Dr. Hug's Photo Scanning Service

We Digitize Slides, Negatives, Prints

Wouldn't it be nice to HUG a memory?

Print Scan vs 35mm Scan GIF

Scanning the photographic film negative instead of the printed photo will normally produce a better quality digital image. The main reason is because scanning the printed photo is making a copy of a copy. If the negative film appears to be in worse condition than the printed photo, then scanning the printed photo would probably be better.

 

Below are scans of the same photograph, but one was created from the printed photo and the other from 35mm negative film. The printed photo was scanned at 600ppi and the 35mm negative film was scanned at 2400ppi. Due to the physical size difference between the printed photo image and the 35mm negative film image, these 2 resolutions (600ppi and 2400ppi) are comparable.

 

The photo below is animated. It should be switching between two photos showing the visual difference in quality between the scanned printed photo and the scanned 35mm negative film. Farther down the page is a zoomed in comparison.

 

If the animation is not working, you can click HERE to see the two separate photos.

 

If you have a small screen, you may need to zoom in to see the difference.

Animated GIF showing the difference in quality between the same image scanned from a printed photo and scanned from a 35mm negative.

 

Scanned Photo Print vs Scanned 35mm Negative Film Comparison

For a better visual comparison, we zoomed in on the same 2 photos from above. The photo below is animated. It should be switching between two photos showing the visual difference in quality.

 

If the animation is not working, you can click HERE to see the two separate photos.

 

If you have a small screen, you may need to zoom in to see the difference.

Animated GIF showing the difference in quality between the same image scanned from a printed photo and scanned from a 35mm negative, but this time zoomed in.