Experiments in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Does search engine optimization really make a difference? Isn't it better just to create rich content at your web site, rather than playing around with keywords and the like?

To test what difference, if any, increasing the keyword density of a basic article has on bringing visitors to the page, I set up a little experiment in SEO. 

 

First I created a short article on keywording. That took about an hour. I didn't think too much about the words I used, I just wrote the article. (If you would like to read the article, you will need to find it using a search engine!)

Then I duplicated the original article and made a new version. I took some time to make several SEO adjustments to the new version, including adding keywords and keyword phrases throughout the body text and in the source of the page. So for the final version, we can say:

 

Time to write: 1 hour

Time to optimize: 20 minutes

 

That seems like a good balance to me. You don't want to become obsessed with cramming keywords into your pages, but on the other hand, if you've spent some effort creating good web content, you really should do a little promotion, and proper keywording is the easiest cheapest promotion tool there is - or so they say! A 75% to 25% percent ratio of writing to optimizing seems just about right.

 

Well, what happened?

 

The following table shows the total number of times the two different web pages have been read in total:

 

Clearly there is an effect in favour of keywording. The page that has been optimized is receiving more visitors.  However, from an economic perspective, the optimized page needs to get about 35% more visitors to make a profit over the un-optimized one. How is it doing?

 

 

Using the Google Keyword Tool for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Those clever people at Google provide a great service for those of us interested in keywording articles and photographs. Google provide tools both for suggesting keywords and for analysing the traffic each keyword combination gets. I'll be taking a look at both these tools in this series of articles, and giving some tips on their use.

This article starts with a look at the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. (If you click that link, the tool will open in a separate window.)

 

When you open the keyword tool, it looks like this:

 

 

Make sure that the Descriptive words or phrases option is selected, then type a keyword phrase into the box next to it. Try a simple phrase like "travel to Samoa".

Enter the captcha code and click the Get keyword ideas button.

The Google Keyword Tool will have a little think to itself then it will show a list of keyword suggestions that relate to the phrase you entered:

 

 

Try some other keyword phrases. Experiment with the options to get a feel for the tool. When you get bored or confused, come back here and I will tell you some more about the Google Keyword Tool.

 

generating a good list of seed Keyword Phrases

Did you notice that you can enter several phrases at a time into the keyword tool, one phrase on each line? That's great, because it means we can work with several synonymous keyword phrases at once, a good seed list with which to feed the tool.

Here is the common way to get started with the process of finding suitable keywords for your web page or photo:

1. Make sure that the Use synonyms option is ticked.
2. Enter a basic keyword phrase (for example: "travel to samoa")
3. Look at the results and pick out a few of the keyword phrases that are particularly relevant to your material, for example:

   travel to samoa
   specials to samoa
   holiday in samoa
   samoa packages
   samoa vacations
    

4. Enter these keyword phrases back into the Google Keyword Tool, one per line, and click the Get keyword ideas button again. (If you are having trouble seeing the results, try refreshing the page: you may need to enter the captcha code again if it has silently expired.)
5. Repeat this a few times, tweaking and refining your list of starting keywords until you feel that you've covered all the important bases for your content. For example, if we have a web page that promotes Samoan holiday packages, we might, after going round a few times, end up with this list of keyword phrases:

   samoa travel
   samoa holidays
   samoa packages
   samoa trips
   samoa excursions
   samoa specials
   samoa deals

In this instance, I've dropped the common word "to" and I've concentrated on plural noun phrases. (Plural keywords match both plural and singular terms in searches, so I always like to use the plural form in my seed list.)

There are an infinite number of ways to iterate your keyword list. For example, you might decide to explore verb phrases:

 

travelling to samoa

visiting samoa

taking a trip to samoa

holidaying in samoa

booking vacations in samoa

 

or you might choose to get a lot more specific:

 

honeymoon in samoa

samoan honeymoon packages

samoa for newlyweds

get married in samoa

 

and so on.

 

Ask yourself what it is you expect your customers to enter at a search engine to find your content. If you think they are most likely to search with the phrase "cheap holidays in samoa", then put it in your list.  What you want to end up with is a set of 6-12 "seed" phrases that accurately describes the content of your material, and does so from various valid angles.

 

the "Use synonyms" and "filter my results" options

When I enter my seven seed keyword phrases back into the Google Keyword Tool, it suggests 102 related keyword combinations along with another 98 additional combinations that it thinks I should consider.

The results list includes synonyms of the words that appear in my seed list. That's because I ticked the Use synonyms box.

For example, through the results list I can see that the results list contains "samoa vacation" because of course "vacation" is a synonym of "holiday". The "Use synonyms" option is very useful during the initial iterations of our seed list, helping us find all those important variations of our starting keywords.

If you un-tick the Use synonyms box, every result the Google Keyword Tool gives you always contains all the words in one of the phases that you have entered, and no synonymous keyword phrases are shown.

 

The Google Keyword Tool also lets you exclude some words or phrases from the results. Suppose you are running exclusive holidays to Samoa and you don't want riff-raff turning up at your web site. Click the Filter my results link and the tool will give you a place where you can exclude results that include words and phrases like "cheap", "bargain", "inexpensive", "low cost" and so on. You can also set filters so that the tool doesn't return alternative results that it thinks you should consider, or so that it includes adult content. This last option is useful if you are running "samoa sex tours" or the like.

 

Choosing Languages and Countries

The Google Keyword Tool can suggest keywords based on what the whole world is searching for, or it can just suggest keywords based on searches been done in a particular country.  Click the Edit link next to "Results are tailored to..." in the introductory text to see the languages and countries that you can select. (You can use the Ctrl key to select multiple options from lists.)

 

A lot of people stick with "English, All Countries and Territories" for this option, but that's not always the best thing to do. One of my clients, for example, is an Australian travel agency who sell holiday packages to South Pacific islands. If you start to build lists of travel-related keywords for "All Countries and Territories", you will sooner or later end up with a lot of keyword phrases that include the term "vacation". But if you tailor the results to "Australia" those "vacation" terms disappear. That's because Australians use the search term "holiday" much more frequently.

