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Ever-Professional Scanning: Changing Today's Photo Lab
by Jennifer Gidman

Labs today are increasingly embracing the digital arena. With spiraling demand for digitized film separations, requirements for the highest picture quality possible, and a new subset of 21st-century clients that want the job done yesterday, converting traditional labs to digital is experiencing a heightened level of urgency in today's marketplace. Digital scanning that's done right can increase productivity, give labs more flexibility in the types and numbers of jobs they complete, and make colors pop like never before.

CreoScitex, for example, is making strides in the scanning arena with its EverSmart line of scanners, a solution that implements progressive scanning technologies that can change the way labs do business. The demands labs face every day call for these advanced scanning capabilities, often only available through the medium of digital technology. But just how does adding digital to the scanning equation facilitate the workflow in most digital labs?

Here Comes the Flood
Labs weren't always so eager to jump on the digital bandwagon. Looking back, there was a specific turning point, according to Bill Gillooly, product line manager for Creo-Scitex's EverSmart line. "What made many labs go digital was when machines started coming out that allowed you to put files directly onto photo paper, like the Durst Lambda," Gillooly explains. "Once that happened, the floodgates opened."

The digital tsunami that resulted allowed labs to go where no labs had gone before. "There's a lot you can do once you add a digital scanner to your workflow," says Gillooly. "Retouching is a big factor. You can also get into darkroom effects that you couldn't do with traditional scanners. What's important is this: If you can get a high-quality digital file into the computer, then you're set."

Quaker Photo, a full-service custom photo and digital lab in Philadelphia, has embraced the advent of digital in response to customer demand, recently nearly doubling the space it has devoted to digital technology. "The EverSmart Pro is terrific," says Jim O'Neill, a digital specialist at Quaker Photo in Philadelphia. "When we bought [the scanner] four or five years ago, it was the top-of-the-line. For our purposes, it's still a great unit."

Like many labs, Quaker does a variety of assignments, and assimilating a digital scanner into their workflow adds flexibility no matter what the project. "We do a lot of trade-show work and large-format," says O'Neill, "and the EverSmart Pro is terrific for those types of [assignments]." Whether they're doing digital dupes or wide display images, Quaker Photo is able to tap into the power of their digital scanner to their advantage.

The EverSmartPro and Pro II have since been joined in the past few years by sister scanners EverSmart Supreme and EverSmart Select (just released last year), which are changing the face of digital even more than their predecessors. One of the first steps scanners like these are taking is a more forceful footing in the RGB realm. "When you look at a lab's workflow, you see that it's usually an RBG, negative scanning workflow," says Gillooly. "Because many scanners [originate] from a graphic arts perspective, they do great CMYK work, but not RGB. The EverSmart line, for example, has a full set of controls and tools for RGB, as well as a powerful negative scanning [capability]."

If You Could Save Time in a Bottle
Ask any business owner, not just lab gurus, what the most valuable commodity is in his or her company, and (besides overall profits), the answer will likely be "time." Digital scanners that provide flexibility translate into time savings, and one of these important time-saving features has already been incorporated into the EverSmart line, according to Gillooly. "Labs often want to do multiple things with one image, and this is where features like our oXYgen technology come in," he explains. "If a client comes in with an image and wants it used three different times for three different purposes, you only have to scan the image in once." Using this SOOM (Scan Once, Output Many) component, you only need that one scan: You can then archive the file and repurpose it for any output device as often as you need to with the correct format, resolution, and tonal calibration. "You can have it forever," adds Gillooly.

Image quality has to be up to par as well; this is another area where digital can help a lab's workflow. If things aren't "nice and sharp in the original," according to Gillooly, you can be in trouble. "One special aspect we've added for photolabs is XY Stitch," he says. "This allows people to scan any size original with equal sharpness. [With this technology] it gives scanners, and therefore photo labs, more flexibility. The sharpness can even make the scanners comparable to drum scanners."

The corner has been turned-there's no going back. Heading the way of cameras, scanners have leapt into the digital arena. With all these advantages, plus enhanced color management capabilities, editing and proofing tools, and increasingly user-friendly interfaces, integrating digital scanning into your lab's workflow could be one of the most cost-effective steps you take this year to propel your lab into the 21st century.