Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Over time, printed photos, negatives, and slides can fade, discolor, or become damaged due to age, humidity, and improper storage. Digitizing them preserves your precious memories in high-quality digital format, ensuring they last for generations.

Additional benefits of photo scanning include:
✅ Protecting Your Memories – Digital copies prevent loss due to deterioration, accidents, or natural disasters.
✅ Decluttering – Free up space by storing thousands of photos on a single USB or hard drive.
✅ Easy Sharing – Instantly share cherished moments with family and friends via email, social media, or cloud storage.
✅ Creative Possibilities – Use your scanned images for photo books, custom prints, slideshows, and more.

Digitizing your collection is a priceless investment in your family’s history. Let’s preserve your memories before they fade away!

I founded Photo Digitizer in the fall of 2021, but my expertise goes far beyond that. With over 25 years of experience as a professional graphic designer and 27 years working in the photography industry—including film, studio, and digital photography—I bring a deep understanding of image preservation and restoration. My extensive background ensures that your cherished memories are handled with the highest level of skill and care.

I use the latest Epson and Pacific Imaging professional scanners and Adobe Photoshop for editing and color correction.

All photos are scanned in my home office at 3960 Burnt Pine Dr in Jacksonville, FL. I do not outsource any of my work and your photos will never leave my office other than during pickup and delivery to you or when I am bringing them to the UPS store to ship to you.

I can convert a variety of video formats to digital, including VHS, VHS-C, MiniDV, and 8mm video tapes. In addition to video, I also offer audio cassette conversion to MP3 files, preserving your cherished recordings in a convenient digital format.

For more details on the process and pricing, visit: VHS & Video Tape Conversion Service

Yes! With over 25 years of professional photo editing experience, I specialize in restoration, color correction, touch-ups, and enhancements. Whether your photos have cracks, tears, stains, blemishes, fading, red-eye, or dust and scratches, I meticulously restore each image by hand using professional software like Adobe Photoshop—never relying on automated tools. I can also remove unwanted elements and bring old or damaged photos back to life with remarkable detail.

Pricing varies based on the level of restoration needed. Visit my Photo Restoration page for more details!

Yes I can but the photo scanning packages are only available for print photo scanning. I scan slides and negatives as a separate service. The cost varies depending upon quantity and resolution. For more info, please visit the  slide or negative scanning pages.

Yes! I can scan any kind of paper document, up to 9”x12”, in high resolution for easy archiving and sharing. Documents are generally saved in PDF format.

Yes! I can scan any kind of artwork, up to 9”x12”, in high resolution. This is a great way to preserve those memories without the space of huge boxes of paper and they can easily be printed at a later time.

Of course! Click HERE to view my Sample Scans page.

I am happy to pick up and deliver your photos collection within the Jacksonville area including Southside, the Beaches, Arlington, Mandarin and Nocatee areas. Please contact me if you are outside these areas. I am happy to provide this service to further areas for a small fee.

Absolutelty! If you are outside of the North Florida area, you are welcome to ship your photo collection to me via UPS or FedEx. Please be sure to request tracking and insurance. Once scanning is complete, I will ship the photos back to you. Please remove photos from albums to reduce shipping weight and cost.

My prices reflect the highest level of care, expertise, and quality that your precious memories deserve. Unlike large online competitors that require you to ship your photos and outsource work, I personally handle every step of the process from my home office—ensuring top-tier quality control, security, and attention to detail.

Additionally, I offer personalized service, including free local pickup and drop-off, and I can customize packages and pricing to fit your specific needs and budget. While larger companies may offer lower prices, they cannot match the level of hands-on care and customized service I provide to each and every client. Your family’s history is priceless, and I treat it with the same care as I would my own.

I am happy to accept all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX and Discover), debit cards, Zelle, Venmo also Cash and Checks.

Turnaround time varies depending on which package you chose and the number of add-ons you select. Since I perform all of the work myself it is often hard to estimate the required time for each package before speaking with you about your project. I am flexible and am able to offer faster service if needed, just let me know.

DPI stands for “dots per inch.” DPI designates the number of pixels per linear inch that a scanner produces in a scan file. The higher the dpi, the larger the scan is in pixels and megabytes, which means larger files. 300DPI is generally sufficient for viewing photos on a computer or smart TV and sharing them online. If you plan to print or enlarge the photos in the future then 600dpi is recommended. 1200dpi is the maximum I am able to scan standard size photos and is recommended if you plan to make very large prints in the future, such as posters or on canvas, or for historical archiving where you want the best possible quality.  Of course, the higher resolution a photo is scanned at, the more time it takes which is why I charge a small add-on fee for these services.