So an important question to ask is where you want your visitors to come from. There's not much point going to the trouble of building a vacation web site for Australians: you need to build them a holiday one!

 

Another use of this option is to select you local language, or if you are lucky to live in a polyglottal country, to select several languages. In my home country of Sweden, many web sites are in English and Swedish. If I am writing and article about scanning photos, I may well be interested in keywords from both languages "scanner, "skannar", "photo",  "foto", etc. Again, it is worth thinking a little about who you are trying to attract: who the target audience for your material is. Sometimes you'll get better results in the long run, by targeting a smaller, but better-defined audience.

 

 

 

Keywording Photographic Images for Online Stock Agencies

Understanding how to correctly keyword the images you have uploaded at an online photo stock agency is critical to making sales. In this article I look at keywording stock photography, and give tips and hints that will help you get those pictures under the eyes of photo buyer.

(For more straightforward articles on photography and keywording, see here).

When I started investigating the search engines of online photo stock agencies, I realized that everything I knew about keywording was twisted in this niche, and that many hard-learnt search engine optimization rules did not apply. Online photographic stock agencies use their search engines in special ways and it is not too hard to optimize your keywords to reap handsome rewards.

 

Why Should I Bother Keywording My Images?

You are a busy photographer - you don’t have time for this. Why should you bother keywording all those images? The answer is simple. If there are two similar photographs, the one with more relevant keywords is more likely—much more likely—to be found by a photo buyer than the one with a few, bad-chosen keywords. Good keywording helps sell your images.

Without too much difficulty, the number of keywords that you can associate with a single image at the major stock sites numbers in the hundreds (more on this later). Let's suppose you have a picture that currently has 50 keywords associated with it, and that we increase the number of keywords to 200.

 

How you would benefit:

• Average keywords per image now = 50
• Achievable keywords per image = 200
• Improvement in search terms matched = eyeballs on photos = 300%

And that is just for single-word matches from the search engine (i.e., the searcher types "railway", and sees all the pictures with the "railway" keyword). Things become even more impressive when you consider two- and three-word matches (the searcher types "railway station" or "escalator railway station").

For example, I added new keywords to one of my friend's images of an escalator at Liverpool Street Station:

	Before Updating	After Updating	Increase
Unique keywords:	29	170	586%
Single-word queries matched	29	170	586%
Two-word queries matched	406	14365	3538%
Three-word queries matched	3654	804440	22015%

If a potential buyer comes to the web site and types in one word at random, my friend's photo would now be nearly five times as likely to be seen in the search results. If the buyer types three words at random, the chances of my friend's photo coming up have increased twenty-two thousand percent!

 

Have a go with the Straightforward Keyword Combinations Calculator and be amazed what a difference a few more keywords can make.

Click here for the Straightforward Keyword Combinations Calculator

  

 

Getting Keywords for Your Photos

In this short article I'm going to show you some simple ways to create a unique list of relevant keywords for your photographic images, so that you help searchers can find your photos in the search engines of online stock agencies.

This example relates to my article Keywording Photographic Images for Online Stock Agencies.

 

Let us start with an original caption:

 

 

Commuters on Escalator, Liverpool Street Station

 

Six words, and only five of them indexed. That's not a very good start. So what do we do?

Think first from the buyers perspective. What is he likely to search for? What do you want him to type in at the search engine to find your image?

Some terms immediately spring to mind: "passengers, rush-hour, railway, stairs". Let’s add those in to our initial list and start to keep a running total:

 

commuter escalator Liverpool Street station passenger rush hour railway stair (10 words)

 

(For the time being we will work with the singular form of the words and forget about punctuation. We will get to them a little later.)

Now let’s run those words through a thesaurus.

If you have a recent version of Microsoft Word on your computer, fire it up and type the keywords we have got so far into a blank document.

Highlight the first word, then press Ctrl-C to copy it.

Now go to the Tools menu and select Language > Thesaurus. (You can also get to the thesaurus by right-clicking on the word and selecting Synonyms > Thesaurus from the drop-down menu.) Select one of the synonyms from the thesaurus.

You can copy the original word back into the sentence by pressing Ctrl-V.

Keep adding synonyms from the thesaurus.

When you run out of synonyms for one word, move on to the next, remembering of course to keep one copy the original keyword.

After a couple of minutes your list will look something like this:

 

commuter traveler person along for the ride customer fare rail user escalator moving staircase Liverpool Street station passenger traveller fare rush hurry run dash hour railway rail mainline railroad stair stairway train (32 words)

 

When you get bored with Word’s thesaurus, try one of the better on-line thesauruses, like the one at www.visualthesaurus.com. Another couple of minutes with this tool gives me:

 

commuter straphanger rider traveler traveller travel travelling traveling person along for the ride customer fare transportation system mass transit conveyance rail track user escalator moving movement staircase Liverpool Street station piazza plaza shopping centre center arcade shop office work workplace business occupation employment passenger traveler fare rush along hurry run haste hasten rat race dash rush-hour hastiness stress speed movement motion railway rail line track mainline railroad stair step stairway train (70 words).

 

Not all these words were found directly in the tool, some of them were just suggested indirectly by it. For example, station led me to plaza then piazza, which I then included because it reminded me the photo contained a shopping plaza.

Also, the Visual Thesaurus usefully reminded me that alternative spellings are possible (travelling/traveling, centre/center).

 

Another possible way to find keywords is to use a search engine like Google. Try entering the original caption “Commuters on Escalator, Liverpool Street Station” at Google. Already in the results list, without even going to another page, I can see some more useful keywords: “Express link, forecourt, run down, up, tube, handrail, Underground, National Railways, British Rail, platform”.

A more sophisticated tool is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This can help you understand a lot about how keywords work in general, and is also useful for generating keyword ideas.

