Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

My wife just found a ton of snapshots in our garage. I want to digitize them but way too much trouble to take out the flatbed Epson scanner so I am thinking of using my iphone xr. My issue is what to use.

I can use one of my phone apps that saves in RAW but big files that will need cropping plus I can only shoot one at a time.

I can shoot in HEIC which gives me a 2 mb image but still only 1 at a time and hand crop

I can use an app like Photomyne which will self crop etc. If I shot a single image at a time not too bad but I can shoot multiple images with a single shot and it will separate, crop and rotate automatically but the images end up being in the kb size. Also the image quality isnt as good even if I only shoot 1 image at a time.

I tried Google's app and they are nuts. it takes forever to align the four corners one by one. If you’ve used it you will know what I am talking about.

sending them to be scanned makes no sense to me either.

I doubt I will ever reprint any of these images so they will stay in a digital state to be manatained and viewed but I don’t think I could even get a good 3x5 image off a 700kb image.

so ideas? I really like batch processing but...

Stardust Loc: Central Illinois

Do you own or can you borrow a digital camera, good P&S or DSLR? I would think you would have much more control over focus, exposure, sharpness, etc. than a cell phone, regardless of its quality.

I think you will find trying to keep original photos flat, etc. will take MUCH more time than firing up the scanner, then may be able to scan 4, 6 or 8 at a time.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I scanned all of mine on my flatbed, doubling the size on scanning (ie. 4x6 -> 8x12).
(My flatbed is always connected.)
This allows better cropping. Smaller images I tripled in size when scanning.
I still have a ton to go!
It depends on what you want to do with the images.
If you scan them by phone, don't wiggle and watch reflections.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

yes, I have a dslr, flashes, etc as well as a great epson flatbed scanner BUT these are snapshots 3x5 and their most value is just memories. I will never print them to a larger size. Many are in albums.

doing all of that is a lot of work. I even have a copy stand because I've scanned thousands of negatives and photos which took months of images that were photo images rather than snapshots. Im looking for the fastest and easiest method. And yes I have software for the scanner which will allow me to scan multiple images then it will separate them. Just a ton of work and I do not keep my scanner hooked up as it takes to much room for occasional usage.

specifically I am asking if anyone has a good experience using iOS software to scan. And by the way I will put the phone on a tripod and I have non-glare piece of glass I can put of the images to keep them flat without loosing detail.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

also I would shoot in a shadow box

Curve_in Loc: Virginia

I use the CamScanner app. It's fast and simple.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I don't plan on making larger prints either, but ya never know.
But enlarging I will get better results if needed.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

You’d be amazed.
I’ve had nice 8x10’s printed from files that small.

Try it!

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

640kb?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yup, decent.

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I've batch- scanned large batches on my printer scanner, then opened each jpg, cropped out each pic and resaved it with a descriptive file name, like "Smith - John 1937". Lot easier than scanning individually. With a larger scanner you should be able to get a good number of them done at once.
Have fun!

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

I took all of my old negatives to a lab and had them scanned into data files ( @ low resolution) that were emailed to me and that I could copy to another drive for backup or print out if I chose to do so. It cost me $300 but I had thousands of old V.N. era photos & film neg's that I otherwise could never get around to viewing or printing. And I wasn't really sure what they contained until I batched-them-out.

I proofed the files and then had the Lab rescan at a higher resolution those images that I wanted to print or store for my own uses. It was fast and painless except for the $$$$$ expenses

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Odds are you will be very disappointed with an iPhone photo of a photo.
Time to get it flat, hold the camera flat to the photo, no rotation and hold distance steady sounds like a real slow pain.
Scan 4-8 photos or what fits on the scanner at a time is quicker, better, much sharper etc.
The scanner will separate each photo as you scan if you inform it to do so.
Far faster and infinitely superior end result to any other method including your iPhone.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

it is disappointing that I explained in detail what I wanted and that I DIDN’T want to scan hundreds of images with my scanner, crop, etc because these prints don’t have enough information to make it worth all the time. Ive already done that process and am quite experienced in using scanners, copy stands etc. But making a 24 mg copy of a 3x5 print with maybe 4 stops of range will add nothing to the image.

Only few people tried to suggest an iphone solution.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Interesting as I scan photos over 100 years old that are "Not worth scanning" for your reasons. But I want to preserve what little there is. PS there are 100's of them as well.
But have fun.