I have been approached by a client to do some restoration work on an old family photo. The photo is oval and roughly 18x13". She is in Edmonton, Alberta and I am in Cambridge, Ontario. She is offering to send me the photo but I only have a standard-sized (8 1/2x11 1/2) flatbed scanner. She is also offering to send a photo of the photo but I don't think I could do that justice in a proper restoration. It will be useful to have that photo of photo to move to the next step but not for the actual work.

Is there anyone you know of in Edmonton that would be able to scan and burn the image to disc so the client could send the disc to me? Would it make sense for them to send the photo to me and scan it in segments? I am mostly leary of them sending precious family photos by courier or mail.

Any ideas? Your help is always appreciated.

Well I am not a professional but I do a lot of photographic stuff. At any rate I've had some occasions where the picture was larger than the scanner. I've got a nice scanner although its maximum size is 8.5 x 11. So I have scanned several photos in segments and then pieced them together. Some over lap of course; care to make sure the pictures are placed properly in the scanner and at times I've placed removable reference dots.

Then make a large canvas in photoshop and place one on top of the other with the top layer being about 40% transparent. Using the move tool to line up the two halves. I can't tell when I am done that they were pieced together like that.

So I would recommend that.

Phil is right: scanning the photo in segments to then reassemble them in Photoshop is the way to go. And if they use a reliable courier, like UPS or FedEx, to send over the material, it really shouldn't be a problem at all.

However, an additional option would be to ask your client to consult a local photo store to let them take care of the scanning. That way, the file would be directly stored onto a CD, and subsequently sent to you. I do believe the prices for these types of services to be relatively low.

Or have the customer take the orginal to a photo studio and have a copy made with a camera (using the proper liting and file size) then you do not have to spend a lot of time putting the thing back together. Thats what we do.

All of that sounds good! That's good to hear as that is exactly what was going through my head. I have done a couple of segmented scans that worked... okay and I could certainly take a little more time on this one to make it right. In my initial response to the client I did suggest that she contact a local studio that would scan for her and burn to disc and then send the disc to me. She will be taking an initial photo for estimate purposes but that just won't cut if for the actual work.

I may send her anothe email to suggest that if she can't find anybody locally that I could do it here if she is comfortable sending the photo by courier. She's not ignorant and her husband is a hobby photographer so I think they would take good care in the packaging of the photo. I'm still waiting for her response from mine but I will keep you posted.

Thanks again.

if the client is going to mail the originals, make sure they insure it for whatever they feel they shld be compensated if it were to get damaged or lost. and, when you send it back, do the same! you dont want a liability lawsuit on your hands.

Craig

It does not take long to put back together, in Photoshop you have photomerge (automate) and this does a very good job, or use multiple layers set the top one(s) to difference and of course when it is as black as can be in the overlap area you have it aligned.