Photo Storage
#1
Photo Storage
Help....I've been taking photos since 2nd grade and have neglected to sort catalogue and store them properly. Anyone with solutions out there? Would it be best to invest in a lighted board to match negatives to photos? I'm not sure they all are in the same envelopes. Every closet is full of boxes of photos, slides and carousels....I now have all my parents photos too! I don't relish the thought of photo albums all over the house...do I pick the best from each roll and throw out the rest? "Queen of Procrastination"
#2
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No, don't throw them out yet! You may not treasure them now, but you will in 20 years. I have had the pleasure over the past tear to review pics taken of my Great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and sisters. Some of these pics ar 70 years old. What if someone had selected the "best" and thrown the others out? Keep in mind "best" varies from person to person.
If you don't want to keep them, consider a good scanner and digitizing them. Be sure to make plenty of backups as you go along.
If you don't want to keep them, consider a good scanner and digitizing them. Be sure to make plenty of backups as you go along.
#3
Photo Storage
I am working on collecting all family photos and some negatives in addition to my own recent (30 years) photos and negatives. I am digitizing them now. I am taking my time, but I have over 8,000 at last estimate. It is not bad if you can take your time and do it at your leisure.
One of the real benefits of digitizing is the storage and cataloging that you can do. With the proper (and inexpensive) programs you can retrieve photos by individual, date, event, subject, location or any combination. You can even add any other item to use in a search.
In the future, your collection will only get bigger and mean more to you and others. Take a long hard look at digitzing (scanning) them since you are now going through them and it will be done once and for all.
Dick
One of the real benefits of digitizing is the storage and cataloging that you can do. With the proper (and inexpensive) programs you can retrieve photos by individual, date, event, subject, location or any combination. You can even add any other item to use in a search.
In the future, your collection will only get bigger and mean more to you and others. Take a long hard look at digitzing (scanning) them since you are now going through them and it will be done once and for all.
Dick
#5
Getting started with the big task.
Hi april
Goo start: http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddye...-transfer.html
I could have looked at 17 years of slides that covered 9 countries my Mom & Dad took when we were growing up in the US ARMY, & given up. My Wife asked. Why not separate them by developer? It worked I was able to now remove doubles & if the Digital Ice program in the slide scanner did it's job I would post the JPEGs on my web site for the Family to view, then choose.
My Mom wrote when I first decided to volenteer, aka (SUCKER) to scan, repair & burn to DVDs. She said Quote "I believe that I threw away all the negatives". Now I knew I was in big trouble. It turned out that she had a large box with hundreds of envelopes with pristine negatives with no pictures. Any day it's better to scan a negative over a paper print.
I was now able to date all the Negs & had far less repair work than if I had the torn & dirty photos instead. PEC-12 is a great cleaner for slides, film & photos it will not smear them if you do your job. I made a light table until I found a Kodak Carousel slide projector at a Yard sale & a brand new Kodak Carousel Stack loader for 50 cents. It previews 50 slides with out having to load that Carousel magizine. 50 slides is all I can scan at at time anyway.
Do your homework well & then take a look at e-bay for the scanners, you will need. I have 2 Visoneer flat bed scanners without the lighted top, I bought 2 HPs in the last year both had problems (returned) so be careful with the HP line.. Nikon makes film, slide & flatbed scanners & unlike the cheaper film scanners, Nikon makes adapters to allow you to do more using the same scanner.
When you are done you can resell your scanners on e-bay. I am a film shooter & just have my film developed & scan the uncut roll into Tiffs for DVD storage I also burn CDs with JPEGs for the web & to copy and share or e-mail them.
I use Adobe PhotoShop but Adobe put out Photo Shop Elements 2 & 3 for $50.00 to $100 & I believe it has much more than Paint Shop Pro for the digital Photog or the casual scanner. Adobe Photo Shop takes a lot of study but once you are comfortable with it, it's all you will ever use.
The best advice I can leave you with is. Don't make a time you feel you must follow & take a break after a few weeks. I did not heed this advice & after 6 Months 5 days a week (Army Brat) I hit the wall. I put in at least 10 to 15 hours a week now, & have begun to enjoy it again after all I did volenteer I know there are more from my other Family members but I can't think about it, so i'll keep scanning & repairing until on day I get it done.
After searching for Scanning, CD/DVD, Restoration, Photography (Forums) I have learned so many new tricks & it's a lot of fun. One last thing, I agree with BobF, scan them all unless it's a real bad pic, then put the TIFFs all onto a DVD & repair them later. The Tropical Countrys we grew up in left mold on many of the slides & Negs so I know their time on earth is limited.
