I've had a number of people say that they either have a box of dusty photographs or are pretty sure their parents do, stowed away in a closet or attic that's been lucky enough not to have been in a house that flooded or burned down over the years.
But what inevitably follows is the lost, "But I don't know what to do with them."
On my occasional trip to the area, I would be happy to help with preservation, but since that's not feasible for the majority of the media that still exists, largely forgotten, here are some basic tips to help you archive any material you might want to preserve for future generations . . . or this blog, for instance.
Yes, there are a myriad of scanning services out there who will do all the work for you. They will also charge you substantially. If you'd rather shell out the bucks, I'm guessing you'd have already done so and wouldn't be reading this post. If, after reading these tips, you are overwhelmed and hopeless, however, here is a quick review of your best options for handing them over to a service.
Scanning Old Photographs
Many people already have a scanner in their home, typically built in to their all-in-one printer. (Those that do not can either cozy up to someone who does or use their local library or Kinkos to access a scanner.)
The number one error I see for people who are trying to share photographs on Facebook is that they've slapped their photographs on the glass, pushed the "auto scan" button, saved and uploaded in one go. You get tiny photographs, often little squares on top of a giant white space (the scanner bed cover) and wonder why even bother. Let's work on that.
The priority in your scanner settings is to use the highest DPI available to you. In reality, anything higher than 600 is overkill, as the human eye won't be able to tell the difference.
Dots Per Inch is how tightly and tiny the printer can create an image. If it can get 600 dots in a square inch, its resolution will be much better, so that your scanned image can be enlarged without turning everything into big blocky pixelated squares that makes it look like you're trying to protect everyone's identity and surroundings and renders the picture useless, unless you want it the size of a postage stamp.
You should find these settings in your printer/scanner's control panel. Don't accept the scan's auto quick scan and dig around a bit.
All the interfaces look a bit different, but here's how I set mine:
Note a few things here and click around to see if your scanner offers these menus:
1. I select the document type as magazine. Doing do gives me a bit more flexibility in clearing up some the common problems with old photographs printed on papers that can often scan as bumpy.
2. Obviously unless your photographs are all black and white, you will want to select the Color option.
3. For document size, I will either select "Platen Size" from the drop down or Auto Detect. If you are attempting to scan a page from a book or magazine, use Platen Size so it will scan everything from corner to corner on the glass for you. If you've laid a number of small square photographs out on the scanning bed, use Auto Detect so you'll be sure to scan everything laid out, even with spaces between them. Some scanners offer Batch mode to speed this up.
4. Scanning Resolution: this is where you will want to bump up your dpi option to th highest available to you. The higher the DPI, the slow, and larger, the scan.
5. The additional options available on my scanner when Magazine document type is selected include the Unsharp Mask. Without getting too technical on you, this acts as a sharpening filter that can help improve the details in your photograph. I also click "reduce show through" for thinner photographs or clippings from a newspaper to help the final image appear as clear as possible. "Descreen" is another helpful tool for newspaper and "bumpy" dot picture issues.
You can also typically set up an Auto-Fix, rotation correction, etc if you trust your scanner to do as good of a job as your post-processing photo software. Play with it and see if its corrections work for you.
If you have the patience and software, saving your files as .TIF is the better option than .JPG.
Post-Processing
Once you've let the scanner do its thing and have saved the scans into a folder whose name you can actually remember and find...
You will need to post-process your scans.
PLEASE post process your scans if at all possible. The scanner is simply not equipped to detect and fix the color/contrast/toning/lighting issues on each picture, especially when we tend to scan batches together.
If you don't have a good photo-editing software, here is a list of 10 Photoshop alternatives you can download that are free. Some are friendlier than others and it make take some trial and error to find the one you are most comfortable with. (I'd try Gimpshop first, personally.) Another tip: if you've never used Photoshop, it's probably best that you never do. You can't go back.
