For a dummy: tranferrring travel photos to a DVD
 

Hi
Came back from a recent remarkable trip with lots of conventional (non-digital) photos.
For a souvenir gift to my family, want to have some of the photos made into a DVD with some music and titles added.

Question: I have the negatives from the photos, and I have prints. I have inquired with companies who will make the DVD.
One has said they will scan my photos, and then make the DVD. The other suggests that I bring the negatives into a photo shop (even a drugstore) and have specified negatives turned into a CD. Then I would send the CD to the company, and they will make the DVD.
Would there be a likely difference in image quality on the final DVD, working from scanned photo prints vs working from negatives turned into a CD?
thanks

My experiences are more than 2 hours old, hence hopelessly out of date. When I used 35mm film, Motofoto processed the negs onto a high resolution CD. I then printed out the shots I wanted at home. There is really cool software for burning your own DVDs (incredible fades and effects). If you want someone else to produce it, I'd go with negs unless you are dealing with the best possible scanner. It may be 6 of one/half-dozen of the other nowadays though. Any of the reputable places won't steer you wrong. What are the costs either way?

Even though your eye might not be able to discern any difference, scans of the negatives will contain more information than digitized prints. Have them scanned at the highest possible resolution available to you, so you don't lose one bit (heh, heh) of that information - I think 4000dpi is about the standard today. You can always make 800x600x256 .jpg prints from .tiff files, but you can't go the other way.

Later on, if you want to crop and enlarge a portion of an image, you will have more headroom than with a lower-resolution scan.

Side note to digital photographers: always shoot at the highest resolution your camera is capable of - for the same reasons as cited above.

ok, bear with me.

So, I take the negatives to a photo shop, and tell them I want the selected ones scanned, at highest possible resolution, and put onto a CD. I at least have, previously, had conventional film put onto a CD, so I'm minimally familiar with that.

I get the CD home and I can manipulate the images a little--crop here, enhance there, save the results. THEN, I send the CD off to the DVD people.
Yes?

In the future, you might want to consider Photoworks.com. They will develop your film, give you prints and put the images on CD and save them on their web site--all for a price of course, and give you back a "free" roll.

Hi again, elaine. The process you describe sounds good. Unless it's way cheaper to select just the ones you want, I'd have them put ALL of your negs on the cd initially. Then you can decide at leisure on your computer screen which ones you wish to keep. Robespierre is correct on all counts, however, the untrained eye, i.e., most people, won't be able to tell the difference with most of the technology available today.

Since Elaine's questions have been answered, may I ride on the coat-tails of this thread?

I haven't abandoned film yet, and took my rolls into an Eckerd store to develop and save to CD. I was flummoxed to find that they saved the images on the CD at a low resolution, only suitable for emailing. The totally <i>weird</i> part was that some images were low res, but others were high res.

I contacted that store, plus another one, to quiz the technician. In both cases, I was told the resolution is set in their software by the 'home office' and there is no way the in-store technician can change it. Couldn't explain how I got a mixture of high and low resolution images.

So- next time I have film to develop and want a CD as well, what lab will save the images at the best resolution?
I don't know about Photoworks - how are their CDs?

just realized there's another complication
For the photos that I took, I have the negatives
Other photos were taken by other family members and I have only thosse prints, don't have the negatives, and don't want to ask for them, as the DVD is to be a surprise

So I guess if I'm going to organize this in any reasonable way, all the photos will have to be scanned, and I realize I will be sacrificing some resolution. Otherwise, some photos would be on a CD, and others would be prints, and it's too difficult to organize the order for the DVD that way.

Phew. Where's the old Brownie my mother used to have?

I LOVE Donco's assessment of the speed of technology!!
What is the software for burning your own DVDs, Please?
I have a photo scanner with the daunting task ahead of me of making CDs for all our children. Have been promising myself to do it forever.
I think if you have WindowsXP on your computer you can do a lot of manipulation of photos. If not, download for free from Picasa.com . It is a good piece of equipment for making albums, etc.
That is interesting news about Eckerd's, for heavens' sake!!

Oh, I think WalMart might even do this stuff. If you want music and titles I think it will take a pro lab.

They can scan the prints as well. I honestly don't think you're going to see a huge difference. Guess you have to specify hi res. Michael, front office needs to hear about the hi/lo res thing-that seems absurd. Maybe most folks either get prints or do e-mail so Ek is going lowest common denominator.

Someone just told me that scanning the prints for my purposes is better, because if I provide the negatives to the photo shop, those can't be scanned, the negatives will be turned into prints again first and then those will be scanned.
??

Travelnut,

You actually do not need to rely on the CD from Photoworks. You can request, for a higher fee, that the images be saved on their servers at a high resolution and then download them to your computer if you have the capability of burning a CD. But best might be to contact them to see what they say.

elaine, i think the process of having the photos/negs put on a cd will depend on the lab. There are different kinds of scanners for prints and for negatives. A good photoshop should be willing to do the negatives, and have the equipment for it. I believe negative scanners are much more expensive (at least buying for consumer use they are).

Also, once you have all your photos in a digital format, you should consider making the DVD yourself. Well, maybe you don't have a dvd-recorder on your computer? but if you do, I think you can handle doing it on your own, and adding captions or music. Perhaps you have a technologically inclined friend who can help out?

Travelnut, the last time I had film developed, I got mailers from shutterfly.com. I sent them the film, and they develop it and send me the negatives. I can then order prints online, or order an archive CD, which will have any or all of my pictures in high res digital copies. I don't use film much anymore, but this worked well for me.

Even my scanner will scan negatives. It will be easier for you to use the photos and I don't think for the purpose you are proposing that there will be a problem.

Scanning slides and negatives requires a very precise source of white backlight. Tungsten and flourescent bulbs introduce artifacts that have to be corrected out. Professional 4000dpi 35mm scanners cost about $2000.

Good lux.

elaine: Robespierre is correct and the the reputable photo places will have such equipment, or something approaching it, that will be perfectly acceptable. I have only dealt with motofoto and ritz. Call your local places and compare prices and requirements.
Gretchen: the software is by Photodex and is called ProShow Gold. It is downloadable. I also called them and got a cd (nominal charge) to load onto my non-internet (hence no viruses),
computer. Haven't tried Picasa but have heard it's good. I'm very pleased with Paint Shop Pro (cheaper than Photoshop and IMHO easier to use).

Elaine,

It sounds like you need to ask each shop what equipment they have. If you have a specialist shop near you (Ritz, Wolf, etc.) I would ask them what they charge.

Most every drug and discount store will have print scanner, but not a film scanners. Film scanners are relatively specialized equipment.

Things in photography are changing rapidly. I culled 500 digital shots on the computer. I selected 150 for printing. 150 prints from digital costs $35 versus $300 plus if I had the eqivalent 20 rolls printed.

Elaine: Have you tried Duggal's? They're located in the low 20's and offer high end digital service. www.duggal.com

Thanks Donco. Elaine, I still say, consider what you want from this and go with that decision.