© 2004-2019 Brismedia. Servicing clients Australia wide Brismedia specialise in the scanning / transfer / copy / converting of slides photos & pictures to CD-DVD disc and Digital Images JPG. Covering Brisbane, Arana Hills, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart, Perth, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Cairns, Newcastle, Wollongong, Sunshine Coast, Geelong, Townsville, Toowoomba, Launceston, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania.
How can I view my slides beforehand? Most slide projectors have died and the little viewers had their batteries leak. The simplest solution is to make a light box. Think of how doctors look at X-rays. This allow you to see if their are people or interesting objects and if the slide has kept its colour. The image is too small to know if it’s in focus. • A computer screen with a white background (open blank document) turned up bright does the trick. • A table lamp with opaque piece of plastic or paper towel in front may work. How do you decide what slides to get scanned? • What is important to you. Back in the seventies people loved scenery so a lot of slides might be of countryside, mountains or oceans and have no people in them. • There could be slides that are just black totally washed out or obviously blurred. • Look at the colours if it’s all purple say and has nothing of real interest do you really need it? • The issue with duplicate images say of a group of people is that you can’t tell which slide has the sharpest image or if they have their eyes closed so I suggest you get them both done.
Can I scan my slides with those little $70 scanners and save money? Yes you certainly can and they do work. If you do have over 100 slides and lots of time on your hands, some computer skills and are not to fussy this maybe the way to go. Below is what you miss out on. • Many models have limited or no exposure control so faces maybe washed out or dark • Colours may not be balanced. • Image is not as sharp and will be grainyin low light images • No infra-red scratch removal • Slide enhancement, you will need to learn how its done. • Qpix model I borrowed, the camera frame was not full width so I had to choose a person on the far left or the far right but not both. See image below. • Getting it to connect to the computer & organising the images requires computer skills. • If you have slides with a square image “kodak instamatic” the top & bottom will be missing. If you go more upmarket say to a $300 you will get a better result. That same $300 equates to 375 slides using our standard scanning and no time on your behalf. So do your homework first! •
How do you get your Slides to us? • You can visit our Arana Hills office. We keep flexible hours 5 days a week with evening drop-off & pickups available until 7pm (closed Sunday and Monday) Ring to make a time! • You can post the slides to us. Keep your Aus Post receipt as it has your tracking number. I suggest wrapping your slides in bubble wrap or padding and ensure no containers can open up. • You can use a courier company to deliver your parcel. Couriers Please, Fastways, Startrack etc, are all familiar with our location. What is the best way to supply your slides to us? We accept slides in almost all containers including slide carousels, slide boxes, A4 pouches and even loose. If your posting the cost of shipping large carousels or wooden slide boxes can be expensive & would also incur extra return postage. So if you are going to remove them from the containers then the the way we like to receive them is in bundles with 2 rubber band around each bundle. If you want them scanned in an order, number each bundle with the first slide at the top. Are slides returned to me? YES slides are always returned. You can have them returned in their original containers however for Carousels, Slide Boxes with individual slots or A4 plastic pouches a surcharge of 5 cents is added per slide to cover our labour time. For slide jobs under 250 we prefer to bundle them as shown above. For jobs over 250 slides we can supply a purpose built slide box as shown at no charge which holds about 400 slides and is very compact, great for storage!
How are my slide files named? Can I match file names to the actual slides? We name your images PICT_001 PICT_002 etc. If we are returning them in your original containers each container is marked with the start and finish image (eg PICT 221 to 287). The order inside those containers will be correct but slots that were empty will be filled. If we use our custom box each row is labelled see the image above. Should I choose the standard or Professional scanning service? This boils down to budget and purpose. If you have the money get the professional service. If money is tight use the standard service or get ruthless and cull more slides. Both services offer the same scanning method its just the enhancement that’s done afterwards in Photoshop that is different. So if its for a special event I recommend “Professional” as they will look great on the day. If its simply to preserve your memories “standard” is fine.
