If you have shoe boxes with pictures or those photo lab envelopes that still have pictures in them, you need to get a digital copy ASAP.
Step ONE: collect all of those prints into one place.
Step TWO: set aside time everyday, or even once a week, to work on your photo organizing project. A few hours at a time are all it takes to get the project done.
Step THREE: Select your scanning method. Here are a few options that I suggest.
A phone app. Yes. there are literally apps that you can download that are used for digitizing photographs. Those apps work better than just taking a cell phone pictures because a scanning app will correct the perspective and give you a better quality scan. Some even color correct. My favorite app, Photomyne, even colorizes black and white photographs and sharpens old photos too.
Popular photo scanning apps:
A scanner. Google the word scanners and you’ll find a never ending list of home scanners. As a general rule these machines will produce a higher quality image than what you get from an app. Meaning that if you want to reprint the photo later, you can likely print it much larger and still have a good quality image. The downfall of these scanners is that there is a much higher investment and they tend to take more time to scan a photo. There is one fast scanner that is intended just for this project though, it’s the Epson FastFoto scanner. It’s my favorite and go to for getting a good quality scan. You can literally send stacks of photographs through the scanner and within minutes have those pictures on your computer.
I love this scanner because it has a photo feeder. It allows you to scan stacks of photographs at one a time. I have found it to be the quickest and easiest way to get digital copies of old photographs and to get photo organized!
Hire a service. You have outsourced the plumbing repair and the new roof. You know there are times when a professional just needs to be called in. If this is a project that is going to be put in the maybe someday pile I implore you to consider just sending those pictures off. At the end of the day it’s done. After Hurricane Ian I talked with dozens of people who brought me pictures that were in that “when I get to them” pile. I know they each regret not getting those digital back ups. And I know every single one would have just hired a service and had them digitized for them if they could go back. So if you don’t have digital copies of those old photographs and you know that it’s a “someday” project maybe sending those pictures off is the solution. Check out these photo scanning services:
AND be sure and subscribe on YouTube. I am working on a new post right now with even more great tips on getting those digital scans!