In most cases, the first job will be to open up your first scanned file and crop the large scan with multiple photos into each single picture. You can drag, crop, and save each photo as its own file to manipulate and improve. Some scanners will allow you to "Batch scan" and save this step.
From there, you can play with the color, contrast, and tone. Start with the typical "auto-contrast" etc and see if you like the programs attempt at maximizing your photo's look. Much of this is trial and error, but that's what the "undo" button is for. And if you save your cropped single photos as their own file name, should you kill one, you can always return to the original scan and start over.
Home Video
The old Super8 home movies are wonderful. Even in their silent, grainy form, they capture moments that photographs just can't convey. But they are also the biggest pain ever to try and digitize yourself. In the late 80s I handed over a bunch of reels to a company and paid a ridiculous amount to have them transferred to VHS. It probably saved me a ton of time later when I easily record that VHS tape version to DVD and then digital file, but I'm still smarting over that original bill.
I recently found a few other reels in my parents basement that hadn't been included in the VHS tape and ran into the main and massive problem these day: most people do not still own a working reel to reel projector. My dad however found one on ebay and set it up to play back movies we hadn't seen in decades. We'd forgotten how insanely frustrating threading those things can be and discovered very quickly that forty year old film breaks very easily. I did manage to set up my camcorder to capture what was projected on the screen as sharply as possible, but we had several "snaps" in the film which means it will never be played again unless we take it to a restoration place to have it converted.
Enter your lucky day: The Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
Check out their parameters and see if your video qualifies for the free service. If it does not, their rates a competitive and they are trustworthy.
I have a DVD player that also records and my parents' old machine that plays VHS tapes, so I am able to convert most video taped in the 80s and 90s without too much trouble or cost, but when it comes to the earlier stuff, it's best left to someone with the right equipment to handle. Consider the cost, if you can afford it, as a contribution to the historical record of both your life as well as your town/state/country/God and apple pie.
But what inevitably follows is the lost, "But I don't know what to do with them."
On my occasional trip to the area, I would be happy to help with preservation, but since that's not feasible for the majority of the media that still exists, largely forgotten, here are some basic tips to help you archive any material you might want to preserve for future generations . . . or this blog, for instance.
Yes, there are a myriad of scanning services out there who will do all the work for you. They will also charge you substantially. If you'd rather shell out the bucks, I'm guessing you'd have already done so and wouldn't be reading this post. If, after reading these tips, you are overwhelmed and hopeless, however, here is a quick review of your best options for handing them over to a service.
Scanning Old Photographs
Many people already have a scanner in their home, typically built in to their all-in-one printer. (Those that do not can either cozy up to someone who does or use their local library or Kinkos to access a scanner.)
The number one error I see for people who are trying to share photographs on Facebook is that they've slapped their photographs on the glass, pushed the "auto scan" button, saved and uploaded in one go. You get tiny photographs, often little squares on top of a giant white space (the scanner bed cover) and wonder why even bother. Let's work on that.
The priority in your scanner settings is to use the highest DPI available to you. In reality, anything higher than 600 is overkill, as the human eye won't be able to tell the difference.
Dots Per Inch is how tightly and tiny the printer can create an image. If it can get 600 dots in a square inch, its resolution will be much better, so that your scanned image can be enlarged without turning everything into big blocky pixelated squares that makes it look like you're trying to protect everyone's identity and surroundings and renders the picture useless, unless you want it the size of a postage stamp.
You should find these settings in your printer/scanner's control panel. Don't accept the scan's auto quick scan and dig around a bit.
All the interfaces look a bit different, but here's how I set mine:
Note a few things here and click around to see if your scanner offers these menus:
1. I select the document type as magazine. Doing do gives me a bit more flexibility in clearing up some the common problems with old photographs printed on papers that can often scan as bumpy.
