Photographing old photos: I have a ton of old photos I would like to convert to digital images. I know person can scan them, but is there a good way to just take digital photos of...

buglinbilly Loc: Murray, Utah

I have a ton of old photos I would like to convert to digital images. I know person can scan them, but is there a good way to just take digital photos of them. And if there is, how is it best to do so you don't get reflections, shadows etc. ?

Thanks for your suggestions.

Have a great day. BB

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

The "best" way is always a quality scanner.

Frank T Loc: New York, NY

You can use a macro lens and light it with two lights at 45 degree angles and polarize the lights to prevent glare. In my experience it's a lot faster with a scanner and you get better results.

naturalite Loc: Up state NY

I've done this to all my old photos. Took pic's of them with my digital camera. Worked great. I use an old photo album sticky page. set it on the kitchen table, stuck photos on it. Used my zoom to fill out the view screen and pop. Downloaded, played with the exposure to get them the way I wanted. did a little cropping to boot.
With the faded ones I converted to B&W to refresh the look.
Give it a shot. It don't cost anything but a little time.

Elle Loc: Long Island, NY

buglinbilly wrote:

I have a ton of old photos I would like to convert to digital images. I know person can scan them, but is there a good way to just take digital photos of them. And if there is, how is it best to do so you don't get reflections, shadows etc. ?

Thanks for your suggestions.

Have a great day. BB

SCAN THEM by all means! All that is needed is have them saved as jpegs with a different name or title for each and you have digital photos. If you have the software you can then edit . You will never get the detail by photographing them that you will get with a scan.

rheat56 Loc: Maine

make sure you set scanner to 300 dpi best results for scanning

rheat56 Loc: Maine

MT Shooter wrote:

The "best" way is always a quality scanner.

MT Shotter you always have the best answers you are very wise in your craft don't ever stop replying I would be very disappointed if you did..... and did I tell you that you look like Darrell on Storage wars.... lol......Keep up the wise answers my hat is off to you sir I have learned some very good tips from you....and I thank you!!!! :)

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

buglinbilly wrote:

I have a ton of old photos I would like to convert to digital images. I know person can scan them, but is there a good way to just take digital photos of them. And if there is, how is it best to do so you don't get reflections, shadows etc. ?

Thanks for your suggestions.

Have a great day. BB

I agree with most every one here... scan for sure. This is a shot of my parents from 1935 scanned in a Canon Pixma.

Trying to photograph such a photo, to me, would be difficult and would never give the detail I got here. Plus, as stated before, after scanning as a jpg I was able to edit, especially for contrast that wasn't there in the original.

I think you'll be much happier if you scan. Good Luck

1935 in the midwestern US

canonmac100 Loc: New Jersey

I have done work on pictures that wouldn't fit in a scanner so I put them on the floor, Canon 40d on a tripod with a horizontal bar above and took about 20 pics to get what I needed. The beauty of using a camera in lieu of a scanner for me was the dpi were much higher making it easier to work on in PS. Have to do whatever works for you...

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

canonmac100 wrote:

I have done work on pictures that wouldn't fit in a scanner so I put them on the floor, Canon 40d on a tripod with a horizontal bar above and took about 20 pics to get what I needed. The beauty of using a camera in lieu of a scanner for me was the dpi were much higher making it easier to work on in PS. Have to do whatever works for you...

There is no way to get a higher dpi in camera than with a scanner. With any camera you are restricted to the sensors capability and scanners run up to 9600dpi. No comparison there. But if you are duplicating images larger than 9x12 then a camera will do the job without stitching together multiple scans, just at much lower resolution.

canonmac100 Loc: New Jersey

You are no doubt correct but I learned sometimes you have to make do with what you have..just didn't have the money for a large bed scanner nor the time to order one.
My friend was very happy with the results and I have gotten several referrals from that.

It was a larger than normal picture so the camera was the best idea for me.

mrosenberg

I have have been slowly working on my collection of old family photos and have used both scanners and digitial camera. (I bought two cheap lights, mount the pentax K-x on a stand, cover the photo with a piece of glass and shoot. Each one takes maybe 10 seconds to put select, put on stand, cover with glass, shoot, then repeat) The difference in quality was no where near worth the difference in time it takes up. For other types of photos it may be different but virtually none of these old photos are ever going to be blown up. They are only memorabelia.

If you find a "winner" while you're snapping pictures, then pay to get that one scanned.

Roger Hicks Loc: Aquitaine

Although I have a first-class copying set-up, I have to agree with those who find scanning quicker, easier and (in most cases) better.

Cheers,

R.

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Taking pictures of old photo's, a lot can go wrong, camera shake, wrong settings ect. Scanning is the quickest and easyest way to do it. Depending on the size of the pic, you can scan more than one at a time and you can edit them afterward. Why waste time taking pics of each one?

jackndaback Loc: Florida

rheat56 wrote:

MT Shooter wrote:

The "best" way is always a quality scanner.

MT Shotter you always have the best answers you are very wise in your craft don't ever stop replying I would be very disappointed if you did..... and did I tell you that you look like Darrell on Storage wars.... lol......Keep up the wise answers my hat is off to you sir I have learned some very good tips from you....and I thank you!!!! :)

ditto