Growing the image galleries at Laughing Frog Images isn’t happening quite as fast as was hoped. There are two good reasons for that. First, this isn’t my day job. The second is explained in this post.
There are slides and negatives that go back longer that I care to admit, because I can’t be that old! Over 30,000 of them, as a matter of fact. There are planes, scenic views, parks and places, trains, and things I probably don’t remember that are waiting to be rediscovered.
We’re scanning slides at 5000dpi and negatives at 7200dpi, and quite frankly, it’s a slow process. These are archival scan settings to give you the widest range of product choices when you shop at Laughing Frog Images. If you decide you want that killer shot from the Colorado National Monument as a 30″x40″ print and you found out it was scanned at 2400dpi, you wouldn’t be too happy with us. (You’re going to have to wait for that gallery, by the way.)
To give you an idea of what’s behind growing the image galleries, here’s a snapshot of the process:
- Get the scanner going.
- Cat-proof the work area. This is perhaps the most important step.
- Proof the slide or negative and make sure it’s worthy of steps 4-11.
- Clean the slide or negative. While this sounds obvious and simple, we’re looking at them through a loupe and using a fine brush and blown air because it’s absolutely amazing how big that speck you can’t see with the naked eye is once it’s scanned!
- Load the slide tray or negative holder.
- Each image scan takes 4 to 5 minutes for each slide or negative.
- Wait for the software and computer to process the image file ( we’re scanning to .dng format).
- Image data is added to the file before the slide or negative is returned to storage.
- The image goes into a temporary folder to await the next step.
- The image is proofed. Any final cleaning takes place here, as well as any adjustments or corrections.
- The image is then filed awaiting use.
As we intend to post image galleries and sub-galleries that are related to each other as opposed to posting random images here and there throughout the site, you can start to see that it takes a while to make all of this happen.
This image is part of a gallery that will feature the former Western Pacific Railroad lines from Reno, Nevada to Sacramento, CA.
Obviously, it’s a lot easier when the starting point is a digital image file!
We’re hoping to get some additional galleries up of steam engines that ran in the 1980’s in time for the holidays, because if you don’t love steam engines – you probably know someone who does. And they have walls. Or drink coffee. Or tea. They might even have an iPhone or an iPad. And we might have just the image for them!
Be patient with us as we grow the image galleries! It is happening…
Hi!