Scanning & Organizing Old Family Photos

Jefenator · #1 05-10-2010, 12:32 AM

Well I recently came back from Grandma's place with a truck full - now a studio apartment full of old photos and letters. The plan is to scan the photos so I can send discs to all my cousins... then get all these bulky physical albums out of here!!

Any advice on how to proceed? I'm not exactly made of money but if there's some hardware and software that will help with the work flow, I'm definitely interested.

I'd also like to figure out the proper way to label, tag and categorize the image files. I want to get it right the first time and avoid having to manually reorganize 2000+ images.

Any hints & advice would be much appreciated. Topics I'm curious about include: scanner selection, scan resolution, JPEG quality settings, auto-cropping, iPhoto vs. other photo library software & so on.

Thanks in advance!

DanAleks · #2 05-10-2010, 06:29 AM

I'm in a similar situation.

Subscribed.

MonetBass · #3 05-10-2010, 07:12 AM

Not sure about organzing, but get a quality HP scanner. Those come with scanning software that works well. Those usually come with adapters that allow the scanning of slides and negatives as well.

Scan at 600 dpi. This will give you a good quality image to work with. For editing, download GIMP. It's free and works well. Good luck! Those are pictures that are valuable from a family history standpoint, so it's great that you're undertaking this.

Jefenator · #4 05-10-2010, 10:30 AM

I'm looking for a decent flatbed scanner for the prints. If the $200 model or an older top-of-the-line scans faster and better, I'll likely go that route. (If we're talking an evening as opposed to a whole day to scan a box's worth of albums.)

My dad in Canada has a good film scanner so I'll haul the slides up there. (IME when you have a bunch of slides & negatives, a dedicated film scanner is WAY better than some goofy adapter on a cheaper flatbed.)

Still wondering about software. Sounds like face recognition could be a real help.