With every roll of film we develop, The Darkroom will scan your negatives and burn the files to a CD. We also upload those same files so that you can immediately download them to share with friends or post to Facebook (usually within the same day we receive your film!).
So how big are the scans?
Standard Scan
Our Standard Scans will be more then sufficient for most people and have enough resolution to create 5”x7” prints and more then enough resolution for emailing, posting on websites or uploading to Facebook.
Download an example of a Standard Scan
For the geeky people, the file size of the Standard Scan is 1024×1536 pixels or 4.5 MB uncompressed. Files are compressed into jpegs and file size will appear much smaller and will only appear 4.5 MB when you open up the file in an image editing program like Photoshop.
Enhanced Scan
For those wanting more resolution, the Enhanced Scan is perfect for prints up to 12”x18” or if you want to use in a quality printed brochure.
Enhanced Scans are 2048×3072 pixels or 18.1 MB uncompressed. Remember that the file size will appear much smaller until you open it up in an image editing program like Photoshop.
Download an example of a Enhanced Scan
Some Exceptions and Disclaimers: If you have a square format image, the scans will default to the shortest dimension. So, the standard scan images is 1024×1024 pixels and the enhanced is 2048×2048 pixels. In other words, your scan size will vary if your image is something other then a 2×3 aspect ratio.
All scans will open at 72 DPI or PPI (dots or pixels per inch). This may sound low, but it’s the pixel dimensions that counts, not DPI. A 1024×1536 image (our standard scan), is about 21 inches wide at 72 DPI or 5 inches at 300 DPI. You can test this by downloading out sample scan convert them to 300dpi in Photoshop. Make sure you uncheck the “Resample Image” checkbox. You’ll see the image stays the same.
To give you some reference, below are some general sizes with their file size (MB and pixel dimensions). A minimum resolution for prints is 170 PPI and for printed materials like brochures is generally 266 PPI/DPI (prepress typically uses DPI and is interchangeable with PPI)
Scan for a 36″x24″ image should be around 6120px x 4080px or 72MB
Scan for a 40″ x 30″ image should be around 6800px x 5100px or 99MB
Scan for a 48″ x 38″ image should be around 8160px x 6460px or 150MB
Scan for a 44″ x 60″ image should be around 7500px x 10240px or 220MB
Scan for a 60″ x 48″ image should be around 10200px x 8160px or 238MB