(It also a useful resource for photographers trying to understand what searchers are looking for, and can help to point the way towards the subject of their next photoshoot.)

Try entering some keywords like "commuter", "railway", and "escalator", one per line in the keyword box in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

You can enter all the good keywords you have already found.

Now click the "Get keyword ideas" button.

Google will show you hundreds of keyword suggestions, which you can sort in various ways.

 

And talking of search engines, what are your competitors using to keyword a similar image?

Go to an online stock agency and search for images that match “commuters escalator station”. Explore the links to see the keywords that were used to index the image. From brief visits to Getty and Alamy , for example, I get some more keywords to add to my list: “indoors, subway, routine, conformity, pedestrian, businessman, business woman, businesswoman, busy, citizens, crowd, delay, gathered, gathering, group, many people, handrail, inside, interior, lobby, subway, executive, urban, public transport, tube, crowd, people, city, connection, activity, brisk”

 

You can also enter the URL of a rival page into the Google Adwords Keyword Tool mentioned above, that will generate even more ideas.

 

Another useful on-line tool that you might like to check out is WordTracker, a Web-based tool that will tell you how popular your keywords are on other Web pages and how many people have searched for these keywords in major search engines in the last 24 hours.

 

In your list of keywords, remember to include:

• Terms that relate to the geographic location: “Central London, England, UK, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Europe”

• Terms which relate to the picture format, colour and effects: “blurred, blur, blue, grey, pale, landscape, horizontal"

• Common synonyms for “photograph” itself: pic, image, picture, photo, photograph, full colour, color”.

• The letter “s” (see here for why).

Now we have:

 

 

Example of Keywording a Photo for Increased Searchability

This article gives a quick example of how the keywords for a photograph registered with an online photo stock agency were improved to increase the likelihood of being found in the agency's search engine.

This example relates to my article Keywording Photographic Images for Online Stock Agencies.

 

Original image and keywords

 

photo

 

Caption

Commuters at Liverpool Street Station

 

Description

Commuters at Liverpool Street Station

 

Keywords  

commute, commuter, crowd, england, escalator, people, railway station, shopping, stair

 

Total: 12 unique words
 

 

New keywording

 

Caption

Commuters and shoppers on escalator, Liverpool Street railway station, London, UK

 

Description

Looking down on crowd descending a moving staircase with much motion. Hurrying figures on a modern mosaic floor in white and grey tile with shops behind. Glass stair sides under handrail. Hundreds of men women and children going about their business people walking to and from work and school during the early morning day. Liverpool Street is a mainline train station in the north of the City of London. It services destinations to east England including London Stansted Airport and Colchester. A daily express to Harwich connects with the ferry to Hoek van Holland. The London Underground (metro) station below has platforms on the Central Circle Metropolitan and Hammersmith City lines.

 

Keywords

activity, blue, brisk, britain, business, businessman, businesswoman, busy, city, cities, citizens, color, colour, commute, commuters, commuting, commutors, crossing, crowd, delay, employees, england, europe, fare, figure, flight, foot, gathered, great, grey, group, handrail, hurry, hurrying, image, landscape, passengers, pic, picture, rails, railroads, railways, rush, s, time, train, transport, travellers

 

Total: 128 unique keywords

 

Other Indexed Fields

Agencies often index the contents of some other fields:

• Categories (Tourism, People, Nature, Locations...)

• Attributes (Colour, format, size, orientation...)

• Photographer's name

These additional fields , when fully completed for the photo, enabled me to boost the total number of keywords available to search engines 170.

The total improvement was therefore from 12 intial keywords to 170 keywords for the image. To understand what a spectacularly huge difference that makes to image searchability, try entering these values in our Keyword Combinations Calculator.

 

 

Keyword Combinations Calculator

This calculator shows you the number ways that a search can match your photo's keywords. For example, if your photo has 10 keywords and the user searches with a 3 word-phrase, there are 120 possible ways they can be matched.

This example relates to my article Keywording Photographic Images for Online Stock Agencies.

Number of keywords The number of unique keywords associated with the photo (in caption, description, keyword fields, etc.)
Number of search words The number of words you think a user will type in at the photo agency search page
Possible hit combinations The number of possibles matches when all the search words are used in the search

Example: for 25 keywords and 3 search terms there are 2300 unique hit combinations. (Translation: there are 2300 different ways a 3-word search can find an image with 25 keywords.)

Try 50 or 100 keywords with a 3-word search and see how the number of possible hits dramatically increases.

Try 99 keywords and 3 search words. Now try 100 keywords with 3 search words. Notice that for 1% more effort you get nearly 4% more chance of being found!

Most searchers start by entering just one word, for example "boats" in the stock agency's search box. But they quickly learn that the results they get from doing this are too general. They move on to more complicated searches like "boats tropical sunset" (3 words). If that doesn't help, they may try even more complicated searches like "boats tropical sunset waves people" (5 words).
      Let's say you have been really lazy and put only 5 keywords to your image. See how many combinations of hits are possible with 5 keywords and a 5 word search. (The answer is obvious, if you think about it.)

Now compare that with your more industrious colleague who has a similar image but has indexed his image at his agency with 20 keywords. How many combinations of hits are possible for him? Yes,  that's right, he is 15,504 times more likely to be found by our 5-word searcher that you are! Now stop drinking coffee and start learning about keywording images fast!

 

Att Scanna Foton

Det är inte särskilt svårt att förvandla dina gamla fotografier, diabilder, negativ och filmrullar till digitala filer. Du kan köpa en lämplig scanner och göra det själv, eller så kan du använda en av de många pålitliga skanningfirmor som finns. Fotografiskt material kan skannas med olika upplösningar och sparas i flera olika digitala format.

I den här artikeln tar vi en titt på skanningsmöjligheter du har för varje typ av material, och ger dig råd om vilken skanningsupplösning och filformat du ska välja beroende på hur du vill använda de digitaliserade bilderna/filmerna.