What is 3200 PPI or is that DPI does it matter if its less? PPI stands for pixels per inch. the more pixels per inch used to scan an image the more detailed it is. DPI stands for dots per inch. It refers to printing an image the more dots per inch the more detailed the paper image. So in scanning the world DPI doesn’t really apply but its still misquoted. Having said that images do have a DPI value stored in them. In theory but not in practice its used to determine the size of a printed version of the digital image. So if I had an image that was a 1000 pixels across and I printed it at 100 Dots (pixels) Per Inch it would end up being 10 inches long. This is because a 100 Dots Per Inch x 10 inches =1000 dots (pixels) If I printed the same image at 50 Dots Per Inch it would end being 20 inches long. The bottom line is the more pixels per inch is better. However after certain amount there is no real benefit as you are seeing the film grain this occurs around 3000ppi for most slides.
Need more info?… Call Tony on 0407-647-866
Need more info?… Just call Tony on 0407-647-866
What are the different sorts of slide images? There were 4 main types of slide images plus a few more oddities shown below. • 35mm film produces the best result because its the biggest image but also because the cameras were far more advanced with a variety of interchangeable lenses. • 126 film or Instamatic film was very popular but almost all cameras had poor lenses & either non existent or cloudy/sunny exposure control & fixed focus so results can be disappointing at times. • 35mm Half Frame can produce decent results but is half the size.  • 110 Pocket camera film was by far the worst. I don’t have a good thing to say about them. Only get these scanned if they have true sentimental value to them. The images above are rare but we do get them and are happy to scan them. If you have a lot of them please advise me first as we have modified only a few trays to hold them. Custom Slide Box Free!
Need more info?… Call Tony on 0407-647-866
Do I have to sort my slides and get them the right way up? NO assuming you don’t care about the order. We sort out the correct way up and the best order to scan them in. If however you want them scanned in a specific order then obviously you need to organise that. How that is done will depend on the containers your slides are in and if you have a mix of slide types. It can be confusing so please ring me (Tony) on 0407-647-866 to discuss it. Does the slide brand make a difference to the quality? It certainly does. Their were two major brands Kodak and Agfa. If you chose Kodak in the cardboard mount you have a good chance of having excellent rich colour slides. If you used Agfa slides these were in plastic mount usually blue or blue/white then your slides will most likely be purple. Some can have their colour partially restored others are too far gone. The easiest way is to look.
How do I figure out what those technical terms mean?
• PPI/DPI (pixels/dots per inch) determines the detail in your image. PPI/DPI of about 3000 is optimum less means your losing details more unless your slides are absolutely amazing offers no real benefit just increased cost & bigger files. We do offer 4800 scanning if you want it. Optical V Interpolated. Optical PPI means the actual pixel resolution the scanner used in making your image. Interpolated means it was scanned at a lower PPI then just up sized in software this is a cheat to save time & I hope no one in the industry is using it. That’s why we state true optical PPI • Dust & Scratch Removal: There are two types: 1:Software also known as Digital The software just looks at the image and makes a guess, its rubbish and causes more problems than it solves, I’ve seen eyebrows removed. Avoid! 2:Infra-Red This is a physical second scan of the image using infra-red light. This highlights the scratches and blemishes. Digital Ice scratch removal is a software package by Kodak that uses that information but amazingly Does Not work correctly on kodachrome slides the most common slide ever made! Our infra-red removal software works fine with kodachrome! (see slideshow) • Image Enhancement: This includes getting the brightness & contrast correct, removing colour castes eg a purple tinge, bringing up detail in darker regions. There are two methods. 1:Automated Software sometimes it gets it right, sometimes not. For example a white wedding dress against a lot of dark foliage. Auto often says that picture is too dark and boost the brightness washing out all detail in the dress but the shrub looks great. Once its gone it can not be restored! 2: Manual (human) I use my eyes to look at the content of your image and knowing what’s important adjusts it to get the best result. Making peoples faces in the shadows viewable, removing say a green tinge so skin tones are correct, enriching the colour where it has faded.