Albums from Film Photographs?

[Valerie]

I have a question about making our wedding album. Our wedding photographs were shot with film, not digital. If we want to do any editing/correcting to our photos, will it be done in photoshop or is there another way to edit negatives? I am not talking about adjusting color or levels, but rather things like taking out a bright green exit sign in the background of some of our formal shots. If it's a matter of scanning prints and using photoshop, will we lose that "film quality" when we make the album? Thank you for your help.

[mcouturier]

The removal of objects in the photograph or other manipulations will require an application such as Photoshop (or similar). Scans from original photos should hold up quite well for use in an album as long as a very good scanner is used at the correct settings and the originals are not wallet sized. There is a huge difference between a professional scanner (which can range from $500 to $5,000) and a $149 home scanner.

I would suggest scanning the actual negatives rather than prints for the best results. A dedicated negative scanner is best to use, but not typically found at Circuit City. Even though most flatbed scanners claim to be able to scan negatives, the results are often mediocre at best.

Can you purchase the negatives from your photographer? Perhaps you could purchase digital negative scans from the photographer. The photographers professional lab should be able to get the best scans from the negatives using the proper equipment.

If you want to retain that "film quality" look, I'd recommend using a very, very good scanner, or getting scans of the negatives so that the photos in your album look exactly like the originals.

[Valerie]

Thank you!