 

Innehåll

professionella fotoskanningsfirmor

gör det själv - att köpa en egen scanner

användbar scanningteknik och olika alternativ

pappersfoton - scanningtips

film och negativ - scanningtips

diabilder - scanningtips

dpi, upplösning och filformat

 

 

professionella fotoScanningfirmor

Om du inte vill köpa en scanner själv, det enklaste alternativet är att använda en scanningtjänst. Här i Sverige finns flera företag som du kan skicka dina foton, film, negativ och diabilder och få dem överförda på digitala filer.

Det finns också skanningtjänster i andra länder i Europa som erbjuder en relativt snabb behandling.

Naturligtvis måste du skicka ditt material till dem, så om du värderar dina bilder och filmer högt kan det vara klokt att skicka dem med rekommenderat post!

Företag som erbjuder skanningtjänster delas in i två kategorier: enklare och professionell smart skanner som innehåller teknik som automatiskt tar bort mindre damm och repor och korrigerar bleknade bilder. Professionella scanningsföretag erbjuder tilläggstjänster såsom färgkorrigering och retuschering för hand.

Fördelen med de enklare scanningtjänsterna är att de är snabba och billiga. De är förmodligen tillräckligt bra om du bara har familjebilder.

Om du är en professionell fotograf eller om du har några fina fotografier som kräver särskild uppmärksamhet så kanske en enklare skanningtjänst inte tillgodoser dina behov. Om du går till en professionell skanningtjänst, måste du räkna med att betala mer - ibland mycket mer.

Vi rekommenderar inte något särskilt företag som utför enklare scanning (även om du kan hitta länkar på denna sida som kommer att leda dig till ett lämpligt bolag).

Om du hittar ett företag som utför enklare scanning som du är nöjd med, skriv gärna en kommentar längst ner på denna sida och berätta om dina erfarenheter.

Följande företag är professionella skanningföretag i Sverige (företag är välkomna att beskriva vilka tjänster de erbjuder genom att posta en kommentar till denna sida). 

Crimson AB, Stockholm	Brännkyrkagatan 80-82, (vid Zinken) Box 17 184 104 62 Stockholm Öppet: mån-fre 09 – 17 http://www.crimson.se info@crimson.se Tel: 08 429 29 29
Odenlab, Stockholm	Norrtullsg/Vidargatan 2, 11327 Stockholm Öppet: Mån-Fre 10 – 18:30, Lör 11 – 15:30 http://www.odenlab.se info@odenlab.se Tel: 08 790 50 00
Spectravision, Örebro	Boställsvägen 1, 702 27 Örebro http://www.spectravision.se info@spectravision.se Tel: 019 27 00 40

Dessa scanningföretag kan skanna dina bilder i olika upplösningar och producera digitala filer i olika format i olika media (mer om detta senare).

 

 

Göra det själv - Köpa din egen skanner

Det finns många scanners på marknaden som är särskilt bra för skanning av fotografier, diabilder och negativ. Men inte alla scanners kan skanna alla typer av fotografiskt material, och vissa kan inte skanna till den kvalitet du behöver, så försäkra dig om att du kan returnera skannern om den inte fungerar som du förväntat dig .

Kamerabutikerna är förmodligen inte det bästa stället att köpa på eftersom de kommer att debitera dig fullt pris för dem, och tar ogärna dem i retur. Om du köper från en specialbutik,  kontrollera dess policy om återköp innan du lämnar över dina pengar.

Om du bara vill skanna utskrifter (fotografier på papper), är den goda nyheten att du bara behöver en flatbäddsskanner, och nästan alla modeller kan göra jobbet, även de billigare varianterna.

Om du vill skanna film, negativ eller diabilder, kan du välja antingen en flatbädd som har särskilda egenskaper som gör att de kan klara av film eller välja en speciell filmscanner.

 

En av de billigaste scanners du kan köpa är Epson Perfection V300 Flatbed Scanner. Jag har alltid tyckt om Epson-produkter, särskilt deras gamla skrivare, eftersom de alltid är robusta och välgjorda. Denna scanner kan scanna film upp till 4800 punkter per tum (dpi). Med den inbyggda enhet en för transparent material kan du scanna sex fyra diabilder eller sex ramar negativ i taget. Skannern minimerar effekterna av damm och repor och kommer med en lättförståelig  programvara för färgåterställning. Du hittar den här scannern för mindre än 1000 kr om du letar runt lite.	Epson Perfection V300 Photo Color Scanner (Black)   Prints: BRA 35 mm diabilder: OK Större format film: BRA Färg negativa: OK
HP har också ett fint utbud av skannrar som kan användas för att konvertera dina gamla foton, diabilder, negativ och film till digitala filer. Liksom Epson V300, kan HP ScanJet 4850 Photo Scanner skannar upp till 4800 dpi och tar också bort damm och repor. Den kan ta bort repor, återställer blekta färger och ta bort röda ögon. Vissa tycker att HPs mjukvara är alltför komplicerad, men annars är den här scannern omtyckt. Denna scanner kostar ca 1000 kr.	HP Scanjet 4850 Photo Scanner (L1950A#B1H)   Prints: BRA 35 mm diabilder: OK Större format film: BRA Färg negativa: OK
I den övre delen av marknaden finns Nikon Coolscan V ED Film Scanner som är en högkvalitativ skanner som använder Digital ICE teknik för att avlägsna damm och repor från ytan. Den har bra linser, och ger hög upplösning på skannat material med bra kontrast, färger och skärpa. Den kan skanna både 35 mm diabilder och negativ (men inte pappersfotografier eller större filmformat). Flera bildredigeringsprogram levereras med skannern.  Coolscan säljs för runt 5000 Kr men kan vara svåra att hitta i Sverige Du kan behöva gå till en fotospecialist för att hitta den.	Nikon CoolScan V LS-50 ED 35mm Film Scanner (4000 DPI) Prints: ingen 35 mm diabilder: EXCELLENT (men se Kodachrome frågor under Film Scanning Tips). Större format film: ingen Färg negativa: EXCELLENT

Tillägg

De flesta Scanners kommer med ett enkelt sätt att enkelt hantera 35 mm diabilder och negativ. HP kallar detta en adapter för transparenta material (TMA) och andra tillverkare erbjuder liknande lösningar.

