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scanning old photos

Lynnette

Lynnette

In my life, I've loved them all
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I wasn't sure what section of the forum to put this, but...

Do any of you have experience scanning old photos? I brought the first of several big photo albums home with me from my mom's when I visited last weekend, because it's high time we had them saved digitally and everyone in the family wants copies. So I volunteered even though I really don't know much about scanning.

I have a Lexmark pinnacle pro901... it's an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner. I have no clue if it's any good... I did try scanning one photo and I thought it looked okay but I'm not even sure what to look for when scanning.

Also, what all do you do (if anything) about post-processing? Any great tips or tools for fixing up old photos? The ones I'm starting with are from the 60s and 70s. They're not in horrible shape but many could use some tweaking.

Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated!
 
I've been meaning to post almost this exact same question for a few weeks now! I'm going home in June to visit family, and I've commited my mom and sister to help me scan all of my grandma's old photos. Then of course make additional copies of the disc. My parents have a crappy all in one printer and I know that isn't the route to go. I heard you can rent scanner's specifically for this purpose. Anyone know about that? I've thought about buying a scanner but I don't really know if that is a need. Any advice would be welcome....oh and I don't think I can do a service because these are old photos that we really don't want to let out of family hands.
 
I'll keep an eye on this too. I have scanned a couple, but don't really know if there is a "right way" to do it. :D
 
Back in 2005, I took my HP All-in-One and laptop with me to my grandmothers and spent the entire weekend scanning all her photos. I would place about 5-6 single photos and scan and as some of the pages were really old, I didn't want to ruin them by peeling the plastic off so I just went ahead and scanned the entire page, as is. I used Microsoft Picture Manager that comes with MS Office and then went to each scan and crop each individual photo and named it by whoever was in the photo to get single pictures.

I think it took me close to 3 days to scan all the albums. As a side though, while I was at my grandmothers, my grandfather had an old photo of my grandmother that was used for her drivers license and he treasured that photo so much. We took the photo to Walmart and they would not print it because it was a 'professional' photo. I finally just went and bought the color and black ink cartridges and printed a 5x7 of that photo just for him and I think he showed everyone that came to the house that he had a big photo of my grandmother that used to be just a tiny picture. It was so cute how much he loved that photo.
 
I'm no pro or anything and haven't scanned in any truly old photos, but one tip I have heard and use is to scan the pictures at 600 dpi (so it will be twice its size). Especially for all those tiny photos pre-80s, this helps immensely so that you have something to work with later in Photoshop.
 
I bought a separate scanner (Epson V600) just for this purpose. I love it! I was able to do all my families slides with it as well. I haven't done a lot of editing on them...it was just more important for me to get them all in here and get copies to family members.
 
what melanie said.
As for tweaking - I didn't do a whole ton to them, a lot of times the offness is what people like.
 
example - on the set from my brother's first few years (up till I was born) all I did was auto levels on lights and white balance correction.
this is probably the most dramatic edit out of the whole album.
Untitled-1copy-1.jpg
 
Some great tips here already!

I always scan at 600 dpi or higher. Like LeeAndra mentioned, it helps make those tiny pics bigger. When I went to my grandmother's last year to scan her hoard of photos I actually scanned most of them at 1200 dpi LOL I had the time and the space to store them so I thought - why not?

As for editing, I only do minor tweaking and only when absolutely necessary. I like to preserve the "look" of whatever era the photo is from. It's part of the story, kwim? If I'm scrapping the photo, then I'll probably do something artsy to it but just for general safe-keeping and printing, I don't touch them much unless it's too remove dust or scratches, repair tears, etc.

When I'm fixing dust/scratches I zoom in really close and use the Patch tool in PS - I like it better than the clone tool.

When I did like over 300+ pictures last year I gave them sequential numerical file names, and had a corresponding spreadsheet where I would add in all the information as I scanned. I had columns for photo #, who's in the photo, where it was taken, date it was taken, and a general notes field where I ended up adding in stories and memories related to the photo. So now if someone says "I want all the pictures with Grandma Roussy in them", I just have to do a search in my spreadsheet and I can find all the photo #'s quickly.

I realize I could have tagged them all in something like iPhoto, etc. but I did it that way because a spreadsheet is something I can share easily with everyone in the family, regardless of what photo software they have. It's also printable for reference. I just gave everyone a CD with the photos and the spreadsheet and they were happy!
 
mishou said:
Some great tips here already!

I always scan at 600 dpi or higher. Like LeeAndra mentioned, it helps make those tiny pics bigger. When I went to my grandmother's last year to scan her hoard of photos I actually scanned most of them at 1200 dpi LOL I had the time and the space to store them so I thought - why not?

As for editing, I only do minor tweaking and only when absolutely necessary. I like to preserve the "look" of whatever era the photo is from. It's part of the story, kwim? If I'm scrapping the photo, then I'll probably do something artsy to it but just for general safe-keeping and printing, I don't touch them much unless it's too remove dust or scratches, repair tears, etc.

When I'm fixing dust/scratches I zoom in really close and use the Patch tool in PS - I like it better than the clone tool.

When I did like over 300+ pictures last year I gave them sequential numerical file names, and had a corresponding spreadsheet where I would add in all the information as I scanned. I had columns for photo #, who's in the photo, where it was taken, date it was taken, and a general notes field where I ended up adding in stories and memories related to the photo. So now if someone says "I want all the pictures with Grandma Roussy in them", I just have to do a search in my spreadsheet and I can find all the photo #'s quickly.

I realize I could have tagged them all in something like iPhoto, etc. but I did it that way because a spreadsheet is something I can share easily with everyone in the family, regardless of what photo software they have. It's also printable for reference. I just gave everyone a CD with the photos and the spreadsheet and they were happy!
Click to expand...


Wow! You are seriously amazing. :notworthy

Thanks for the info and good ideas!
 
Wow Michelle! I've scanned a few and agree with the resolution. 600+. I did 1200 for tiny photos, but the higher you go, the larger the files will be so you need room for them.

As for fixing them up, I would definitely suggest saving the originals before you do anything. Later on you may be unhappy with your restoration skills so if you still have the originals you can rework them.

Also my scanner does multiphotos...as in it detects when you have multiple photos on the bed and it separates them to individual files automatically. See if the scanner you use does this cos it's mighty helpful!
 
Thank you for the tips everyone! Michelle, I had no idea you were such an expert... great advice!
At this point I think I'm just going to work with what I've got. I figure although it's not the best scanner out there, a semi-decent copy is better than no copy at all, and my family will just be grateful to have them.
 
I have scanned a ton of old photos for my family and I wish I knew these tips then. A lot of trial and error went into my scanning and it was so tedious! I did get over two hundred finished and saved to disc for everyone. I also named and uploaded them all to Shutterfly so they could all get prints too. Now I have another couple of hundred to do for my husband's family. Maybe I'll be inspired now.
 
Wonderful suggestions everyone! I must print out this thread!

I have scanned a few old family pics and found that running a noise filter will help clear up the white spots on old pics. Just thought I would mention this... Happy scanning! :-)
 
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