PS: I did not have to upgrade my PCs, but all the better scanners & new ones use Fire Wire or USB-2. Believe me the 2 PCI cards & USB-2 Hub if you need it, are well worth the $ you spend, in the time you will save in scanning. Big difference!
Mike
Goo start: http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddye...-transfer.html
I could have looked at 17 years of slides that covered 9 countries my Mom & Dad took when we were growing up in the US ARMY, & given up. My Wife asked. Why not separate them by developer? It worked I was able to now remove doubles & if the Digital Ice program in the slide scanner did it's job I would post the JPEGs on my web site for the Family to view, then choose.
My Mom wrote when I first decided to volenteer, aka (SUCKER) to scan, repair & burn to DVDs. She said Quote "I believe that I threw away all the negatives". Now I knew I was in big trouble. It turned out that she had a large box with hundreds of envelopes with pristine negatives with no pictures. Any day it's better to scan a negative over a paper print.
I was now able to date all the Negs & had far less repair work than if I had the torn & dirty photos instead. PEC-12 is a great cleaner for slides, film & photos it will not smear them if you do your job. I made a light table until I found a Kodak Carousel slide projector at a Yard sale & a brand new Kodak Carousel Stack loader for 50 cents. It previews 50 slides with out having to load that Carousel magizine. 50 slides is all I can scan at at time anyway.
Do your homework well & then take a look at e-bay for the scanners, you will need. I have 2 Visoneer flat bed scanners without the lighted top, I bought 2 HPs in the last year both had problems (returned) so be careful with the HP line.. Nikon makes film, slide & flatbed scanners & unlike the cheaper film scanners, Nikon makes adapters to allow you to do more using the same scanner.
When you are done you can resell your scanners on e-bay. I am a film shooter & just have my film developed & scan the uncut roll into Tiffs for DVD storage I also burn CDs with JPEGs for the web & to copy and share or e-mail them.
I use Adobe PhotoShop but Adobe put out Photo Shop Elements 2 & 3 for $50.00 to $100 & I believe it has much more than Paint Shop Pro for the digital Photog or the casual scanner. Adobe Photo Shop takes a lot of study but once you are comfortable with it, it's all you will ever use.
The best advice I can leave you with is. Don't make a time you feel you must follow & take a break after a few weeks. I did not heed this advice & after 6 Months 5 days a week (Army Brat) I hit the wall. I put in at least 10 to 15 hours a week now, & have begun to enjoy it again after all I did volenteer I know there are more from my other Family members but I can't think about it, so i'll keep scanning & repairing until on day I get it done.
After searching for Scanning, CD/DVD, Restoration, Photography (Forums) I have learned so many new tricks & it's a lot of fun. One last thing, I agree with BobF, scan them all unless it's a real bad pic, then put the TIFFs all onto a DVD & repair them later. The Tropical Countrys we grew up in left mold on many of the slides & Negs so I know their time on earth is limited.
PS: I did not have to upgrade my PCs, but all the better scanners & new ones use Fire Wire or USB-2. Believe me the 2 PCI cards & USB-2 Hub if you need it, are well worth the $ you spend, in the time you will save in scanning. Big difference!
Mike
Last edited by Happy I did it; 04-07-05 at 10:50 PM.
#6
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Well said, Happy.
With a cd or dvd burner, you can make slide shows, playable on any DVD player. I'm working on such a project now. I'm digitizing pics of my children. I hope to have all of the eldest done by the time she is graduated from college. I thought I was almost done. Then we moved and I found hundreds more.
I have done VCDs (video cd) of weddings and other special occasions already. But these used pics from my digital camera.
As far a computer help: You don't need an expensive model. I would recommend a Pentium 4 processor, a dvd burner (cheap nowadays), at least 512 mb RAM (a gig if its in the budget). I like Dell computers, but that is my opinion. You can get a good system for $1000 or less.
With a cd or dvd burner, you can make slide shows, playable on any DVD player. I'm working on such a project now. I'm digitizing pics of my children. I hope to have all of the eldest done by the time she is graduated from college. I thought I was almost done. Then we moved and I found hundreds more.
I have done VCDs (video cd) of weddings and other special occasions already. But these used pics from my digital camera.
As far a computer help: You don't need an expensive model. I would recommend a Pentium 4 processor, a dvd burner (cheap nowadays), at least 512 mb RAM (a gig if its in the budget). I like Dell computers, but that is my opinion. You can get a good system for $1000 or less.