Options for obtaining a photo from another state

inskip · #1 05-03-2005, 10:58 PM

Someone in another state wants me to restore an old photo. Whats the best way for them to send me a high res copy so that they don't have to send me the actual photo? If they don't have photoshop, and they scan it, should they save it (to a disk) as a jpeg or a pdf? I was under the impression that jpeg was for web use, but another restoration site asked for jpeg files.
Anyway, just wondering what my options are???

Thanks

Caitlin · #2 05-03-2005, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inskip

Someone in another state wants me to restore an old photo. Whats the best way for them to send me a high res copy so that they don't have to send me the actual photo? If they don't have photoshop, and they scan it, should they save it (to a disk) as a jpeg or a pdf? I was under the impression that jpeg was for web use, but another restoration site asked for jpeg files.
Anyway, just wondering what my options are???

Thanks

TIF format would be much better than jpg - as jpg introduces compression, which you definately don't want if you can avoid it. I can't see any benefit to using pdf. What resolution have you asked them to scan it?

Photoshop. I presume when you say disk - you don't mean floppy??

inskip · #3 05-04-2005, 09:38 AM

Okay, so TIF files can be read by any computer? Sorry, the only restorations I've done are my own and I always use PSD. I'm sure this person doesn't have Photoshop, they may possibly have Elements.
I guess I need to look up the benefits of using different file formats.
Links? Oh yeah, no floppies. Thanks for the reply.

inskip · #4 05-04-2005, 09:42 AM

Also, someone has mentioned FTP (I think that was the abbreviation) for sending files. Whats that about? What does it stand for? How would you ask someone from another state to send a file? Thanks again.

inskip · #5 05-04-2005, 03:01 PM

I was thinking 300 ppi. But, I need to find out for sure the final output size.

cardmnal · #6 05-04-2005, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Okay, so TIF files can be read by any computer? Sorry, the only restorations I've done are my own and I always use PSD. I'm sure this person doesn't have Photoshop, they may possibly have Elements.

Photoshop can both open and save files as TIFs. By all means keep your working files as PSD but you wouldn't want to give a PSD to a client for a variety of reasons, the main being they probably are not running Photoshop.

Quote:

Also, someone has mentioned FTP (I think that was the abbreviation) for sending files. Whats that about? What does it stand for? How would you ask someone from another state to send a file? Thanks again.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is an excelent way to send large files across the internet. Many files you download came to your computer via FTP and if you ever built a website on your local machine and uploaded it to the web you probably used FTP.
I am reasonably sure you need a server that is set up to send and recieve FTP or you can hook up with an FTP host (This one is about 6 bucks a month).

I think since this is a one time thing you may just want to get the client to send you a disk. You would then have somewhat of a hard copy of the file and your client will not need to figure out the FTP stuff.

inskip · #7 05-05-2005, 03:13 PM

So the options for sending digital files are via CD and FTP?
Is there a way to send them via e-mail, or not?

cardmnal · #8 05-05-2005, 08:54 PM

Depending on the file size the image can be sent vias email as an attachment. If a person is on a dialup modem this can take quite a while.

Kraellin · #9 05-13-2005, 08:20 AM

there is also the newer g-mail, as opposed to e-mail. a lot of e-mail servers limit you to 10 megabytes in file size, and that's total space. g-mail limits you to 1 gigabyte. this was something piloted by google and for a while it was somewhat difficult to get a g-mail account. you had to have someone refer you before you could get such an account, as it was in beta. i'm not quite sure what the status is of g-mail currently, if you need a referral still or if it's out of beta, but it shld be fairly easy to get an account now. i'm also not sure how someone without a g-mail account could send you a very large file if they didnt also have g-mail, so you might want to check all these unknowns out.

if you're going to send anything electronically, file size is important, and therefore the resolution of the scan is important. the higher the resolution of the scan, the bigger the file size is going to be. thus, if you scan a 4 x 6 print in at 600 dpi (dots per inch), the file size may be too large for normal e-mail. but in doing restorations and so on you want as much detail as possible, so it's a bit of a conundrum at times to get a smaller file size for sending and a larger file size for detail.

and that brings us to zip and rar. .zip is a file extension used by winzip. winzip is a packing and compression program. it will take any electronic file on your computer and essentially compress it down in size, often by quite a bit. you can also add other files to a .zip file and send them all at once. the person on the other end simply unpacks and uncompresses the file back into the original state by using the same or similar program. thus, you might send a file that was originally 40 megs as 25 megs. compression rates will differ depending on the original file. rar is simply another type of this program using a different extension. rar is often used in europe where zip is often used in the states. it's good to have both programs, however.

packing and compression programs like winzip and winrar are different from .jpeg compression. converting a file to .jpeg/jpg actually causes some data to be lost (unless you use a 1 to 1 ratio when converting to .jpg. using a zip program loses nothing. zip programs use a routine that removes file data in a specific manner such that when restoring it it simply replaces that removed data, so nothing is lost.

thus, you might be able to get the client to scan, zip and send a file by regular email... maybe

K.

nicks · #10 05-30-2005, 02:52 PM

Hi,

I generally suggest my clients to send file with .tif format or .jpg ( with at least 300 dpi scanning ) by e-mail..

First ask your client about what output print size he/she wants and according to that you can tell them to go for higher res. scanning... as Kraellin mention g-mail is very good option.. also there are many site which allowed free photo upload.. up to even 1 gb, like sometime I used to tell my client, if they have yahoo email then use its option photos.yahoo.com and upload photos there... and let me ( my id ) allowed to use that album, thats it.. its one kind of ftp only.

I hope it will help.

- Nik..