Photo Scanning in Los Angeles

At DVD Your Memories Los Angeles, every photo is handled with the same care and precision we’d give our own family memories. We never use bulk “document scanners.” Instead, we use professional-grade flatbed scanners to ensure every detail, tone, and texture is faithfully captured. Our team specializes in digitizing photos for both personal and professional collections, from vintage prints to modern snapshots.

You’ll receive your new digital photo archive on a USB thumb-drive, an external hard drive, by direct upload, or on a Data DVD, whichever you prefer.

At DVD Your Memories Los Angeles, every photo is digitized by hand with the utmost care. Our goal is to create a flawless digital photo archive that preserves your memories in the highest possible quality.

Before scanning, each photo is carefully cleaned with compressed air to remove dust and debris. This essential step removes any particles or residue that could affect the scan. It ensures every image is captured with full clarity and detail.

We use only professional-grade flatbed photo scanners, never document feeders or bulk “shoebox” scanners. Flatbed scanners protect your photos from mechanical damage and produce sharper, more accurate color reproduction. Document scanners may be faster, but they sacrifice quality, introducing streaks and image loss that simply aren’t acceptable for archival preservation.

Each image is saved with a clear and consistent file name for easy reference. For example, Family_001.jpg, Family_002.jpg, and so on. This careful file structure helps you locate and organize your scanned photos once they’re digitized, making your Los Angeles photo scanning project simple to navigate and share.

After scanning, our technicians inspect each image to ensure proper alignment and correct orientation. We make sure people are standing upright, the text is readable and not mirrored, and the overall presentation meets our professional standards.

Once your collection passes inspection, we deliver your digital photos on 100-year archival DVDs, trusted by many and regarded as the best medium for long-term preservation. You can also choose delivery via thumb drive, hard drive, or secure digital upload, whichever best fits your needs. Your digitized collection will be ready to share, print, and preserve for generations to come.

Even the best-kept photos fade or discolor with time. At DVD Your Memories Los Angeles, our expert technicians can bring your old photographs back to life through professional manual color correction and digital image restoration services.

Over the years, printed photos often develop unwanted tints: reds, yellows, or blues caused by aging paper and exposure to light. Our manual color correction process restores natural tones and balances color across your entire image.

Rather than relying on automated filters, our technicians evaluate each photo by hand. We identify the brightest white and deepest black areas within the important areas of the image—disregarding things like backlighting from windows—then reset those points to 100% white or black value to achieve true contrast and accurate color representation. Focusing on the important visual areas instead of backlighting or reflections lets us revive the original look and feel of your photos.

If your pictures appear faded, dark, or discolored, simply ask our photo digitizing experts to apply manual color correction as an add-on to your service. We can even enhance a few test images so you can preview how beautiful your photos can look once corrected.

When photos are torn, scratched, water-stained, or blotched, our photo restoration service provides digital repair with incredible precision. Using Adobe Photoshop, advanced plug-ins, and years of professional experience, we can:

• Fix folds, scratches, and surface tears.
• Remove stains, color spots, and mildew marks.
• Reconstruct missing corners or torn sections.
• Blend colors and textures to match the surrounding image.

Even if a piece of the photo is missing, our specialists can often recreate it using information from another part of the image or a related photograph. Every restoration is carefully saved as a new version, preserving your original file for safekeeping.

Once your photo scanning order is complete, you can turn your digitized images into a beautiful DVD slideshow movie. Choose from our basic or premium slideshow packages, or sit down with our in-house editor to direct your own custom project.

Using your personal photos adds a meaningful touch and makes for a memorable presentation. Perfect for family gatherings, anniversaries, graduations, or special events. Each slideshow is created with care to highlight your best images and bring your stories to life on screen.

To make browsing your digital photo archive easier, DVD Your Memories Los Angeles can create contact sheets for your scanned images. Each contact sheet serves as a visual index, displaying up to 100 thumbnail-sized photos per page.

