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 JPG

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 2 photos show 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 you want to view the animated version, click HERE.

 

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

The scanned digital image from a printed photo.
The same photo scanned into a digital image from a 35mm negative to show the improved quality over the scanned digital image from the printed photo.

 

Scanned Photo Print vs Scanned 35mm Negative Film Comparison

For a better visual comparison, we zoomed in on the same 2 photos from above. You can view visual difference in quality below.

 

If you want to view the animated version, click HERE.

 

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

The same scanned digital image from a printed photo zoomed in.
The same photo scanned into a digital image from a 35mm negative and zoomed in the same. This better shows the improved quality over the scanned digital image from the printed photo.