This page is about the practical. It is about the tools to begin working with your photos–sorting, scanning, and storing.
Sorting Photos
What my mother gave me was boxes of pictures, most I had never seen before. My father was a pack rat. The photos were found in various drawers and cabinets. About 15 years earlier my parents made copies of many photos which I put into albums, but I had no idea how many more pictures there were. Because he was a Photo Mate in the Navy; loved cameras; and owned a camera store his photos were in many different formats–transparencies and negatives ranging in size from 110, 35mm, 126, 127mm, 2¼” x 2¼”, and 4″x5″. The film and the prints were both black and white and color. Some were Polaroids. There were also hundreds of photos that were taken to test customers cameras or used equipment.
I sorted the photos by format; by subject; event; or chronology. In some cases I didn’t know the subjects, but I knew that they were family members or friends.
Depending on how many pictures you have the sorting takes time. I didn’t throw anything away until I sorted through everything five or six times. Then, before anything went into the trash I went through it again to make sure that I didn’t accidentally toss something I wanted.
Supplies Needed
a large light box–invaluable to look at negatives and transparencies
A good quality photo loupe and magnifying glass
canned air and a photo brush–to clean the surface dirt
100% cotton gloves–to avoid adding finger prints and oils. (Throw them out when they get dirty.)
Archival boxes
print, negative, and transparency archival storage pages or archival envelopes.
Scanning
I started by using Adobe PhotoShop Elements. Yes, computers have software that can store photos, but you need something more to correct color shift or to crop images. Because of the number of pictures I have I don’t do the fine correction to remove spots or foxing.
Because of the various formats I was working with I got a photo quality scanner that had a 4″x5″ light box. You can now get a 35mm transparency or negative scanner that’s a fairly simple thing and under $100. You can also use services to scan the images. These are relatively inexpensive, but you have to send the pictures so allot one to two months for them to be scanned.
If you do it yourself allow even more time. I’ve only done a few hundred images and I’ve been working on it over nine years. I decided that I’m going to send the rest to a service to be scanned.
Storage
For storage you go back to the supplies listed under sorting. Store only in archival materials–this included archival photo albums. Create a system that works best for you–storing by format or by subject. There will probably be many images that aren’t as important to you. Those can be stored in smaller photo boxes.
Even after you create the digital images, print them on archival quality paper using archival printer toner and a photo quality printer. Yes, this can be expensive, but we know that the paper images will last through time, whereas technology keeps changing.
Store your digital images both virtually and on a backup drive. If you use a virtual storage system you know that you’ll have copies should your computer be stolen or damaged.
Exploring Family Photos
This page is about the practical. It is about the tools to begin working with your photos–sorting, scanning, and storing.
Sorting Photos
What my mother gave me was boxes of pictures, most I had never seen before. My father was a pack rat. The photos were found in various drawers and cabinets. About 15 years earlier my parents made copies of many photos which I put into albums, but I had no idea how many more pictures there were. Because he was a Photo Mate in the Navy; loved cameras; and owned a camera store his photos were in many different formats–transparencies and negatives ranging in size from 110, 35mm, 126, 127mm, 2¼” x 2¼”, and 4″x5″. The film and the prints were both black and white and color. Some were Polaroids. There were also hundreds of photos that were taken to test customers cameras or used equipment.
I sorted the photos by format; by subject; event; or chronology. In some cases I didn’t know the subjects, but I knew that they were family members or friends.
Depending on how many pictures you have the sorting takes time. I didn’t throw anything away until I sorted through everything five or six times. Then, before anything went into the trash I went through it again to make sure that I didn’t accidentally toss something I wanted.
Supplies Needed
Scanning
I started by using Adobe PhotoShop Elements. Yes, computers have software that can store photos, but you need something more to correct color shift or to crop images. Because of the number of pictures I have I don’t do the fine correction to remove spots or foxing.
Because of the various formats I was working with I got a photo quality scanner that had a 4″x5″ light box. You can now get a 35mm transparency or negative scanner that’s a fairly simple thing and under $100. You can also use services to scan the images. These are relatively inexpensive, but you have to send the pictures so allot one to two months for them to be scanned.
If you do it yourself allow even more time. I’ve only done a few hundred images and I’ve been working on it over nine years. I decided that I’m going to send the rest to a service to be scanned.
Storage
For storage you go back to the supplies listed under sorting. Store only in archival materials–this included archival photo albums. Create a system that works best for you–storing by format or by subject. There will probably be many images that aren’t as important to you. Those can be stored in smaller photo boxes.
Even after you create the digital images, print them on archival quality paper using archival printer toner and a photo quality printer. Yes, this can be expensive, but we know that the paper images will last through time, whereas technology keeps changing.
Store your digital images both virtually and on a backup drive. If you use a virtual storage system you know that you’ll have copies should your computer be stolen or damaged.
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