2. Obviously unless your photographs are all black and white, you will want to select the Color option.
3. For document size, I will either select "Platen Size" from the drop down or Auto Detect. If you are attempting to scan a page from a book or magazine, use Platen Size so it will scan everything from corner to corner on the glass for you. If you've laid a number of small square photographs out on the scanning bed, use Auto Detect so you'll be sure to scan everything laid out, even with spaces between them. Some scanners offer Batch mode to speed this up.
4. Scanning Resolution: this is where you will want to bump up your dpi option to th highest available to you. The higher the DPI, the slow, and larger, the scan.
5. The additional options available on my scanner when Magazine document type is selected include the Unsharp Mask. Without getting too technical on you, this acts as a sharpening filter that can help improve the details in your photograph. I also click "reduce show through" for thinner photographs or clippings from a newspaper to help the final image appear as clear as possible. "Descreen" is another helpful tool for newspaper and "bumpy" dot picture issues.
You can also typically set up an Auto-Fix, rotation correction, etc if you trust your scanner to do as good of a job as your post-processing photo software. Play with it and see if its corrections work for you.
If you have the patience and software, saving your files as .TIF is the better option than .JPG.
Post-Processing
Once you've let the scanner do its thing and have saved the scans into a folder whose name you can actually remember and find...
You will need to post-process your scans.
PLEASE post process your scans if at all possible. The scanner is simply not equipped to detect and fix the color/contrast/toning/lighting issues on each picture, especially when we tend to scan batches together.
If you don't have a good photo-editing software, here is a list of 10 Photoshop alternatives you can download that are free. Some are friendlier than others and it make take some trial and error to find the one you are most comfortable with. (I'd try Gimpshop first, personally.) Another tip: if you've never used Photoshop, it's probably best that you never do. You can't go back.
In most cases, the first job will be to open up your first scanned file and crop the large scan with multiple photos into each single picture. You can drag, crop, and save each photo as its own file to manipulate and improve. Some scanners will allow you to "Batch scan" and save this step.
From there, you can play with the color, contrast, and tone. Start with the typical "auto-contrast" etc and see if you like the programs attempt at maximizing your photo's look. Much of this is trial and error, but that's what the "undo" button is for. And if you save your cropped single photos as their own file name, should you kill one, you can always return to the original scan and start over.
Home Video
The old Super8 home movies are wonderful. Even in their silent, grainy form, they capture moments that photographs just can't convey. But they are also the biggest pain ever to try and digitize yourself. In the late 80s I handed over a bunch of reels to a company and paid a ridiculous amount to have them transferred to VHS. It probably saved me a ton of time later when I easily record that VHS tape version to DVD and then digital file, but I'm still smarting over that original bill.
I recently found a few other reels in my parents basement that hadn't been included in the VHS tape and ran into the main and massive problem these day: most people do not still own a working reel to reel projector. My dad however found one on ebay and set it up to play back movies we hadn't seen in decades. We'd forgotten how insanely frustrating threading those things can be and discovered very quickly that forty year old film breaks very easily. I did manage to set up my camcorder to capture what was projected on the screen as sharply as possible, but we had several "snaps" in the film which means it will never be played again unless we take it to a restoration place to have it converted.
Enter your lucky day: The Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
Check out their parameters and see if your video qualifies for the free service. If it does not, their rates a competitive and they are trustworthy.
I have a DVD player that also records and my parents' old machine that plays VHS tapes, so I am able to convert most video taped in the 80s and 90s without too much trouble or cost, but when it comes to the earlier stuff, it's best left to someone with the right equipment to handle. Consider the cost, if you can afford it, as a contribution to the historical record of both your life as well as your town/state/country/God and apple pie.
1971 Super8, converted to VHS in 1989,
recorded onto DVD from VHS, and then into digital files 2010
The common issue of frame centering is front and center here.
The next step that I haven't taken is to crop down the area to eliminate the ghost feet in the sky. It's never perfect, but as a work in progress, just getting your film to the computer screen is a huge leap worth taking!
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