Yes. When necessary, we use compressed air to remove dust from slides and negatives. We use special professional grade photo cleaner on printed photos in need of dust removal. In addition, our scanners use Digital ICE technology for slides and negatives to automatically remove dust and minor scratches.

In most cases, scanning from negatives produces a higher quality result since negatives normally have not been handled as much as stored better. If possible please send us your negatives.

DPI stands for dots per inch or pixels per inch. DPI represents the resolution, accuracy, sharpness and clarity of your digital picture. A higher DPI is generally associated with a higher quality image; however, if the DPI exceeds the resolution of the original media, a higher DPI can actual diminish the quality of the image. Our default scanning is performed at 600 DPI for paper photos which is more than sufficient for using your digital photos electronically and also provides the ability to reprint any photo in the same size as its original. GoPhoto’s service includes the following: high resolution scanning, Kodak Digital ICE (to remove dust and blemishes) and manual processing to crop, rotate and color correct your photos.

We provide scanning for 35 mm negatives, 35 mm slides and printed paper photos up to 8" by 10". In addition, we also scan 110, 120, 126, 127 & 200 (medium) format film. Our professional quality scanning equipment allows us to scan both black and white photos and color photos. If you have other formats you want scanned, just contact us and we’ll see if we accommodate your request.

Ah, organizing. We want this to be the easiest order you have ever placed. That’s why you don’t have to do one ounce of organizing if you don’t want to. Whichever way your pictures are currently stored, neatly in albums or loosely in a variety of boxes, we’ll take them as is. Our scanning process includes built in organizational tools to help you organize the digital images however – by event, by date, by groups – you would like when you review them in your online library. Or, if you already have an organizational system that you would like us to maintain, we can do that too. Include instructions in your order and our technicians will follow them exactly.

We are a US company based in San Francisco, California. When you place an order with us, you will be shipping your box of pictures directly to our facility in the San Francisco Bay Area. Your valuable photos will not be further shipped to other remote domestic or international facilities. Unlike our competitors, we have geared our process to minimize the number of channels your pictures will pass through until they are returned safely to you.

If you are already on our website reading this FAQ list, then you have all the skills you need to use our Photo Sharing services. We have made our pages very user friendly with detailed instructions of how to navigate all of our options. One of the benefits of GoPhoto is that we provide sharing services right here while our competitors direct you to additional third parties. We are a one-stop shop for all your scanning and sharing needs.

Good question. While scanners are readily available, the process is more involved than most people imagine. If you want to preserve 100 pictures, it will take you:

8 hours of manually scanning – an entire Saturday!

$250 for a good scanner like the Espon 4490 (not to mention the space to put it!)

$100 for an external hard drive (image quality resolution takes up a lot of computer memory)

$700 for Adobe PhotoShop C5 software (and the knowledge of how to retouch your photos!)

We take the fuss out this project for you, make it easy to organize and share your new digital pictures, and at prices that are more reasonable than if you do it yourself.

Our process is one of the simplest out there and our prices are affordable. There is no need to organize your photos before sending. There is no risk in sending us "all", since you can delete as much as you want before paying. The way you send us your pictures is the way they will be returned to you. Also, we’ve done our research to provide you the highest quality digital images available with current technology. Plus, we offer a free, unlimited online photo library. We not only scan your photographs, we make them easy to share.

No catch. We want you to be absolutely satisfied with the quality of your digital pictures before you pay. Once our trained technicians scan your photographs, you will be notified via email that your images are ready for your review. You will be able to select the images that you want to keep. Those will be saved into both your personal online library and sent to you on a CD/DVD. One big difference from our competitor is that we do not require you to pay for a minimum number of scanned images--only the pictures you select will be the ones that you pay for. It’s really that simple.

We know that your pictures are special and amongst your most valued possessions. That’s why security is one of our utmost concerns. We have partnered with UPS, a shipping service with a reputation and track record of providing safe and secure shipping. When you place your order, a UPS shipping label is created with a unique bar code that is used to track your package. From the time your package enters the system, either via free pick up at your home, or dropped off at a UPS store, to the time it reaches our GoPhoto Receving Department, it’s whereabouts are known. And the reverse process is used when we send your photographs back to you. You will receive email updates for when your box is picked up by UPS and the estimated time of arrival safely back to your home. Also, we are a US-based company and therefore your pictures will not be sent to a foreign country. We realize you entrust your pictures to us and we have taken extra measures to ensure the safe shipping and handling of your pictures. Our philosophy is to treat your valuable pictures as if they were our own.