fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

Can anybody help me _ I have 40 years worth of family pictures to scan in and have NO experience with scanners. Your help would be greatly appreciated

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Another new member who trusts our psychic ability?

What is 40 years worth of pictures? Would that be 3000 slides and negatives? 100 8 X 10 prints? Can the proect be pared down to 20 or 100 favorites?

Why do you want to scan them? Print a book? Share them on facebook? Send DVD copies to the whole family?

How much time do you have to do this and how much can you spend (DIY vs hire it out)?

A little more info, please?

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

You might consider reading the scanner operator's guide for starters. You can always ask for help with specific problems.

Leonb Loc: NYC

YOU MIGHT WANT TO TRY JUST TO TAKE DIGITAL COPIES OF AS MANY OF THE PHOTOS AS YOU CAN. THEN JUST LOAD THEM INTO THE COMPUTER. I HAVE FOUND THAT THIS WORKS VERY WELL FOR ME. I RECENTLY WROTE ABOUT A METHOD FOR TAKING PHOTOS WITH A MACRO LENS AND A SETUP FOR GETTING MY SHOTS FROM SLIDES. YOU CAN LOOK IT UP ON UGLY HEDGEHOG. IF YOU HAVE PHOTOS THEN YOU WILL NEED TO SET UP A COPY STAND WITH THE APPROPRIATE LIGHT CONFIGURATION. TRIAL AND ERROR ARE BEST FOR BOTH OF THE ABOVE SUGGESTIONS SINCE EVERY ONES EQUIPMENT CAN BE QUITE DIFFERENT. MY SETUP FOR SLIDES CONSISTED OF A NIKON DSLR (D600) WITH AN SB FLASH UNIT ATTACHED VIA 3 TRIPODS. 1 FOR THE CAMERA; A SECOND ONE FOR MY MACRO SETUP THAT YOU CAN CONFIGURE ON YOUR OWN; AND THIRD THE TRIPOD WITH THE FLASH. I LINED THEM ALL UP AND BEGAN TO TO SHOOT. I GOT DOWN (AFTER SOME TINKERING WITH THE SHUTTER SPEED; THE APERTURE AND THE POWER OF THE FLASH) TO ABOUT 11-12 SECONDS FOR EACH SLIDE.
HOPE YOU FOUND THIS HELPFUL.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Hi. before anyone can help you we need some information on a number of facts or expectations.

** How many photographs are we talking about. 100 or 10,000 or 500,000 for a few examples?

** How many of each?
* Prints?
* Negatives?
* Slides?
* Film Formats: 35mm, 4.5x6cm, 6x6cm, 6x7cm, 4x5", 8x10"?
* Print Sizes: 3.5x4.75", 4x6", 8x10", 11x14", 5x7", 4x5", etc.?

** Color or Black & White (not really all that important)?

** How stored or displayed currently?
* Framed?
* Loose?
* In photo albums: on paper or under plastic sheets?

** What do you plan to do with the scanned images?
* Reproduce for printing? Display or reference only?
* Reproduce for WEB publishing?
* Archive Only?
* In general why?

** What are you actually asking about?
* Technique?
* (Choice of) Equipment?
* Do it your self?
* Pay professional service to scan?
* Borrow a scanner? UHH member?
* See if someone can do it for you? UHH member?

So many question for a general question. :?

I should also add.

** Time?
** Budget?
** Even where?

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

This actually can work. I've also done negatives or transparencies on a light box. Large 4x5" film is especially easy. For prints I'll use two Daylight Balanced 5000K CFL bulbs. But for smaller prints that will fit, a scanner is much better.

One thing I don't understand in the method presented above is where it says "FLASH" and then later "ABOUT 11-12 SECONDS FOR EACH SLIDE".

