Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials

Teaching you fun and interesting things to do with your digital images. Whether it's highlighting a new app, or a tutorial on how to edit a photo, we want to help you make the most of your memories.

Featured Thought

Visit our blog every Thursday when we will post a brand new thought or quote! What's the point of our 'Thursday Thought' feature? Because everyone could use a good one every now and then.

Customer Feedback

Want to see your raving reviews here? Comment on one of our social media sites, or email us at customerservice@larsendigital.com. We love hearing from you!

Digital Photo Makeover

Your old film and photos can go through a lot. Whether they are extremely discolored, torn or ripped by a child, involved in a flood or accident, we want to fix it!

Check This Out!

The world's very first photograph! We wouldn't have a business if the photography industry never progressed. It's amazing how far we come, and how advanced we continue to get.

We pride ourselves in our track record since we started business back in 1995. We have always made sure that each and every one of our customers is treated with professionalism along with a personal touch. We're proud to be the most trusted source of slide and negative scanning in North America. We are located beneath the snow-capped peaks of Mount Ben Lomond in Pleasant View, Utah. Pleasant View is 45 miles north of Salt Lake City, host of the 2002 Winter Olympics. All work is done in house here in Utah. We do not outsource any work out of the country like many other companies do.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Proudly Announcing New Super8 Audio Transfers!

We are so excited to announce to new service to our line of excellent and superior conversion services.  We have been one of the top providers for Super8 Movie Film, and are now expanding that to transferring Super8 Audio as well!


Our visual memories are so important to us, and speak volumes of our past, but when you can add voices and sounds to the imagery, it just boosts the sentimentality of that moment in time to another level.  Often when we think of mothers or siblings or grandparents that have passed or that we don't see often, we think of how they used to read us stories, sing us songs, or even the nicknames they would use.  When you preserve your audio along with your pictures and film, it floods your mind with those memories and those voices.

The new Super8 audio transfer service will be performed at no extra cost to our amazing customers.  To order your Super8 Movie Film transfers with sound, visit our order form today!

Larsen Digital is a premier provider of film conversion services.  We transfer photos, slides, movie film, video tapes, negatives, medium and large format film, vinyl records and much more to digital, giving you the freedom to do what you want with your memories!  Your film will degrade and deteriorate over time, but once the digital conversion process is complete, the digital files will never experience fading or mold.  

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

My Film is Digital- Can I REALLY Just Throw it Away?!

It is such a fulfilling feeling knowing that all your old film has been converted to digital, preserving it for lifetimes to come, but then come the hard part.  What do you do with your old film once it has been digitized?  Well, many people say, and we have said it before- you CAN throw it away.  Just because you CAN place all your memories in the trash, does that mean your SHOULD?  



Technically, once your photos, videos, negatives, slides, videos, and other old format photos have been scanned and converted to a digital format, they are good forever and they will not degrade over time.  However, to ensure your digital files are kept safe for generations to enjoy, you will want to make several precautions in backing up all your images and video files in the cloud, and on external hard drives in case of computer crashes.  The more places you store your precious belongings, the better off you are.  If you follow this advice, and you do store your digital legacy safely, then yes, you COULD throw your film away.

We really can think of only two benefits to throwing your paper and physical film away.  They include: 1-Saves space!  Think of that corner in your basement that has been occupied by stacks and stacks of boxes containing your life's captured moments.  It would be empty!  2- It can be therapeutic to move from one phase of your life to the next.  You are moving into the digital world fully and completely with no looking back!  

Now, there are also a couple of negatives associated with permanently getting rid of your film.  1- It can be extremely heartbreaking.  While your possessions are now in digital form and preserved forever, to some, throwing these belongings away can feel as though you are just throwing your past aside without a care.  2- If you do not store your digital memories properly, and computers were to prove unreliable, your memories literally are erased.  With your physical film still in possession, if your converted media were to be erased, you would still have another opportunity to keep your memories around.  While the quality of the film will not be as good as initially converted since film deteriorates over time, it would still be better than nothing.

So while you COULD throw your physical photos, move film, slides, videos, and negatives in the garbage after digital conversion is complete, and you have taken every precaution in backing them up, the choice is really up to you.  It is a personal decision that is emotional for everyone.  We have no doubt that your memories have the opportunity to last more than a lifetime, as long as they are taken care of, but it really comes down to whether or not your heart can handle it.

Haven't yet converted your film to a digital form yet?  Larsen Digital Services is one of the top names in the film conversion industry.  As a family run business, we truly know what it takes to take your family's history, and make it the best it can be by preserving it forever.  Our services are many including but not limited to: Slides, Movie Film, Video Tapes, Negatives, Photos, Audio Tapes, Vinyl Records, and Scrapbook Pages.  

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

How to Organize Your Digitized Film!

You have completed the task of sending all your precious photos, negatives, and other film types to be converted to digital.  You decided not to organize your film before they were digitized, and you elected not to organize your images through our IOS post scanning.  Now all you are left with is jumbled up files.

It is so nice having organized files and images to easily be able to call back to.  If you have a good organizational system in place, you should know exactly where to find that photo of Johnny blowing out the candles of his 8th birthday cake.  It can be extremely overwhelming though!  Where do you start?  Well we are here to help you get on your way to a more orderly set of visual memories.  Starting.... NOW!

Step 1-  Decide how you want to store them.  Are you going to upload them to the cloud for storage?  We highly suggest it due to the safety and convenience it offers your files.  Have you decided to forego a cloud service and just want to store it locally?  Determining where you will keep your images may affect how you organize them, as you may want your method to be easily understood by others, should you choose to share your legacy or images.  Again, we will state this because we want to help you keep your digital past as secure as possible.  We recommend saving your images to as many places as possible, including in the cloud!  This includes storing it locally, on external hard drives, Discs, etc.