Contact sheets are especially helpful for large photo scanning orders, allowing you to quickly reference and locate specific images on your DVD, thumb drive, or hard drive without opening every file individually.

When comparing professional photo scanning services, you may come across companies advertising “shoebox scanning” for just a few cents per photo. While tempting, these low-cost offers often rely on document scanners designed for paper, not photographs. At DVD Your Memories Los Angeles, we never use these machines because they simply do not meet our archival-quality photo scanning standards.

Document scanners were originally built for offices to quickly digitize contracts and paperwork. A few years ago, some scanning companies began using them for photos in an effort to save time and money. While this allowed them to process large quantities quickly, it came at a serious cost to image quality and photo safety.

When DVD Your Memories first tested one of these systems (the Kodak Photo Scanning System s1220), we quickly realized the results were unacceptable. Images lost fine detail, colors appeared streaked or distorted, and overall quality fell far below what we consider archival.

That’s why we made a clear decision: no document scanners, ever. Every photo scanned at our Los Angeles lab is digitized by hand on professional flatbed photo scanners that capture every tone, texture, and color with precision.

Cheap scanning may save a few dollars today, but it risks permanently degrading your images. We believe your family memories deserve better.

Take a look at the sample images below to see the clear difference between flatbed photo scanning and document scanning. The examples on the left were digitized using our professional flatbed scanners, while the images on the right were scanned through a document feeder.

1. Color Streaking & Image Distortion

The most noticeable issue with document scanners is RGB streaking: vertical red, green, or blue lines that appear across your photo. This happens because the image is pulled mechanically through the scanner, dragging across dust particles or debris on the glass.

Flatbed scanners, by contrast, keep the photo stationary while the sensor moves underneath it, eliminating streaking and preserving a clean, accurate image. You won’t find vertical lines running through your family portraits or cherished prints.

2. Lost Detail In Dark Areas

Document scanners also struggle with shadow detail and color accuracy. When an image passes rapidly through the sensor, it only captures a fraction of the available data, especially in darker tones. On a high-end monitor or printed output, this often shows up as a crisscross pattern of white noise in dark areas, resulting in lost depth and uneven color.

Flatbed scanning allows the sensor to capture each area fully, producing balanced contrast and richer blacks for true archival quality.

3. Risk Of Physical Damage

Because document scanners rely on mechanical rollers, there’s always a risk that a photo could jam or tear during feeding. Once that happens, the original print may be permanently damaged. Flatbed scanners eliminate this risk completely by scanning each image gently on a stationary glass surface.

At DVD Your Memories Los Angeles, we consider flatbed scanning the only professional choice for high-resolution, archival photo digitizing. The difference isn’t just visible, it’s lasting.

If you come across photo scanning services offering prices like five cents per photo, there’s a reason for it. Those companies are either using document scanners or outsourcing your photos overseas, putting your original prints at risk.

Always ask what type of equipment they use before placing an order. Some providers still rely on document scanners instead of professional flatbed photo scanners, which means lower quality, less color accuracy, and potential damage to your images.

Yes! We offer discounted rates for large collections, making it easy and affordable to digitize thousands of photos at once.

We scan at both 300 DPI (standard) and 600 DPI (archival) resolutions. 600 DPI captures up to four times more image data, ideal for restoration or reprinting larger sizes.

Absolutely. We offer in-album scanning to preserve original layouts without removing your photos.

Completely. All scanning is done locally by hand, no automated feeders, no outsourcing, no shipping. Your photos are as safe as we can make them.

Yes, we can provide your collection on a thumb drive, archival DVD, or as a secure download link for instant access.

Your photos tell the story of your life. Don’t let time, damage, or storage decay take that away. Whether you want to restore old photographs, preserve family albums, or build a digital photo backup collection, DVD Your Memories Los Angeles delivers professional quality with personal care.

Contact us today to start your project or stop by our Los Angeles location to speak with a photo digitizing expert in person. Let us help you preserve your memories forever, beautifully, safely, and locally.