Walk-ins available by appointment, please call during business hours.
The Fine Art of Printing in a Digital World
In this post we have created a chart that compares existing and currently supported devices* to our state-of-the-art digitization service. When digitizing your film and prints you have a variety of options. There are many legacy system that do an adequate job, but all are slow and require older software and older computers to run them.
*The Hasselblad X5 Film Scanner is no longer supported by any manufacturer. The X5 is included here as it is still used commercially.
The Gift bundle includes $250 in digitization and/or printing from Digital Silver Imaging plus an autographed copy of Rick Smolan’s best-selling book Inside Tracks ($45) which captures the astounding story of Robyn Davidson, who crossed the desolate Australian Outback accompanied only by four camels and a dog.
Her journey was originally featured as a National Geographic cover story and recently a major motion picture titled Tracks starring Adam Driver. The book incorporates technology which enables the reader’s smart device to point to any of Rick’s original pictures and bring up scenes from the award winning movie.
Disclaimer: Inside Tracks can only be shipped to an address inside the continental United States. $250 Digital Silver Imaging printing and/or digitization prize valid for a single order, free shipping in the continental United States only.
*15% Off applies to Value Print orders only, discount does not apply to shipping.
Entering this contest will add your email to the Digital Silver Imaging email list, you can always opt out later.
The Instant Image Archive Service produces drum scan quality at a fraction of the price and in a fraction of the time. We can make this claim because we ran a test. The examples in this post show the same black & white negative reproduced by drum scan and by the Instant Image Capture System. These are straight reproductions, just as they would be delivered with only the image inversion performed.
From these samples it is obvious that there is no qualitative difference between the two. This is amazing in that the Instant Image Capture is 1/5 to 1/10 the price of most drum scans and it takes only 1/60 of a second, allowing for 100s of high resolution captures in a day.
If you have 500+ negatives, transparencies, or prints up to 20×24” you’d like us to scan we can bring our system to you! Our On-site Instant Image Preservation Service™ brings our system to your location in a custom built van. Now you don’t need to worry about moving or shipping your valuable archive. This service is available anywhere in the contiguous USA. Contact us for more details or for a quote.
Elliott Erwitt’s many photographs have become part of the world’s visual vernacular. His images for Look, Life, and Magnum capture a world of humor, beauty and irony. His prolific output has filled over 20 published books, with a new book just released in 2021. Elliott’s prints are in virtually every major museum collection in the US and abroad. At the age of 92, Elliott Erwitt hasn’t slowed down much, he’s involved in a variety of projects and working on his archive.
Elliott Erwitt’s archive is where Digital Silver Imaging comes into the picture. Rick Smolan, former Time and National Geographic photographer and Elliott’s son-in-law, came to us with an idea for on-site film digitization. He said that Elliott was reluctant to have his archive leave the studio—a concern widely shared by other photographers—so high resolution on-site high resolution image capture would be ideal. Within In a few short months we had sourced the required high resolution equipment, hired PhaseOne and CaptureOne expert Scott Nidermaier, and formed the Digital Silver Imaging On-site Image Preservation Service™.
On a chilly Sunday afternoon, Scott and DSI’s Eric Luden got to work digitizing Elliott’s archive. Over the course of the next several days the pair would set up in Elliott Erwitt’s studio and rapidly capture some 3,400 negatives and transparencies. For some photographers such an undertaking could take months or even years, but utilizing our On-site Image Preservation Service™ the job was completed in under three weeks. At the core of the system we utilize a high resolution digital camera mounted with a flat field lens. This method of digital capture produces drum scan quality images with a click of the shutter. Unlike drum scanning, this process minimizes contact between film and machine, dramatically reducing the risk of scratching or damage.
Scott has emphasized that each job is different and attentive preparation is the key to a smooth digital archiving process. The On-site Image Preservation Service™ operates on the principle that every archive is unique, and we customize the service to fit the needs of each client.
Much of the credit for the efficient digitization of Elliott’ Erwitt’s archive goes to his studio manager, Mio Nakamura, who organized the film by box, contact sheet, and negative with a corresponding spreadsheet, so there was no confusion about which images to capture. With the digitization of Elliott’s prized images now complete, his entire film archive will be housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. It’s a comfort to know that Elliott’s film will be preserved in perpetuity.
Looking back on Elliott’s project, Scott reflected, “It was fascinating to see a sheet of great negatives and wonder why Elliott picked one negative over another. Also, we digitized many images of family that obviously had personal significance to Elliott. Elliot Erwitt lived with a camera in his hand. Sure the Marilyn Monroe and celebrity images are amazing, but there are so many great images that have never been seen before. It makes you realize that archiving is not just about a financial legacy, it’s a personal legacy. It tells you so much about the life of the artist.”