By default, images are saved in JPEG format.  JPEG images are best for viewing on a computer, tablet, phone or SmartTV as well as for sharing with friends and family. JPG files are compressed which reduces file size but can also slightly reduce quality. TIFF files are uncompressed and I recommend saving your photos in TIF format for preservation of maximum quality, especially if you plan to make prints or enlargements of your photos in the future.  

JPEG: Sometimes referred to as JPG. JPEG is probably the most popular and compatible image format around. JPEG is the standard file format of most of today’s consumer quality digital cameras and cell phones and is supported by almost all of today’s imaging software. JPEG uses lossy compression, meaning that some image data is lost when the file is compressed. The amount of compression can be varied, the more compression the more data is discarded and the smaller a file becomes. JPEG is great for creating smaller file sizes for uploading online or sharing via email and social media. It’s also a good choice because it’s very popular and likely to be around for a long time. I use Maximum quality JPEG compression settings that provide you with high quality images.

TIFF: TIFF format is the standard for most commercial and professional printing need and I use the uncompressed TIFF format, meaning that no image data is lost after scanning. TIFF is a great choice for archiving images when all detail must be preserved and file size is not a consideration. TIFF files are very large in size compared to JPEGs because no compression is used.

Generally, yes. Negatives contain nearly all the visual information captured by a film camera and is therefore the best medium from which to create digital images. Photo prints are a subsequent generation and have likely been adjusted to exclude some image information for the printing process. Therefore, negative scans provide the best opportunity for high-quality, archival scans that will provide the most versatile and robust images for preservation and future uses. Scanning negatives is more costly since it must be done one at a time which require a lot more labor time.

Scanning photo prints offers an economical way to preserve your memories, especially when the original negatives are not available. The results are often very good and are generally more than sufficient for viewing and sharing online.

Use the rule-off-thumb of 1” per 100 photos (stacked or filed vertically). A typical shoebox of loose 3”x5” and 4”x6” prints contains approximately 1,000 photos.

Yes, I am not able to scan photos which are contained in photo albums or scrapbooks. Please remove them from the albums before providing them to me for scanning. If you are not able to do so, I can provide this service to you for an additional fee. Please contact me for details.

Photos scanned at 300 DPI can be printed at the same size as the original without any loss of quality. Photos scanned at 600 DPI can be printed at twice the size of the original, and 1200 DPI at least 4 times that of the original.

Yes, I will create a folder for each batch of photos you give me using the name or title you provide to me . Files within the folder will start with the folder name and number 01. For example photos contained in the folder called “Grandma’s Photos” grandmas-photos-01.jpg. Subsequent photos in that batch will be named grapndmas-photos-02.jpg, grandmas-photos-03.jpg, etc. Please let me know what name you would like on each group of photos I scan for you.

Included in the price of every photo scanning package, I will manually rotate your photos to the proper orientation, crop to the edge of each image, and deskew to make sure the images are straight. I also apply basic color and exposure corrections to every photo I scan to make them look their best. If you require additional photo editing services, they can be purchased as an add-on.

Yes, you will be able to plug a USB flash drive into most newer Smart TVs to view your photos on a Smart TV. You can also view them on digital photo frames and smart devices since as Google Next Hub or Amazon Echo Show and share them online.

I will email you a link to a ZIP file which you can download and open on your computer. Due to the large file size of your scans, it may take some time to download this file, depending on your internet connection. In order to access the digital image files in the ZIP file, follow these easy steps:

• • Locate the ZIP file in the email and download to the folder of your choice
  • Right-click on the ZIP file in that folder
  • Select Extract All>
  • Click [Next >]
  • Click [Browse…] and navigate to where you would like to save the files
  • Click [Next >]
  • Click [Finish]

I recommend keeping a copy of the original zip file on your computer or external hard drive as a backup.

I generally keep copies of my client’s photos for 6 months. This allows me to easily re-send or make any corrections to your photos in the future, if needed. I permanently delete the files after 6 months but I am happy to do so sooner upon request.

Simply contact me for a free consultation! I’d love to hear about your photo collection and discuss the best options for preserving your memories. I offer free local pickup and delivery in Jacksonville’s Southside and Beaches areas, or you can schedule an appointment for drop-off.