Very old pictures

[meyernl]

what do y'all do with your old pictures that are not digital? My mom just found an album from her 1st wedding, when I was born (MANY moons ago) and other old family photos. I scanned in the photos from a 1973 trip to Disney but it took forever to do those 25 pictures. We have a Wolf camera here that will scan 250 pictures of any size for $50 and they come out to around 2 MB. What do others do to preserve those old photos?

[cassidyk]

I actually just used the Wolf Camera "scan man" service for the first time a few weeks ago. They ran a special of 500 (instead of the usual 250) pictures for the $49.99 price so I had to jump on it. I was in the same boat of not wanting (or having the time) to spend scanning them myself so this offered a great alternative.

Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome. I had everything from photos of my great grandparents and my mother as a child (late 40's-early 50's time frame) to some of my photos from college (mid-late 90's) scanned and ironically enough the older photos came out the best. I am not sure if it is because being black/white there are less variances in color/contrast for the scanner to contend with or if the ink used at that time is richer or what but the quality of the scan of the older photos was very good. So if older photos are your main focus I would definitely say it is worth it.

I am more than happy to provide any other info about it that you might want so feel free to ask. Hope this helps!

[meyernl]

Originally Posted by cassidyk

I actually just used the Wolf Camera "scan man" service for the first time a few weeks ago. They ran a special of 500 (instead of the usual 250) pictures for the $49.99 price so I had to jump on it. I was in the same boat of not wanting (or having the time) to spend scanning them myself so this offered a great alternative.

WOW, I am going to have to watch for that deal from Wolf. I have looked through the ones from the "scan man" and I too am pleased. I have gobs more photos from way back I may pace myself and take over for scanning. The quality is great, especially for scrapping as I usually use smaller pictures anyway (so I can cram more on a page). The Wolf is right down the street from my office.

I am glad someone also had a good expereince. Now I need to get the hundreds I have sitting around scanned before Wolf closes all their stores...

Thanks.

[holycow]

Do you have a printer that will hold the SD card from your camera?

I ask because scanning was a pain! Until I took my camera card and put it directly into the printer. The scanning directly from the scanner to the card took no time at all! I was thrilled!

Good luck whatever you decide but I thought I'd share what helped me.

[meyernl]

Wolf has had 500 scans for $50 instead of 250 for the last couple of weeks. I took in 1,487 photos of my 2 kids in their early years (before digital - they are 15 and 22). I am so excited to have them digital and didn't have to scan them myself. Also had my wedding pictures scanned (Friday is my 26th anniversary).

[holycow]

that is a great deal!

[BernardandMissBianca]

Do you know if Ritz honors that too? I think they are owned by the same company, our Wolf camera became Ritz a long time ago.

[BernardandMissBianca]

Originally Posted by meyernl

(Friday is my 26th anniversary).

Happy Anniversary!!!!

[meyernl]

Thanks. I was 12...

Actually high school sweeties.

[JandJ]

I'm curious because I'm going to be making a memory/memorial book of my parents and I have very old photos, from when they were babies, children, their wedding, etc. I was just planning on using the originals in the scrapbook. Am I thinking wrong on this? I thought I'd use the originals because, what am I going to do with the originals if I don't put them in the scrapbook? They've been in a CM sorter for years and I'd like to get them into a book rather than just leaving them in the sorter for the rest of my life. I honestly don't know, though, maybe I should make copies and save the originals Any input would be greatly appreciated

[cassidyk]

Originally Posted by JandJ

I'm curious because I'm going to be making a memory/memorial book of my parents and I have very old photos, from when they were babies, children, their wedding, etc. I was just planning on using the originals in the scrapbook. Am I thinking wrong on this? I thought I'd use the originals because, what am I going to do with the originals if I don't put them in the scrapbook? They've been in a CM sorter for years and I'd like to get them into a book rather than just leaving them in the sorter for the rest of my life. I honestly don't know, though, maybe I should make copies and save the originals Any input would be greatly appreciated

I think you make a great point about the originals just sitting in a box so I would say putting them in a scrapbook is a great idea. But I would definitely think about having the scanned first so that you have an additional copy (that is not taking up an physical space) for a couple of reasons:

In case any future generations want/need them for anything
If you happen to make a mistake or are not happy with matting or cropping that you might do as you scrap them you have a means of getting another copy
Or god forbid something should happen to the scrapbook you still have copies of those precious and irreplaceable photos.
Just my two cents...hope it helps and happy scrapping!

[JandJ]

Originally Posted by cassidyk

I think you make a great point about the originals just sitting in a box so I would say putting them in a scrapbook is a great idea. But I would definitely think about having the scanned first so that you have an additional copy (that is not taking up an physical space) for a couple of reasons:

In case any future generations want/need them for anything
If you happen to make a mistake or are not happy with matting or cropping that you might do as you scrap them you have a means of getting another copy
Or god forbid something should happen to the scrapbook you still have copies of those precious and irreplaceable photos.
Just my two cents...hope it helps and happy scrapping!

I didn't think of it that way - thank you! I'm not scrapping every single picture (there are probably 500 pictures!) but I'll scan in the ones I am using. Thank you for making that point - I really hadn't even thought of that - DOH!

[MazdaUK]

If you use scanned photos you also don't need to worry about using photo corners rather than adhesive (adhesive shouldn't be used on photos before 1980s, I believe).

[Queenie]

I read an article that said if you use original pre-digital photos in scrapbooks you should make sure you don't do anything irreversible to them - like distressing edges or unusual cropping. It also said to adhere them in a way so they could be removed, like photo corners or similar.

Just wanted to say that I've spent the last few years scanning literally thousands upon thousands of old family photos into digital. I was lucky in that I had the time to spend doing it (my mom paid for a high quality scanner for me to work with) but it really does take hours and hours. I'm now almost done, working through a few hundred slides from the 50's and 60's but I've been going years and I've not even really started straightening the images, fixing damage etc. I'd say if you can afford to have someone do it professionally then go for it!

**I just had a look and I'd estimate I've scanned 10,000 plus photos so far!**

[meyernl]

Originally Posted by JandJ

I'm curious because I'm going to be making a memory/memorial book of my parents and I have very old photos, from when they were babies, children, their wedding, etc. I was just planning on using the originals in the scrapbook. Am I thinking wrong on this? I thought I'd use the originals because, what am I going to do with the originals if I don't put them in the scrapbook? They've been in a CM sorter for years and I'd like to get them into a book rather than just leaving them in the sorter for the rest of my life. I honestly don't know, though, maybe I should make copies and save the originals Any input would be greatly appreciated

I thought the same thing until last weekend. I was at a crop and one of the ladies came very upset. Turns out her upstairs bathroom flooded to the first floor and ruined several scrapbooks - including one of her son as a baby and she used the originals.

I had all my kids' pictures filed as well but I got so paranoid I bit the bullet and had them scanned. The peace of mind was worth the money. I also wanted to have digital photos I could give them when they got married and had kids.