Ondrej Holzman Another interesting application for the iPhone was presented by Google. This is a handy addition to his Photos, but can also be used completely independently. Thanks to the PhotoScan application, you can digitize old paper photos very easily.
There are several ways to get older photos onto your computer. For example, a traditional scanner is offered, with which, however, the whole process can be very lengthy. That's why Google comes up with the PhotoScan application, which uses a device that we always have at hand - a mobile phone - to digitize old photos.
You might think that to convert a paper photo into a digital form, you only need a regular camera, such as the iPhone, but the results are not always so good with it. Photos often have reflections, plus they are not cropped and so on. Google has improved and automated this entire process.
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In PhotoScan, you first focus on the entire photo and press the shutter button. But instead of taking a picture, only PhotoScan processes the entire photo and then displays four points on it that you need to focus on. The application takes a picture of them and then uses smart algorithms to create an ideal scan of a paper photo.
PhotoScan automatically crops the photo, rotates it and assembles the best possible final product from the four shots, always without reflections, which are the main stumbling block, if possible. The whole process only takes a few seconds and it's done. You can then either save the scanned photo to your library or directly upload it to Google Photos if you use them.
The scan is certainly not error-free yet. Not every photo can be put together flawlessly by PhotoScan, and sometimes you have to scan multiple times, but Google's app did a very good job of removing glare, especially during our testing. You can see in the attached photos that the photo taken with the iPhone 7 Plus camera is sharper and has slightly better colors, but PhotoScan completely removes the glare. Both photos were taken at the same location in the same lighting conditions.
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Google's developers certainly still have a lot to work on, but if their algorithms keep improving, PhotoScan can be a really effective scanner for old photos, because digitizing them is really fast this way.
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I would like to compare it with a scanned photo and not with the ugly photo taken with an iPhone where there are reflections from the window of the head and the like, and then show how a damaged photo can be improved by photoscan. when I want to digitize something, I do it maybe only once and I want the result to be as good as possible, and a scanner is definitely better for that. Sunday highlights that need to be retouched...
a bit of an earl's advice, don't you think? … not everyone always has a scanner at hand … not everyone digitizes so much that it is worth buying one … not everywhere has a scanner available. Although I have a high-end photo scanner at my disposal and I will certainly reach for it if I need to digitize some paper photos or other similar archival materials at home in peace at a coffee shop, it is great that someone has made an alternative that can be used promptly anywhere and by anyone. it has not been possible to make a decent reproduction of a photo or even a picture or poster in the field without equipment so far (not only the problem of reflections, but also uneven illumination, deformation, angle of view/perspective, shadows... Here it can somehow work...
I did not write that the application is not good and that it will not find any application. I don't think it's fair to compare it with the scanner without showing the difference. It could help people decide who want to digitize something and don't know if they'd rather go and buy the scanner.
The app is still useless. The result is worse than a normal photo taken with the camera application. Users in other places also ponder over it. I immediately uninstalled it.