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I can tell you what I did/am doing - you might pick up some ideas from this.
I have photos dating back to approximately 1890, negatives both B/W and colour, dating back to 1930s.
I also have four sons, who now that they are married and have their own families, want "their" photos. Unfortunately, if I give them just "their" photos it will break up the stories the sets of photos make.
All the photos are now in chronological order in albums, all the negatives in archival sleeves in ring-binders, and all the digital photos in chronological order on an external hard drive (with back-ups on two other HDs).
I purchased a (almost) top-of-the-line flatbed scanner that also does negatives.
I try every day to spend maybe half an hour or so, scanning in photos and negatives. I wipe off the photos and negatives with and anti-static cloth, and also use an anti-static cloth to wipe off the glass plate and inside lid of the scanner. Takes a few seconds extra but literally saves me hours in editing away dust spots on the scans.
There is a setting in the scanner software that automatically numbers the images as I scan them.
I have made a new document in WordPerfect - but any text program will work - and at the end of a scanning session, I note in the document when the photo was taken, what the occasion was, who is in the photo, and any other interesting info I can think of.
As I go, I copy the photos to four separate external drives, one for each of the boys, as well as update the info-document.
When the drives are full, or when I'm finished scanning, the boys will get them. One of them, I already know, will say "that's nice, Mom, thanks" - then put the drive away and it will never be looked at again till his children find it. That's his loss, not mine. Two of the other three will look at the photos, bring up their own memories and enjoy them. One of these two will add his own memories to the document!
The last one, I don't know!
Oh, and of course I will add the digital photos to the external drives as well.

I know, I can get sentimental about this whole thing, but this keeps all the photos together and there won't be disagreement later as to who gets what photos.

(PS - the scanner I bought is the Epson V700 - you can find specs on the Epson website).

fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

Most of the pictures are 4x6 and 110 prints - NO SLIDES.

All are loose in a box my wife has been keeping. I have most of the past 10 years in digital format on my iMac in APERTURE, and LR5

I want to make a digital copies for each family member, place them in a digital book and possible give them as Christmas gifts.

At a later date I would get them printed into a book for the coffee table similar to the one that is part of Reunion 11

fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

I don't have a scanner and was hoping I could get some recommendations from folks on this site that have done what I want to set out to do. Make digital copies of my family's history for each of my children. You know, pictures of them growing up, vacations we went on, etc.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Couple of option without a scanner:
You could have them scanned. There are businesses that do that - for a price. I have no idea how much, or who does it, but have seen talk about it here on the Hog.
If you have a well-lit area where you could place your photos so they don't reflect light, you could take photos of them with your camera. Move close enough to fill the frame, and shoot. Try a few different settings first, so you have the best setting for the photos.
Digitizing by whatever means, scanning or photographing, is the first step. To make the history books will be easy after that.
It's outside the scope of this forum, but if you like, I could give you some hints for making "scrapbooks" and where to have them printed.

fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

Thanks for the input. I just wanted some recommendations from photographers that have done what I am trying to do. I know there are people out there like me that started to do this. I would like to get the benefit of their experience. I want to buy a scanner and would very much like their insight and recommendations.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Thanks for the additional info. Excellent project.

Morning Star has given some good info on the how to's. Her Epson V700 is a pretty spendy machine and there are lesser ones that are perfect for your project. In this case you're fortunate that you're not dealing with slides. Has to do with since the prints are bigger they can be scanned at a lower resolution and that's much faster.

Last year I inherited hundreds of prints (4 X 5, 5 X 7) dating back to as much as 100 years old. I use an Epson Perfection V500 (paid $150 for it a couple of years ago). Once the scanner settings are what I want, I took a pile of prints, dust them off, dust the scanner glass, put one on the scanner, adjust the borders in preview, and hit the go button and auto save as a .tif file. About one minute per scan. Then it's up to you how much time you spend tweaking in post processing.

I've heard that Canon also makes excellent low priced scanners but I only have experience with Epson. The older V500, V550, V600 models can be had for $150-$200. The V700 and V800 series are about $650.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Thanks for the additional information. You can do very well with a low cost "all in one" printer with a flat bed scanner. I used HP for years with excellent results, most other brands should do as well. If any prints are faded or stained, I suggest saving them as TIFF for correcting in a post processing program, otherwise saving as JPEG is fine. Have fun!

fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

Thanks to all - I have read about both Epson & Cannon. I am wondering if the additional $300 or $400 get you that much more.

Leonb Loc: NYC

The flash refers to a Nikon SD910 electronic flash. The 10-12 seconds refers to the time it takes to photograph each slide. Any other questions and I will be happy to respond.
Leon