Om du är osäker, fråga din återförsäljare hur Flatbäddsscannern kan anpassas för dina diabilder och negativ.

Vissa bildläsare kan söka igenom så många som 32 bilder på en gång och kommer att dela upp dem i separata filer åt dig, detta gör det möjligt att behandla en hel del diabilder eller negativ på en gång.

Återigen är det värt att kontrollera hur skannern klarar av att hantera dina diabildsarkiv. Scanners kan även krångla när det gäller scanning av oskurna negativ eller positiv film.

Om du har råd med det och har mycket film som du vill konvertera till digitala media kommer du antagligen att titta på en scanner som kommer med en adapter för filmrullar. Dessa finns tillgängliga för vissa avancerade scanners, men du bör räkna med att betala runt 5000Kr för denna typ av "feeder".

 

 

Användbara Scanning Teknologier

Många skannrar dessa dagar använder Digital ICE teknik. Denna teknologi detekterar skickligt avvikelser i ytan som smuts, fingeravtryck och repor samt förbättrar de flesta scans. Digital ICE fungerar bra på färg negativ och positiv, men inte Kodachrome. Ektachrome funkar bra.

Även Digital ICE kan ta bort repor ytan, kommer den inte bort djupa repor i filmen och om du vill ha perfektion du kommer att behöva några ytterligare trycka upp att göra, antingen själv eller genom labbet. Detta är förmodligen något du inte behöver oroa dig för om du inte är en professionell fotograf. Dessutom arbetar Digital ICE Bara på färgfilm, det fungerar inte i normal svartvit film.

En liknande teknik är en kost som du kan hitta på vissa Canon Scanners. Detta har fått blandade recensioner, och flera fotografer har klagat över oönskade artefakter och ett allmänt uppmjukning av bilden på höga inställningar. Eftersom Canon sovstolar, flatbeds är billigare än speciella filmscanners det kanske säger mer om kvaliteten på skannern än om själva tekniken.

De flesta scanners använder LED-ljuskällor dessa dagar, men ljuskällan doesnt verkar ha större effekt på skanningskvalitet så var inte vilseledas av påståenden om bättre lampa teknik. Det viktiga här är hur bra bilderna.

Vissa bildläsare automatiskt bort röda ögon, även om det inte alltid lyckas. De kan också återställa blekta färger eller oönskade toning, eller automatiskt förbättra färg i mörka områden.

Om du inte du är nöjd med resultatet av dessa automatiska korrigeringar (eller aldrig tagit ett dåligt foto), se till att du kan stänga av dessa funktioner av.

 

 

bild Scanning tips

För skanning utskrifter (bilder på standard fotopapper) behöver du bara en billig flatbäddsskanner. Den 6 x 4 "utskrifter som du får från dig grannländerna fotolabb är sällan trycks med en upplösning på mer än 300 bläck punkter per tum (dpi) och det innebär att det är ingen idé att försöka scanna dem med en högre upplösning eftersom du kommer inte att förbättra bildkvaliteten eller se något finare detaljer, och det bara kommer att ta mycket längre tid att göra sökningen.

Merparten av den tid du behöver inte ens att skanna med 300 dpi: du kan få samma kvalitet genom att skanna på 150-200dpi.

Nästan alla skannrar är tillräckligt bra för att få jobbet gjort dessa dagar, särskilt om du bara skannar semesterbilder.

Titta på en Epson eller HP Flatbäddsscannern om du vill ha kvalitet till ett lågt pris. Epsons "V"-tjänsterna verkar särskilt solid och kan förmodligen göra allt du behöver och mer. De 300 dpi hindret för vanliga utskrifter är inte något man kan ta sig runt.

Scanning i tryck på mer än 300 dpi kommer inte att ge några fler detaljer, och om du vill få dina utskrifter blåses upp till en större storlek du kommer bara sluta med ett större tryck som verkar suddigare än originalet. Av denna anledning är många människor besvikna när de får sina utskrifter skickas iväg för att blåsas upp till en större storlek, men inte felet med fotolabb, men då med tryck.

Vissa äldre svartvita utskrifter som gjordes av kontakt utskrift från stora negativ kan ge mer ingående, och kan skannas med framgång i högre upplösningar. Om du har denna typ av utskrifter du experimentera med skanning med högre upplösning, säger 600 dpi - men räkna med att vänta längre på genomsökningen att slutföra.

Vissa Scanners komma med program som "slipar" den digitaliserade bilden. De gör detta genom interpolering mellan pixlarna i bilden och spåra konturer. Däremot kan en scanner förstår inte vad som inte finns, så det resulterande vass bilden inte kan avslöja vad du förväntar dig, och ibland oönskade föremål visas.

 

 

Film och Negativa Scanning tips

Film och negativ, till skillnad utskrifter, är utformade för att bli större. Också, scanning film, negativ och diabilder skiljer sig från scanning skriver eftersom ljuset måste lysa igenom, inte reflekteras från det som är gjort för utskrifter eller dokument.

Integrerad flatbäddsskanner tillverkare har kommit med olika lösningar på detta problem, men den absolut vanligaste är att använda en andra lampa i locket på skannern för skanning utskrifter. Vanligtvis finns det en inställning någonstans som gör att du kan växla från reflekterande scanning (för utskrifter) till scanning av film och negativ skanning.

Alternativt kan du köpa en egen film scanner (som inte kommer att hantera utskrifter). De ser ut skiljer sig från traditionella Scanners, och kommer att kosta dig mer - ibland mycket mer. Nikon och Minolta är de märken som letar efter, men om du tänker på en scanner i den änden av marknaden har du förmodligen redan vet mer än jag kan berätta för er.

