Tips on Preparing Your Negatives for Digital Conversion

Negative Prep

Step 1: Un-Organized Negatives

If you don't know the order you want your negatives scanned in, just send them into us as they are; we will scan them the way they are. Once you get your digital images back, you will be able to see your images more easily and be able to organize the digital images on your computer or tablet.

Step 2: Negative Sleeves

If you know what is on your negatives and can determine groups or the order you want it scanned, just let us know. If they are in negative sheets you can leave them in the sheets.

If you know what is on your negatives, and can determine groups, or the order you want it scanned; just let us know. If they are in negative sheets you can leave them in the sheets.

If you know the title of your negative sheets, just label the sheet with your title. If you want them scanned in a specific order within the sheet, just let us know the order.

Step 3: Loose Negative

If you don't have the negative sheets, you can place your negatives into plastic bags to protect them. If you know the title of your groups, just title the bag.

Step 4: Instructions

Make sure you include instructions clearly stating the order you want your negatives scanned in. A note on your order form is great too. This will also alert us to look out for your instructions. If you have different negative formats, we won't be able to keep them in order because they will require a different scanner or settings each time it changes.

Step 5: Negative Restrictions

We do not have the ability to skip frames on a negative strip, we must scan all the negatives in a strip. If there are a few frames that you do not want you can always delete them in our online image organizer.

Film strips of less than 2 frames will incur an additional 50¢ per frame handling fee. A single frame cannot be fed into the scanner and therefore must be mounted into a 35mm slide mount prior to scanning.

We can't scan negatives that have anything attached to them, even along the sprocket holes. You must remove any plastic, adhesive strips before shipping your negatives to us.

For a full list of our handling fees Click Here

Step 6: Negative Groupings

We offer 1 group/folder for every ~30 negative frames you send in with the Pro service, so you can divvy your groups up however you want. For example, if you have 300 negative frames you will receive 10 groups/folders at no charge.

The first group could have 70 slides, the next could have 20, the next could have 30 and the last could have 70. If you need additional groups over the allotted amount it will be $2 per group.

*If you are ordering the Value service, folders aren't included but you can add them for $1.00 each.

Step 7: Order Form

Fill out our order form, if you need help at any time, don't hesitate to call us at 1-800-776-8357.

Step 8: Package & Ship

If you live locally, just bring your negatives to our office during regular business hours, or you can use our drop off locations.

If you do not live locally, you can place all your items in a shipping box with packing material so that your negatives are not jumbled around in the box. Make sure you include your order form in your box so we know who the negatives belong to when they arrive.

We accept shipments from all carriers, so you can pick whichever carrier is most convenient for you. We do recommend either UPS or Fed Ex because they offer the ability to track your package.
We do not recommend using the Post Office to ship your negatives.

If you have different sizes of film, they will need to be scanned separately. We cannot intermix different sizes of film because each size requires a special scanner. Our Online Image Organizer will allow you to create the exact sequence after your images have been scanned.

Step 9: We Take Care of the Rest!

Once we receive your package we will notify you by e-mail that your package has arrived and the date we expect it to be completed. It's that easy!