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Looking to Digitize Photos with a Service?

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Avoid Opting for DIY

Old images before a services digitizes the photos

Looking through old photos lets you recall treasured memories. People can have a few treasured pictures or vast photo collections. Whether you have old Polaroid pictures, 35mm photo slides, or photo negatives, protecting them is crucial.

Many old pictures degrade over time. Exposure to light, air, and other factors causes old photos to fade, blur, and lose their overall quality. Fortunately, there’s a way to protect your beloved image collections and albums from damage: by digitizing your older pictures.

But before digitization begins, you have a few options to consider. Should you use a photo digitization service or digitize photos yourself?

How to Digitize Old Photos: 3 Options to Consider

If you wonder how to digitize many photos, you have three methods to think about. Here’s more information about each digitization option.

Option 1: Digitizing Photos With a Scanner

If you have a desktop or laptop computer, it’s possible to connect either device to a scanner. You may even have a scanner you forgot about somewhere in your home. A drawback of digitizing photos at home is you get what you pay for. Buying a scanner for a few hundred dollars sounds like a great deal.

However, home scanning devices don’t provide the same media conversion quality as professional-level scanning equipment. Other potential roadblocks are the time and adjustments required to get the best possible digitized photos.

If you don’t want or have time to set up software, read manuals, and configure settings, skip this option.

Option 2: Using Your Smartphone

A smartphone offers a few potential ways to capture old photographs digitally. The first method is to take pictures of old photos with your smartphone’s camera. Unfortunately, this frustrating option means holding perfectly still, balancing a room’s light levels to avoid glare, and keeping your smartphone’s camera in focus.

Smartphone cameras are great for capturing life’s special moments. However, they lack the results provided by a professional photo digitization service.

Option 3: Choosing a Professional Photo Digitization Service

A Kodak camera between old photos

The easy way to digitize thousands of photos is by leaving this work to the professionals. Besides old photos and slides being sensitive to conditions, improper handling also ruins pictures. 

Two Squares is a media conversion company specializing in professionally capturing and converting older media into digital formats. Our media experts handle your media with the care it deserves. After we convert your treasured photos, you get back your original plus digital copies.

Another advantage of choosing Two Square’s photo digitization services is convenience. Whether you want your digitally converted images on a hard drive, DVD, or another storage solution—Two Squares does it all.

Our professional-level photo scanning and digitization equipment is the perfect way to capture pictures. Whether you have a few photos or thousands of pictures, the Two Squares process is a time-saving and stress-free solution.

No matter how many photos you need scanned and converted, contact Two Squares. Older film, music, and photos degrade over time. Protect your memories from time and wear by speaking with one of our media conversion experts.

Digitize Home Videos, Tapes, & Film Before Video Degradation

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A close up of a VHS tape

Whether you’re reminiscing in treasured home movies or finding footage of loved ones, there’s nothing like watching old home movies and films. But what you might not know is that many types of older media, such as VHS tapes, 35mm film, and other formats degrade over time. Video degradation can happen in a few ways. Whether due to time, improper handling, or both, degradation affects the quality of your old media formats.

Fortunately, you can potentially avoid film and magnetic tape deterioration by understanding how these situations occur. Here’s a closer look at four common ways media can degrade over time.

Sticky Shed Syndrome Causes Magnetic Tape Deterioration

An old tape reel displaying video degradation

Often, the degradation of magnetic media happens due to sticky-shed syndrome. Magnetic tapes feature binders that help contain oxide coatings. These binders can break down due to time, improper storage conditions, or both.

Sticky-shed syndrome occurs when moisture from the air interacts with the polyurethane to make the surface sticky. Think of it like dried glue absorbing water and becoming sticky again. Using tapes afflicted with sticky-shed syndrome can damage tape players and the affected media itself.

The best way to stop this situation from causing tape and video degradation is by baking your media. This doesn’t mean baking tapes in your home’s oven. Instead, let Two Squares use its professional-grade equipment and expert-level technicians to bake and dry your media carefully.