För 60 x 70mm filmformat en medelhög till hög-slut Flatbäddsscannern ger bra resultat. Om du vill skapa 300 dpi utskrifter på 20 x 25 cm, scanna din film på runt 1200 dpi. Att göra samma sak med 35 mm diabilder, scanna på 4800 dpi. Observera dock att det finns speciella scanners bild (och matare) som förmodligen kommer att ge bättre resultat.

 

 

Diabilder Tips

God Scanners kan användas för att skanna 35 mm diabilder. Sök efter en scanner som kan göra minst 4800 dpi eller mer.

Sovstolar, flatbeds är inte så bra som dedikerade filmskannrar, och troligen inte kommer att uppfylla professionella, men om du har bilder som du vill digitalisera de kan vara ett bra och relativt billigt alternativ. Ju större film desto bättre Scan kommer att bli.

Skanning tar lång tid för varje bild, särskilt om du skanna med högre upplösning, så om du har mer än en handfull bilder måste du räkna med att ägna flera timmar eller tom dagar till skanningen. Vissa fotolabb erbjuder skanning tjänster för ett par kr per bild, så du bör räkna ut om det verkligen är värt tiden och besväret och kostnaden för att gå ner i scan-det-själv-rutten.

Om du har många bilder som du vill skanna, kan det vara väl värt att investera i ett skjutreglage feeder att gå med skannern. Dessa är vanligen säljs separat och kan kosta nästan lika mycket som själva skannern.

Om du köper en scanner för dina bilder, kolla att se vad utfodring tillbehör finns för det, och hur mycket de kostar.

 

DPI Siffror

Tillverkarna vill annonsera sina skannrar som har en upplösning på ungefär 4800 x 9600 dpi. Ignorera det större antal. Den viktigaste siffran är den lägre, eftersom det är den resolution som avgiften-coupled device (den sak som faktiskt ser din stil eller film) kan upptäcka. Den andra siffran är bara interpolation - dvs scanner maskin-eller programvara bara fyller i de saknade pixlar. Så även om du kan få filer som är 4800 x 9600 från skannern är dess upplösning egentligen bara 4800 x 4800. På denna webbplats citerar jag alltid den lägre siffran.

Om du behöver fler pixlar än genomsökningen du har gjort, bara använda en bra bit av programvara och sampla den digitala bilden.

 

Dynamikområde

Billigare scanners har ett begränsat dynamiskt omfång. Detta innebär att de har svårt att se detaljer i mörka områden av filmen och kan införa slumpmässigt brus (udda blå, grön, röd pixlar).

Det är värt att kontrollera nätet recensioner för att se om dessa effekter noteras för skannern du är intresserad Ju mer du betalar, desto mindre sannolikt är det att du ser dessa typer av problem - det är därför professionella fotografer köpa dyra speciella filmscanners: eftersom de kan se in i djupaste svärta och noga notera vad som finns där. Dynamic range begränsningar är mindre märkbar när du skannar färg negativ.

Igen, som att ni lägger de skannade bilderna är mycket viktig: om du är professionell, du kanske inte blir nöjd med skanningskvaliteten från en billigare scanner.

 

Filformat

Om du bara vill visa dina bilder på din datorskärm eller publicera dem på webben, kan du skanna dem och spara dem som komprimerade JPEG-filer eller PNG-filer. Dessa är de bästa filtyper för fotografier och fungerar väl i alla webbläsare.

Om du är en professionell och vill digitalisera bilderna för ett bestånd byrå, så ska du brukar spara dina filer i okomprimerad, hög kvalitet RGB JPEG-format (dvs. Photoshop nivå 10 eller högre). Kontrollera att filnamnet slutar på. Jpg. Varje fil kommer att vara runt 50MB, så se till att du har tillräckligt med lagringsutrymme för dem.

Vissa organ kommer att acceptera (eller kräva) okomprimerad 8 bit, TIFF-filer, återigen dessa filer kommer att vara runt 50MB i storlek. Detta gör att filer som skall skrivas ut på affischer och skyltar till en rimlig upplösning, och öppnar upp dessa marknader till dig.

Det bara om hoppar den upp. Ämnet för scanning är en enorm, och vi hoppas att denna lilla guide har varit till nytta för dig. Om du tror att vi fick något fel, skicka en kommentar nedan och vi kommer att åtgärda det så snart vi kan.

Samtidigt happy scanning!

(Denna artikel är en i en enstaka serier för hobby-och professionella fotografer. Om du tänker lägga dig digitala bilder till en online lager byrå som www.alamy.com, ägnar en stund åt att läsa vår artikel Keywording Photos for Online Stock Agencies.)

Scanning Photos

[Författarens anmärkning: Denna artikel finns även på Svenska]

 

It is not too difficult to turn your old photographic prints, slides, negatives, and rolls of film into digital files. You can buy a suitable scanner and do it yourself, or you can make use of one of the many reliable scanning services around. Photographic materials can be scanned at various resolutions and saved in several different digital formats.

In this article we take a look at the scanning options you have for each type of material, and give you advice on what scanning resolution and output format you should choose depending on how you want to use the digitized photos.

 

contents

professional photo scanning services

doing it yourself - buying your own scanner

useful scanning technologies and options

print scanning tips

film and negative scanning tips

slide scanning tips

dpi figures, resolutions, and file formats

 

 

professional Photo Scanning Services

If you do not want to buy a scanner yourself, the simplest option is to make use of a scanning service. Here in Sweden there are several companies that you can send your photos, films, negatives, and slides to and have them turned in digital files.

There are also scanning services elsewhere in Europe that offer a fairly quick turnaround. (Of course you will need to post your materials to them, so if you value your old photos it may be wise to send them by registered mail!)