Step 2- Decide how you want your digital files to be organized.  Would you like to organize them chronologically by year?  This is probably the most common method.  Then, if you decide, within each year you can have sub folders for events, such as Christmas, or Matt's Wedding.  You can also choose to organize them by person, but with this method you will most likely want one picture in more than one folder, so you will be copying and pasting a lot - which makes for easily passing on images to your kids or grandchildren, but it does require some extra work.

Step 3- Get all your photos in one place!  It will make your life so much easier if you copy all your digitized film in one place, saving you the time of going back and forth.  Save them all to the place you have decided to store them locally.  Then, after you have organized them locally, you can upload them to the cloud, and transfer copies onto an external hard drive, and your organization will transfer along with it.

Step 4- Get to Work!  What we recommend doing, if you are a Windows user, is to create all your folders FIRST.  At least all the folders you think you will want.  Then afterwards you can look at your leftover images and see what more you need.  To create a new folder, simply click on the folder or drive where you would like your photos stored on, and select "New Folder"at the top.  You should probably call this first folder "Photos" or "My Picture Perfect Past" or whatever you would like, to indicate that all your digital images are stored there, and then repeat the new folder steps to create the rest of your folders.

After you have completed the roots to your organization, stay in Windows Explorer, and open the folder containing all your pictures.  Make sure you are viewing thumbnails of your pictures for easier organizing.  After all your images have loaded and are view-able, make sure you can see all your newly created folders on the right hand side.  Now, here is the fun part!  Start with the first photo, determine what folder it goes it, and simply drag and drop it to the designated folder.  Repeat this process until you are officially organized!
It is SO easy!


Step 5- After you have completed all your digital image organization, upload them to the cloud!  Unfortunately, computers can crash, and if they do you risk losing all your digitized film AND all your hard work.  You can avoid this!  Like we said before, store your images in as many places as you can, including the cloud!

Step 6- SHARE THEM!  What good are your memories if you don't share them with your family and friends?  Email them photos, upload them to your favorite social media site, whatever floats your boat.

We hope this has been helpful in helping make the most of your digitized memories.

If your film has not yet been converted to digital, let us help you!  We are the most trusted name in the film conversion industry, and do everything we can to make sure your priceless memories get the respect they deserve in the digitization process.  You film will NEVER be shipped overseas, but will be completed here in the United States.  

Monday, September 9, 2013

Have Fun With Your Digital Images!

At Larsen Digital, we are all about helping you preserve your memories and to make them better!  That is why we are researching the best iOS photo apps, personally using them, and reviewing them for your reference.  From apps that focus on core editing functions, to programs that aim to let you get creative with your images, we are rating them all!

The apps we have rated so far:



Handy Photo

As you can see, a lot of the images used in these reviews are pictures from the past!  It is never too late to have fun with your legacy and past moments.

Don't have your old film converted to digital yet?  Send it in to Larsen Digital!  At Larsen Digital, we make sure that our prices and wide array of services are the best in the business, and our quality assurances will bring your memories back to life.  Nothing says "I'm proud of who I am" more than being proud of your past, and preserving it!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Tips on Preparing Your Slides for Film Conversion

It can be an overwhelming task getting your film ready to send in to Larsen Digital for conversion.  Where do you start?  How do you organize it?  Well we are here to help put your mind at ease.  Preparing your slides for digitization is EASY!  Check out these tips to organize your slides and send them in.



  1. If you don't know what order you want your slides scanned in- just send them in anyway!  You will want to make sure you order our On-line Organization System at checkout, which will allow you to organize your images AFTER they have been scanned, saving you lots of time and squinted eyes.
  2. If your slides are in carousels, you can leave them as they are.  We will scan your carousel starting at #1 in case they are organized.  Just note that if you do decide to leave them in their carousels, that the shipping costs will increase due to the weight.
  3. If they are not in carousels, or you choose to take them out, the easiest way to keep the slides in order is to bundle them in groups of no more than 50 slides.  If you have placed them in order, simply put a post-it, or write on the cardboard mount which slide in the bundle should be scanned first.
  4. Make sure all your slides and carousels are labeled for the best organization.  If you simply want to number them in chronological order that works great, or you can even label them by person or event.
  5. Every customer is allotted 1 group for every 50 slides that are sent in, so you will want to make sure you organize your slides appropriately.  If you have 200 slides, you will get 4 groups at no charge (1 group could have 80, the next could contain 20, etc).  If you would like to group your film in smaller increments, go ahead!  Just know that it will be an extra $2 per group.  *This does not include groups formed in our On-line Image Organization System!
  6. There are some handling fees that can occur with converting your slides to digital.  These situation include: metal clips attached to the slide - 15¢/slide and 110 format slide in 1" mounts - 30¢/slide.  Check out our full list of handling fees
  7. If you have different sizes of film in your slides intermixed, they will need to be separated out.  Our scanners will need to be manually set to accommodate different sizes, but you are more than welcome to organize them back with our On-line Organizing tool. 
After getting your actual slides ready, all you need to do is fill out our order form, and ship them to us!  We recommend that you ship your slides via a carrier that offers tracking services to help give you peace of mind.  We do not recommend shipping your memories through the Post Office.

Hopefully these tips and suggestions have helped aid you in getting your slides ready for film conversion.  If you have any other question related to getting your order prepared, feel free to call our customer service line at any time, where our representatives are always happy to help!.