Thank you for sharing your passion for film photography. Here, at wescan.film we scan film – that’s all we do. Be it 35mm or 120 or sheet film of any size up to A2 – we’ll scan it. Our preferred method of scanning is drum scanning – we use the highly regarded Heidelberg Tango drum scanner to provide photographers with high quality scans.
Our film scanning lab is conveniently located in Riga, Latvia. We provide high quality film scanning service for photographers, art curators and private collections from across Europe and rest of the world.
My name is Jānis Ratnieks and I’ve been into film photography since 1996.
Why Drum scans you would ask? I can name ten other ways of digitising film, that are easier, quicker and cheaper than a drum scan, but hey – there is one more THING that comes to mind – quality.
Drum scans give us the ultimate quality, with drum scans you will chew the last available grain out of your film. For portraits it will give the smoothest transition between the various shades of skin color. For landscapes it will extract all the detail that film has. There’s just no way around it! Here are three main reasons, why I prefer a drum scan over any other scan:
the digitising process – with a Heidelberg Tango Drum Scanner every pixel is read by a PMT (photomultiplier tube) – so there is no CCD sensor involved, PMT’s are more sensitive to light and the result is wider Dmax and a staggering resolution of 11000dpi. In real life we use up to 6000 though. When scanning with PMTs, the scanner extracts more shadow detail and also extracts detail from higlights. This is the best way to convert photons into pixels.
true 16 bit TIFF files – yes output files are true 16 bit , so they are very flexible for post processing. When scanning slides or delivering negatives to you wit no conversion, files are saved as 16 bit LAB files. If we do conversion, then we deliver them as 16 bit ProPhotoRGB TIFF files.
the film is wet mounted on a drum (hence the drum scanner) – so the file is sharp across the frame – there’s no defocusing due to curvature of the film, you can really extract that special grain that film has. there’s no lens involved, so there are no scanner induced chromatic aberrations. The wet mounting also reduces visible scratches of the film, so files come out cleaner than when digitising with other methods.
I’ve shortly summed up my love for this process, I hope you’ll be enjoying it as much as I am.
We scan all film - 35mm, 120 roll film, 4x5”, 5x7”, 8x10”, sheet film up to 297x420mm. We scan negatives, slides, black and white film and prints.
We convert our negatives using Negative Lab Pro. This is the latest still evolving software for negative conversion. Check out samples here.
We've partnered with a local pro lab to develep our film. We develop C-41, BW and E6. Send us your film - we will process it and scan it.
Let us know which frames to scan, size of the scan, wether you need us to convert negatives, color tone preference. Tell us everything.
Pack your film safely and deliver it to us - you can either mail or courier it to us. We will confirm once we've received it and get back to you with any questions we have.
It takes 1-2 weeks to fulfill orders - depending on our schedule and the size of your order. Please let us know if you need a rush order. We'll see what we can do.
Final files will be uploaded and shared with you via dropbox. I'f you'd like us to write them on a USB stick, please send us one. Film will be returned to you via post.
We’re open to collabs with artists and students – if you have a project that requires scans, an exhibition or a book you’d like to print – feel free to contact us, we’re open for collaboration in exchange of our brand’s exposure.
Follow us on Instagram to receive half-price scans for 3 months, and 20% off thereafter.
Send Us Your Film:
Jānis Ratnieks
6-23 Maza Piena Steet
Riga, LV1045
Latvia
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