Magnetic Tape Deterioration Over Time

Even in normal conditions, older media formats like videotapes, cassettes, and other forms of magnetic media slowly decay over time. Unfortunately, time-related data decay doesn’t just happen to VHS tapes or your favorite cassettes. 

As the magnetic fields inside magnetic media lose their strength, it will result in decayed or damaged data. If left unresolved, these forms of media can become impossible to view or listen to.

The only way to stop further time-based audio and video degradation is by transferring your beloved media to a digital format. Two Squares can convert your audio and video to digital formats, including CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, or hard drives and flash drives.

Excessive Use

Whether moving your old media or preparing to display it, excessive handling can also cause magnetic tape and film deterioration. While they’re not visible to the human eye, our hands can contain oil, grease, dirt, and other media-damaging substances.

Excessively handling older media can deposit unwanted dirt and grime onto your treasured films and audio tapes.

Preserve Your Home Videos, Tapes, and Film with Two Squares

The best way to preserve treasured media and avoid video degradation is by contacting Two Squares. Our company offers professional-grade media capture and conversion services. We use our tools and knowledge to carefully capture and convert your old films, music, photos, and more to digital formats. Having digitally stored media lets you preserve treasured memories for many years to come.

Celebrating 16mm Film’s 100th Anniversary

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16mm projector

The 16mm film format turns 100 this year. This medium owes the art of cinema its freedom, which it provided to numerous international filmmakers. Even in the modern era of digital cinema and high-end camera technology, 16mm film is still one of the most exquisite and reasonably priced formats, giving ambitious filmmakers a distinctive appearance.

About 16mm Film

16mm film was first presented by Kodak in 1923 as a reliable, reasonably priced product for the home video market. Over time, it developed into a respectable, professional format that democratized movie production and distribution.

It became the preferred medium for filmmakers that are into news, documentaries, and educational content. Numerous theaters and film companies continued to operate on 16mm prints, which also provided entertainment for front-line soldiers. Long into the 1980s, the TV business distributed and broadcast many shows and films using 16mm prints. The worldwide independent and commercial filmmaking sector thrived on 16mm, which also enabled successive generations of avant-garde artists to enhance the cinematic art form.

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The Format Wars History: Betamax vs. VHS

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tape cassette formats

The clash between Betamax and VHS began in the late 1970s and lasted long into the 1980s. The conflict grew as affordable video players increased, with VHS ultimately triumphing. Betamax initially controlled the market, but their refusal to take the customers’ advice ultimately contributed to their demise.

The battle between the VHS and Betamax standards officially began in 1971 when Sony created the U-Matic, the first closed-case video format. This format was created exclusively for business and professional use since it would have been too expensive to make it available for personal use. Sony quickly created the Betamax, which it offered to its rivals in 1974 in an effort to establish it as the industry standard video recording device (VCR), taking advantage of the information learned during this process.

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Hiring A Professional Slideshow Creator for Your Special Events: Pros and Cons

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Set of monitors with static colourful and bright images

Hiring A Professional Slideshow Creator for Your Special Events: Pros and Cons

Having had a glimpse of some of the questions to expect when looking for a professional slideshow creator, let us take a deeper understanding of certain fundamental elements, briefly explain the concept of a slideshow and definition of who are professional slideshow creators. Widely known in professional circles as ‘presentation designers,’ they produce works incorporating images or mattes to tell their message.

These experts develop presentation slides that have more refined design and content. It is important to know the constructor and the purpose of the presentation. For example, such slides are usually part of a bigger movie project. However, other formats can also be applied. Lets first know more about these creators and their work.

What Are Slideshows and Who Are Slideshow Creators?

A slideshow creator is an expert in slide show making and is hired to make slideshows in offices, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and during graduations. They comprise a lot of work like the selection of images, the musical scores, as well as the smooth transitory actions between the slides.

