Scanning & Organizing Old Family Photos | Today’s the Day!

A good flatbed scanner is the best method. Do NOT ever use those cheap dedicated scan cubes the scan quality is atrocious. Always scan photos at a very high resolution to capture all the details in the photo and have lots of headroom for restoration/retouching. Keep original scans, work files and shrunken photos (for sharing) stored in at least two places.

I did this myself in 2014 with a Epson scanner, which can scan negatives. And I stored them in folders named by year, 1990, 1991, .... Please remember to have at least 3 copies with good brand hard disks and SSDs, etc.

Thank you for the information about Photomyne. I think it will solve my problem to begin to organize 5 big totes full of family pictures.

This is very well done. Thank you so much.

Like other commenters I've decided today is the day and I am embarking on a project to digitize old family photos. Your video was very helpful. Thanks Lisa.

Lisa, This info is so timely for me! Retired in December and this is my summer project. Also have a family reunion in August and my fabulous step-mother has created a scrapbook for every year. Thank you!!

I found your video extremely helpful Lisa. Thank you very much. I've downloaded the App you recommended & I'm going to start on this project of digitalising my old photos that I've put off for years. Thank you for inspiring me. Best wishes & greetings from Ireland 👍🙂🇮🇪

Super helpful!

This was the exactly the help I was looking for. Thank you from Quebec Canada. I am going to download Photomyne today.

Wow never knew about this app. I also have hundreds of old photos. Gonna download this app. Thanks for all the tips 😊

Technical tip for scanning old negatives. You want to do multiple scans at more than one gamma level maybe higher and lower in addition to the standard gamma. This will affect the details in the dark areas because all negatives are not the same. The wrong gamma will make everything in the shadows black and Photoshop won't be able to undo that. The correct gamma will save the detail which can be enhanced.

This is exactly the problem I'm facing. I'm looking for a way to share them with family. Thanks for sharing how this app works. Lisa, this video has really helped me determine how to move forward with my photo project.

I scann with a nikon d5600 and the nikor dx 40mm and the es-2 digitazing adaptar it is very fast to scann this way becuase I can go form 35mm to middium format and f4 X 5 negatives very quik

I want to do this. Looking into an Epson V600.

Good intro, Lisa. I have found that a flexible arm to grip the Phone aids the stability of the process, particularly with slides. You did not make much mention of the light box that you used for the slides, but it does not look particularly portable. I have found one on Amazon that is 4"-5" square, so ideal for slides and very portable. Lastly, the photo album scan and separate only scanned 5 photos. What happened to the image of the woman (top centre)? That seems a bit hit & miss and therefore would slow the process if you have to count each time.

I scanned 500 pages of files on flat bed scanner. I use prototype app on my phone. I use it a lot.

There are several versions of this app. Which one do you have?

I scanned a few hundred images and after trying to store them in dated folders I eventually moved them to family group folders.

Although I like the idea of connecting the back of the photo to the photo and the ability to add text, I believe this is too time consuming. I also don't believe my old hands would survive the process. Thank you for this information!

You refer to a link in the description below. I can’t find a link.