Companies that offer scanning services fall into two categories: basic and professional. The basic services just take your photos and scan them on their own fancy scanners that include technology that automatically removes minor dust and scratches and enhances faded images. Professional scanning companies offer additional services like colour correction and retouching by hand.

The advantage of the basic scanning services is that they are fast and cheap. They are almost certainly good enough if you just have family photos. (If you find a basic service that you like, post a comment at the bottom of this page telling us your experiences.)

If you are a professional photographer, or if you have some delicate photographs that need special attention, a basic scanning service may not meet your needs. But you go to a professional scanning service expect to pay more – sometimes a lot more.

We are aware of the following professional service companies in Sweden (again, professional scanning services are welcome to describe the services they offer by posting a comment to this page).  

Crimson AB, Stockholm	Brännkyrkagatan 80-82, (vid Zinken) Box 17 184 104 62 Stockholm Open: mån-fre 09 – 17 http://www.crimson.se info@crimson.se 08 429 29 29
Odenlab, Stockholm	Norrtullsg/Vidargatan 2, 11327 Stockholm Open: Mån-Fre 10 – 18:30, Lör 11 – 15:30 http://www.odenlab.se info@odenlab.se 08 790 50 00
Spectravision, Örebro	Boställsvägen 1, 702 27 Örebro http://www.spectravision.se info@spectravision.se 019 27 00 40

These scanning services can scan your photos at different resolutions and output the digital files in several formats in different media (more on this later).

 

Doing it Yourself – Buying Your Own Scanner

There are many scanners on the market that are particularly good for scanning photographs, slides, and negatives. However, not all scanners can scan all types of photographic materials, and some may not scan to the quality you need, so make sure you but your scanner from somewhere you can return it if you can’t get it to work the way you expect.

Camera shops are probably not the best place to buy them as they will charge you full price for them and are not happy if you try to bring them back. If you do by from a specialist shop, make sure to check their returns policy before you hand over your cash.

If you just want to scan prints (photographs on paper), the good news is that you just need a flatbed scanner, and almost any one will do the job, even the cheaper models.

If you want to scan film, negatives, or slides, however, you have the choice of either a flatbed that has special features that enables them to cope with film or a dedicated film scanner.

 

One of the cheapest scanners you can buy is the Epson Perfection V300 Flatbed Scanner. I have always liked Epson products, particular their old printers, as they are always sturdy and well-made. This scanner can scan film up to 4800 dots per inch (dpi). The built-in transparency unit allows you to scan six four slides or six frames of negative at a time. The scanner minimizes the effects of dust and scratches and comes with easy-to-use software for colour restoration. You can find this scanner for less than 1000Kr if you hunt around.	Epson Perfection V300 Photo Color Scanner (Black) Prints: GOOD 35mm slides: OK Larger format film: GOOD Colour negatives: OK
HP also make a nice range of scanners that can use to convert your old photos, slides, negatives, and film into digital files. Like the Epson V300, the HP ScanJet 4850 Photo Scanner can scan up to 4800 dpi and also features dust and scratch removal. It can remove scratches, restore faded colour, and correct red-eye. Some people think that the HP software is too complex, but otherwise this scanner is well liked. This scanner costs around 1000Kr.	HP Scanjet 4850 Photo Scanner (L1950A#B1H) Prints: GOOD 35mm slides: OK Larger format film: GOOD Colour negatives: OK
At the higher end of the market the Nikon Coolscan V ED Film Scanner is a high-quality scanner that uses Digital Ice technology to remove dust and surface scratches. It has great lenses, and produces high resolution scans with excellent contrast, colours and sharpness. It can scan both 35mm slides and negatives (but not prints or larger format film). Several image editing applications come bundled with the scanner. The Coolscan retails for around 5000Kr but can be hard to find in Sweden You may need to go to a specialty photo shop to find this one.	Nikon CoolScan V LS-50 ED 35mm Film Scanner (4000 DPI) Prints: no 35mm slides: EXCELLENT (but see Kodachrome issues under Film Scanning Tips). Larger format film: no Colour negatives: EXCELLENT

 

 

Add Ons

Most flatbed scanners come with a simple way to easily handle 35mm slides and negatives. HP call this a transparent materials adapter (TMA) and other scanner makers offer similar solutions.

If in doubt, ask you retailer how the flatbed scanner can be adapted for your slides and negatives.

Some scanners allow you to scan as many as 32 slides at once, and will split them up into separate files for you, allowing to process a lot of slides or negatives in one go.

Again, it is worth checking to see how the scanner can handle you slide archive. Flatbed scanners can be fiddly when it comes to scanning uncut negative or positive film.

If you can afford it and have a lot of film you want to convert to digital media you are probably going to be looking at a scanner that comes with a roll film adapter. These are available for some high-end scanners, but you should expect to pay around 5000Kr for this kind of feeder.

 

 

Useful Scanning Technologies and Options

Many scanners these days incorporate Digital ICE technology. This technology cleverly detects surface defects like dirt, fingerprints and scratches and improves most scans. Digital ICE works well on colour negatives and positives, but not Kodachrome. Ektachrome is fine.

Although Digital ICE can remove surface scratches, it won’t remove deep scratches in the film and if you want perfection you will need some additional touching-up to be done, either by yourself or by the lab. This is probably something you won’t need to worry about unless you are a professional photographer. Furthermore, Digital ICE only works only on colour film; it will not work on normal black and white film.

A similar technology is FARE which you can find on some Canon flatbed scanners. This has received mixed reviews, and several photographers have complained about unwanted artefacts and a general softening of the image on high settings. However, as the Canon flatbeds are cheaper than dedicated film scanners that may say more about the quality of the scanner than about the technology itself.

Most scanners use LED light sources these days, but the light source dosen’t seem to have much impact on scan quality so don’t be misled by claims of better lamp technology. The important this is how good the images look.

Some scanners will automatically fix red eye, although it doesn’t always work successfully. They can also restore faded colour or unwanted tinting, or automatically enhance colour in dark areas.

