot be.

Many often believe drum scans are always perfectly clean and do not require post work or dust removal. However, this is a misconception.

Because drum scans are wet-mounted to a transparent drum, they benefit from a light blemish-removal effect that wet-mounting gives any image. However, due to the extreme resolutions of these drum scans, event the smallest imperfections are visible. What you may not see on an 8×10 print, you may easily notice on a print twice that size, and the same goes for simply zooming into a high-resolution image. Moreover, many do not realize negatives sometimes hold defects from handling, storage, processing, and other sources that will show through in a detailed scan.

As such, while we do light cleaning and will sometimes apply a light once-over edit in post, expect to need some (or more) dust correction or color correction to get the image to your liking in the final product.

For those that need turnkey services, we do offer dust correction, color correction, and more at hourly rates. Custom corrective services are quoted by the half-hour before we take the job. We require a 50% deposit of this quote, guarantee no overages, and refund if the job ends up being faster. Please see our Additional Services tab in the pricing chart below.