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Enhancing the Quality of Images through Automatic Color Correction Techniques

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picture slides
Pile of 35mm photo slides

Images are an integral part of our daily lives. Social media, advertising, and online marketing rely heavily on their visual impact. However, capturing the perfect image requires a skilled photographer and an understanding of lighting, color, and composition. Despite the best efforts of photographers, the resulting images may not always be perfect, with issues such as incorrect white balance or poor lighting affecting the overall quality. In such cases, automatic color correction techniques can come to the rescue, enhancing the visual appeal of the images and making them more aesthetically pleasing.

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Preserving The Magic Of The Timeless 78 Record With Professional Digital Conversion

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The 78 records were a magical round disc for music lovers and the climax of the music era as most never before. Those who came to appreciate the art of music during this period still hold these musical relics in great esteem, wishing to return to a time when music was truly and beautifully deep. The 78s may have been a few decades ago, but their magic does not have to be lost. With digital conversion, one can have the best of both worlds, that is, a scene that is nostalgic but at the same time where vintage music is available in high-definition as digital files. Just as people preserve their VHS videotapes, digitizing your 78 records can enable your music to be preserved for future generations. In this article, we consider how creating digital copies of your 78 records ensures they are never lost, enhancing their legacy and allowing people to enjoy them in modern ways.

What’s a 78 Record?

A 78 record is a type of musical recording that was quite popular between the late 1800s and 1950s. The 7”8” in its name refers to the number of rotations it was designed to record in one minute, which is 78. 78 records were shellac in composition, a hard resin, making them less robust than the modern vinyl records that came afterward.

Most of the 78 records measured about ten inches in width, while the time recorded in each lower side was three to four minutes. This made it necessary to divide longer pieces over many records. Nevertheless, within those constraints, 78 records substantially impacted the music industry for a long time.

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Every Old Film Reel Has A Story; Preserve Them Today With 8MM To Digital Conversion

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8mm film

Old 8MM film reels capture our history and cultural heritage; however, they’re fragile and can be easily damaged if not preserved through 8MM to digital conversion.

Have you ever encountered a dusty old 8mm film reel in your attic or basement, wondering what kind of stories it might contain? Perhaps it’s footage of your parents’ wedding, your grandparents’ first house, or a slice of history captured on film. Every old film reel has a story. Whatever the case, these old 8mm film reels hold a wealth of memories and historical significance that should not be lost to time. The best way to preserve them is by 8MM to digital conversion.

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Revive Your Old Memories: Convert Your Files On Camcorder To Digital Today

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Preserve your VHS tape and video tapes

Nostalgia is a powerful emotion that can transport us back in time to relive cherished memories of the past. These memories hold a special place in our hearts and minds, from old family vacations to childhood milestones.

However, with the evolution of technology, many of these memories may be locked away on outdated camcorder tapes or other obsolete media. This blog post will explore the importance of preserving old memories and discuss how converting your old camcorder files to digital can help you relive those cherished moments easily.

Whether for your enjoyment or to share with loved ones, restoring your old files to digital is a valuable investment in preserving your family history.

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From Reel to Real: Convert Your 16mm Film to Digital Today

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Like many others, there exists a possibility that you might have a collection of old 16mm film reels lying around the house for years unused. These movies certainly captured family vacations, weddings, birthdays, and other special events, and yet the means to watch them has long been unavailable. In those days, it was something distinctive, restoring and watching 16mm format movies. The grainy film had a fascinating antiquated feel which lots of people cherished. The images offered a gritty reality that people loved. There was also something pleasing in the physical medium with sprocket holes and scratches. So, for movie lovers, it was more not just the content but the journey of retrieval. Begin with converting these precious experiences you’ve had into 16mm film to digital format.

Understanding 16mm Film: Its History and Significance

Throughout the development of moving images, 16mm film emerged as a great way to document and preserve snapshots of people, historical events, art, and culture. 16mm film was patented in the 1920s and was primarily used to capture images, which could be a cheaper version of the popular 35mm film format used by motion picture makers.

The low price appealed to more users, and more people began making motion pictures, including independent filmmakers, schools, and leisure seekers. Around this time, 16mm films began to be used for educational, industrial, and other purposes as they were easy to use and portable.

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