If you not you are satisfied with the results of these automatic fixes (or have never taken a bad photo), make sure you can turn these features off.

 

Print Scanning Tips

For scanning prints (photos on standard photo paper) you just need an inexpensive flatbed scanner. The 6 x 4’ prints that you get back from you friendly neighbourhood photo lab are rarely printed at a resolution of more than 300 ink dots per inch (dpi) and that means there is no point trying to scan them at a higher resolution because you are not going to improve the image quality or see any finer detail, and it’s just going to take a lot longer doing the scan.

Most of the time you don’t even need to scan at 300dpi: you can get a similar quality by scanning at 150-200dpi.

Almost all scanners are good enough to get the job done these days, especially if you are just scanning holiday snaps.

Look at an Epson or HP flatbed scanner if you want quality at a low price. Epson’s “V” range seem particularly solid and can probably do everything you need and more. The 300 dpi barrier for standard prints is not something you can get around.

Scanning in print at more than 300 dpi is not going to give you any more detail, and if you want to get your prints blown up to a larger size you will just end up with a larger print that seems fuzzier than the original. For this reason many people are disappointed when they get their prints sent off to be blown up to a larger size, but the fault is not with the photo lab, but with the original print.

Some older black and white prints that were made by contact printing from large negatives may yield more detail, and can be scanned successfully at higher resolutions. If you have this type of prints, experiment with scanning at higher resolutions, say 600dpi – but expect to wait longer for the scan to complete.

Some flatbed scanners come with software that “sharpens” the digitized image. They do this by interpolating between the pixels in the image and tracing contours. However, a scanner cannot see what is not there, so the resulting sharpened image may not reveal what you expect, and sometimes unwanted artefacts will appear.

 

Film and Negative Scanning Tips

Film and negatives, unlike prints, are designed to be enlarged. Also, scanning film, negatives, and slides is different from scanning prints because the light needs to shine through, not be reflected from it as is done for prints or documents.

Flatbed scanner manufacturers have come up with various solutions to this problem, but by far the commonest is to use a second lamp in the lid of the scanner for scanning prints. Usually there is a setting somewhere that enables you to switch from reflective scanning (for prints) to film scanning and negative scanning.

Alternatively, you can buy a dedicated film scanner (which won’t handle prints). These look different from traditional flatbed scanners, and will cost you more – sometimes a lot more. Nikon and Minolta are the brands to looks for, but if you intend to by a scanner at this end of the market, you probably already know more than I can tell you.

For 60 x 70mm format film a medium to high-end flatbed scanner will give good results. If you want create 300 dpi prints at 20 x 25 cms, scan your film at around 1200 dpi. To do the same with 35mm slides, scan at 4800 dpi. Note, however that there are dedicated slide scanners (and feeders) that will probably yield better results.

 

Slide Scanning Tips

Good flatbed scanners can be used to scan 35mm slides. Look for a scanner which can do at least 4800 dpi or more.

Flatbeds are not as good as dedicated film scanners, and probably won’t satisfy professionals, but if you have slides you want to digitize they can be a good and fairly inexpensive option. The larger the film, the better the scan will be.

Scanning takes a long time for each slide, particularly if you scan at higher resolutions, so if you have more than a handful of slides you will need to expect to dedicate several hours or even days to the scanning process. Some photo labs offer scanning services for a few Kr per slide, so you should work out if it is really worth the time and trouble and cost of going down the scan-it-yourself route.

If you have a lot of slides that you want to scan, it may well be worth investing in a slider feeder to go with your scanner. These are usually sold separately and can cost almost as much as the scanner itself.

If you buy a scanner for your slides, check to see what feeding accessories are available for it, and how much they cost.

 

DPI Figures

Manufacturers like to advertise their scanners as having a resolution of something like 4800 x 9600 dpi. Ignore that larger number. The important figure is the lower one, because that’s the resolution that the charge-coupled device (the thing that actually sees your print or film) can detect. The other figure is just interpolation – i.e., the scanner’s hardware or software just fills in the missing pixels. So although you can get files that are 4800 x 9600 from the scanner, its resolution is only really 4800 x 4800. At this site I always quote the lower figure.

If you need more pixels than the scan you have made, just use a good bit of software and resample the digital image.

 

Dynamic Range

Cheaper scanners have a limited dynamic range. This means that they have difficulties in seeing detail in dark areas of the film and can introduce random noise (odd blue, green, red pixels).

It is worth checking online reviews to see if these effects are noted for the scanner you are interested in. The more you pay, the less likely you are to see these kinds of problems – that’s why professional photographers buy expensive dedicated film scanners: because they can see into the deepest blacks and accurately record what’s there. Dynamic range limitations are less noticeable when you are scanning colour negatives.

Again, the purpose to which you will put the scanned images is all important: if you are a professional, you may not be satisfied by the quality of the scan from a cheaper scanner.

 

File formats

If you just want to display your photos on your computer screen or publish them on the web, you can scan them and save them as compressed JPEG files or as PNG files. These are the best file types for photographs and work well in all Internet browsers.

If you are a professional and want to digitalize your slides for a stock agency, then you should usually save your files in uncompressed, high-quality RGB JPEG format (i.e. Photoshop level 10 or above). Make sure the file name ends in .jpg. Each file will be around 50MB, so make sure you have enough storage space for them.

Some agencies will accept (or require) uncompressed 8 bit, TIFF files, again these files will be around 50MB in size. This enables the files to be printed as posters and billboards at a reasonable resolution, and opens up those markets to you.

That just about wraps it up. The topic of scanning is a huge one, and we hope this little guide has been of use to you. If you think we got anything wrong, post a comment below and we’ll fix it up as soon as we can.

Meanwhile, happy scanning!

 

(This article is one in an occasional series for hobby and professional photographers. If you intend to submit you digital photos to an online stock agency like www.alamy.com, take a few moments to read our article Keywording Photos for Online Stock Agencies.)

 

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