D74M

Good morning UHH members! I seldom post but do look forward to reading the main photography discussions each morning and each day I will most likely learn something new. I've taken on the project of going through prints (mainly color prints) over the past 45 years - a 1000+ prints. My wife and I are dividing them among 8 or so family members and our eventual goal is to provide them with photographs that are directly related to their families. Originally, we thought of putting the prints into separate photo albums for each family. However, as numerous as the photos are, this plan is beginning to look a bit unrealistic. So, we began thinking about scanning the photos, thumb drives, photo books from printing companies, and digital picture frames. This has raised the following questions:

1. In terms of quality, does it matter whether one scans prints or negatives (I don't have negatives for all of our prints)?

2. The printer/scan we currently have is a Brothers Multifunction Printers. Would we be better of getting a dedicated photo scanner and, if so, can you recommend make and model?

3. I assume once prints have been scanned and in digital format I would be able to do some post processing if needed (some of the older color prints show some color fade)?

4. If thumb drives and a digital picture frame is the better alternative, do you have recommendations for digital frames (adjustments to roll over time from photo to photo, an internal hard drive, USB port(s), etc.?

Budget, though not necessarily limited at present could become an issue as expenses mount. Thanks in advance for responses to these somewhat lengthy questions. I have found UHH members to be so knowledgeable on so many different fronts regarding photography. Thank You! Dave

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

My older sister and I went through ALL of my fathers slides twice together 2 years ago or so. There were about a thousand of them. We weeded them down to about 120 slides. Not all were in the greatest shape. So I was faced with the same choice as you. I too already had a multifunction scanner/printer machine but really didn't think it was high enough in quality to do what I wanted and besides, it wasn't setup to do slides.

So my choice was to either buy a scanner for prints, slides & negatives, or send them out to be digitized for me. The Epson model that everyone suggested that has slide holders and I think can do negatives too, is the model v600 and it sells for about $210 at B&H. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/647187-REG/Epson_B11B198011_Perfection_V600_Photo_Scanner.html

I decided that the scanner was cheap enough, but I really don't have room to keep it after I'm done with it and would probably have to sell or get rid of it after I'm done with it. Besides, I knew how time consuming it would be to scan them. So I opted for a professional company to scan my slides. They charged me about a dollar twenty per slide and did good on all but one which they did over for free.

Yes, you can always touch up images in Photoshop or Lightroom once they are digitized. I touched up all of mine, put them on DropBox and sent an email to all family members with the link to them and the password to see them. They can download them to their own computers or whatever they want to do. Then I printed 3 copies of them and gave them to each of my sisters. My brother passed away before I could give him a copy.

My father wasn't the greatest photographer, so by editing them I had the chance to straighten them, crop them so that they were more pleasing to the eye, and generally fix up all the spots, flares, scratches, blotches, etc. on them before printing and post them.

Quixdraw Loc: x

I split up and sent the originals to family members who would be interested - literally cartons of prints and slides. Digitized and kept those that I wanted. Much more yet to do. The digital frames are great - we have one that runs automatically when someone is in the room - usually our most recent photo excursion.

anotherview Loc: California

You did a worthy service to your family. Your family photographs will become all the more precious to others with the passage of time.

D74M

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm taking notes. Your post is encouraging; this can be done!

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I have an HP 1510 printer-scanner that I've used to scan many family photos, and it does a great job. Some old prints needed some processing due to fading or color change, and they go into Lightroom. It is much easier to share all these scans than make new prints. I would say that a thumb drive for any family member who wants one is the best choice. They aren't expensive and available for any media so your relatives can print which ones they think are special or share them on Facebook, or whatever.
The most labor-intensive part is scanning. For people I sort by person or group so I can batch scan and label the files by date taken and person.

radiojohn

First, spend some time culling the 1000+ prints! I found a lot of duplicate second shots and others just not worth preserving.
Then, after you get the system working, do the most valuable ones before you run out of energy!
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#1. If you have negatives, scan them. Print quality varied greatly, color shift, etc. If all you have is prints, work with what you have.

#2. Note that "scanners" and "copiers" are not the same. Those cheap photo box things are really 5 MP fixed focus cameras in a box with lighting for prints and slides. Not the best quality.

I'll let others suggest a flat-bed scanner for prints and slides. Some will suggest a dedicated slide/negative scanner/ I hope they include the prices!

.#3. You can do remarkable restoration even with modest software. Some scanners include apps. Others will suggest Photoshop.

#4. Digital photo-frames are piling up at Goodwill. Most are to small to really be satisfying. Bigger ones are available, and prices are dropping. Good luck!

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

Re #1 There is an old rule to live by.....
Every generation of an image loses something from the previous generation.
The "original" scene is the "real" image. The negative on film does not contain all of the information of the original scene.
A print from the negative loses some info from the negative.

So scanning a negative, rather than scanning a print from that negative, would retain more of the original information.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

A year ago, I made a presentation to our local photo club on scanning old family photos, having scanned about 30,000 of them myself. I've attached a copy of the presentation in PDF format. Hope it's helpful.

Attached file:
(Download)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

These two books are a great help, I have both. https://rockynook.com/author-info/sascha-steinhoff-7/ They are available as e-books for Kindle and Nook , PDF, Kobo and others at about $16 or so each.
The one about Vuescan is specific to that software - Vuescan works with over 3000 scanner models. If you use Vuescan and the book as a guide you don't have to try and "translate" setting instructions from one scanner model menu to another.

The other major player in 3rd party scanware is Silverfast. Here is one guide to doing slides with Silverfast - I have never used it. A Google search will get more guides and tips. https://www.newlenoxlibrary.org/files/dml/scanner-slides.pdf

Now the author talks about scanning slides and negatives but a lot of it applies to prints as well.
For scanning photos this PC Mag article is a good start to learning. https://www.pcmag.com/article/319658/get-organized-scan-your-old-photos

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks for putting this up, I downloaded a copy to add to my two Sascha Steinhoff books.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Thank you.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Please the Quote Reply so we know who you are saying this toooooo.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Two quick answers:

1. Scan of negative is better than scan of print, because print is copy of negative, and copying original is best.

3. Any scan will be either TIFF or JPEG, and standard editing programs - such as PhotoShop and gimp - can handle both.