Digital Silver Imaging is grateful to Elliott Erwitt, Mio Nakamura and Rick Smolan for inviting us to collaborate on this important project. We feel that we played a role in photo history, providing a service to one of the greatest living photographers.
If you are interested in our On-site Image Preservation Service™ please contact Scott Nidermaier at scott@digitalsilverimaging.com.
12/2/20 – Due to a high volume of orders and shipping delays that are out of our control, we are unable to provide guaranteed holiday delivery dates this year. Our estimated turnaround for all printing is currently 7-12 business days.
Print orders submitted after 12/13 are not guaranteed to be ready before Christmas, so please get your orders in as soon as you can!
Visit and subscribe to our Youtube Channel to see all our videos.
Optimize Your Image for Print with Capture One – Capture One expert Scott Nidermaier walks you through the process of preparing your image for print. Capture One is powerful software that has the best inversion (negative to positive) capabilities in the business. Join us for this informative 30 minute presentation followed by an audience Q&A session.
A Force for Change: The Journal Collective – A virtual panel discussion featuring visual presentations from The Journal, a global collective of over 400 women photographers documenting the nuance and intimacy of their lives during the pandemic and changing how this world crisis is being covered.
The efforts of the collective have created a platform for collaborative engagement which has grown to become a force for change. Currently 45 mix-geographic groups of women photographers meet, collaborate and present visual narrative series on the @TheJournal_Collective Instagram. This webinar was co-sponsored by The Social Documentary Network, & J. Sybylla Smith
Instant Image Capture, Better Than Scanning – Come along for a tour of our Instant Image Archiving Service and the hardware and software that make it all possible. Our new service digitally captures your film, print or artwork at a uniform 150 megapixels in a fraction of a second. We can make digital files of your work as quickly as we can safely prepare them for capture – transparencies/slides, negatives, prints and flat artwork can all be reproduced with the highest standards of accuracy. This webinar ends with an extensive Q&A.
The Art of Underwater Photography with Jake Stout – A deep dive with photographer and scuba diver Jake Stout – Jake began his SCUBA journey in 2017 and never looked back. A year later, he was the recipient of the Boston Sea Rover’s internship in which he traveled around the world doing underwater photography with marine scientists, BBC and National Geographic photographers and filmmakers. In 2019 Jake had the honor of presenting his work at the Boston Sea Rovers Film Festival, the longest continually running dive show in the world, and was inducted as a full active roster member in 2020.
Using Photography to Elevate Your Design – A beautifully finished and well crafted photograph can be the defining element of an interior space. As a designer or architect, you are confronted with questions like, what are the best photographic printing processes? How can I finish a photograph to best complement my design aesthetic? What should my photography budget look like? How do I work with a gallery or photographer? These questions and more will all are answered in a this Zoom panel discussion. The panel will consist of fine art photo lab owners Eric Luden and Andrea Zocchi, architect Tim Techler and art consultant Lynne Kortenhaus who has helped numerous clients acquire images and design interior spaces with photographic installations.
Converting Your Image to B&W with Joe Brady – How you execute your black and white conversion can make-or-break your image and your print. Simply selecting “grey scale’ results in soulless black & white conversions. Photoshop® and Lightroom® expert Joe Brady will share how he converts his images from color to black & white. Joe steps you through the process in clear easy to follow steps. Also included is a howto on the Nik Silver Efex Pro plug in. Joe and the team from Digital Silver Imaging will answer your questions live in this informative and interactive webinar. Included in the webinar: Starting your edit in color for the best black & white Using the graduated filter function to even exposure How to properly spot your image Using color channels to make amazing black & white conversions Using the brush tool to make black & white images that pop Best practices for exporting your image for print.
Photographing in India and Nepal: An Insider’s Guide – Join us with Roro La Velle and Craig Semetko as we take you on a journey through India and Nepal. Both of these Roro and Craig have experience as photographers, travelers, and tour leaders in these fascinating and photo friendly countries. Roro La Velle is the founder of Two Wheeled Expeditions, a company that takes participants via Royal Enfield motorcycles on tours of India and Nepal. Craig Semetko is a Leica professional and author of the book “India Unposed.”
Creating a Successful Kickstarter Campaign with Barry Schneier and Lou Jones – We speak with photographers Barry Schneier and Lou Jones about their successful Kickstarter projects. Barry’s book project on Bruce Springsteen was the second most popular photography book on Kickstarter in 2018. Lou has had 2 successful campaigns on this crowdfunding platform. We will discuss what made their campaigns successful and some important tips and suggestions. We end with Q&A from the attendees.
Online Printing Made Easy – We will walk you through the steps to using our new online Value Print Service for uploading your files for beautiful high quality prints and reasonable prices. An easy way to become acquainted with our online Value Print application. Includes a Q&A session with webinar participants.