Scanning old photos

[Tracey]

I have thousands of old photos I would like to get scanned and stored digitally. Anyone had experience of doing this?

What resolution is good for scanning old 35mm photos to retain a good quality photo?

Any tips or tricks for someone about to start scanning?

[Hedgehog]

I had a go with a borrowed scanner at the weekend... took ages (about 5mins for a hi-res scan) & I wasn't impressed with the results off standard colour prints... the best way is to have a transparency scanner & use the original negs or colour slides.

So I thought about it... I was using my Mum's £50 scanner/printer... & I've got a very expensive 15mp image sensor on my camera. It took me about 2mins to set the camera up on a tripod & then about 5 secs a photo... much better quality... I'll post some of them up in a while.

One advantage I had was an external flash which enabled me to light the shot but avoid a reflection... so it's not necessarily that easy on a compact... you'd have to suppress the flash & light it yourself (maybe natural light?).

[Tracey]

Taking photos of photos?

I'd tried the scanning and yes some of them lost so much information that they look a bit scrappy

[4call]

You can get dedicated USB negative scanners for under £100, not used one yet but I know someone who does to good effect (he uses film a lot). Then it's just a case of using a simple program to flick it back to true colour.

[Tracey]

Do they work on slides too? Or would I need something else to move all my slides into digital format?

[Tracey]

So I thought about it... I was using my Mum's £50 scanner/printer... & I've got a very expensive 15mp image sensor on my camera. It took me about 2mins to set the camera up on a tripod & then about 5 secs a photo... much better quality... I'll post some of them up in a while.

One advantage I had was an external flash which enabled me to light the shot but avoid a reflection... so it's not necessarily that easy on a compact... you'd have to suppress the flash & light it yourself (maybe natural light?).

So how did you do this? I'm going to try this myself

[Hedgehog]

So how did you do this? I'm going to try this myself

Kit required... tripod, mount for the photo (I used a photo frame with a raised ridge to give me a continuous slot for the photos to locate in) & a light source (no Jonesy... not weightwatchers salad dressing ... an external flash if possible)... just experiment with different camera settings & angles for the light source until it looks ok... watch for reflections off gloss prints & be wary of White Balance hues if you're using incandescent lighting.

[Tracey]

Thanks Hedgehog

I've got the tripod, so I need to find someway of holding the photos, and then start experimenting.

I was dreading scanning the photos, so if this works, it could save me loads of time... and probably disc space, as the high quality scans were so very big

[4call]

Do they work on slides too? Or would I need something else to move all my slides into digital format?

Yes, they work on all 35mm transparancies. 

[Tracey]

Brilliant. I will take a look into those

Thanks 4 that

[Tracey]

So I thought about it... I was using my Mum's £50 scanner/printer... & I've got a very expensive 15mp image sensor on my camera. It took me about 2mins to set the camera up on a tripod & then about 5 secs a photo... much better quality... I'll post some of them up in a while.

Please Mr Hedge...
Did you post any of the photos of photos we can take a look at?

Thanks

[Hedgehog]

All of the Mozambique stuff...











Originally taken with an old film zoom compact so not very sharp... standard prints were photographed again with the 50D & EF50mm (85mm equiv) f8 1/60sec

[Tracey]

All of the Mozambique stuff...

Originally taken with an old film zoom compact so not very sharp... standard prints were photographed again with the 50D

Oh wow. Will definitely take a look see into this method. The sooner the better too.

thanks Hedge

[Tracey]

I tried this method this morning... just one photo, and I was itching to get it uploaded from camera to computer to have a proper look. (looks promising on the camera) but my camera lead seems to have walked somewhere

I suspect there will be a few tweaks to get it just right, like finding a way to hold the photo completely flat, but thanks Hedge, I think this will save loads of time

[Tracey]

Woo-hoo

Sort of success

I do need to think of a better way to hold the photo in place. Many have a slight curl due to the boxes they have been stored in.

This is one of Las Vegas some 20 years ago. Just the photo from the camera... all I've done editing wise it to make it small enough to fit on this forum, the original quality is slightly better.

I'll do some more when my headache is gone