If you have photographs with precious memories trapped in the shoebox, take it out immediately because now you have the chance to immortalize those memories. Storing the old photos in the shoebox makes it hard to preserve, organize and impossible to share, digitizing it will solve these problems and welcoming a digital era for all of your old photographs
When you have decided to digitize the old photographs, you are one step closer to preserve the precious memories for a lifetime and the future generation as well. The convenience of sharing and saving in any device or even an online cloud site can give many advantages to the whole family which eventually can create an opportunity like a fun family project of making a scrapbook or fridge magnets.
There are two ways to digitize your photos. Firstly, you can try to scan the photographs yourself with a scanner, these days scanning feature have been embedded on many electronics like an all-in-one printer, phone or even tablet. Secondly, you can mail the old photographs to your local photo scanning service Perth to get it done professionally. Choose one that suitable for you, the convenience one surely let the professional do it for you but we are here to learn how to do it yourself, so let’s choose option one for now.
DIY: Old Photographs Digitalization
1. Prepare the Equipment
Here is the equipment you need to prepare:
- A flatbed scanner
- A soft and clean microfiber cloth
For the scanner, you can purchase a low-priced photo scanning machine or use an all-in-one printer with a scanner bed. If you think it is unnecessary to afford a scanner, you can use your mobile phone which surprisingly today’s smartphone has better quality on their scanning feature than the past few years due to the advancement on the lens system. However, in this article, we will only talk about photo scanning guidance with a scanning machine (scanner).
2. Gently Clean the Scanner Bed
Prior to scanning the old photographs, make sure the scanner is clean and dry. Use the microfibre cloth to wipe the dust off the scanner and never use tissues or paper towel since it may scratch the glass. Rub the smudges on the scanner gently with a damp microfibre cloth and let it dry.
3. Divide the Project
Collect all the photographs from the box and divide it into several group or batch. You can arrange how many photos you want to scan in one go so you can run your project efficiently so that can have a clear strategy of how many sessions needed to scan all of them. By doing this, you will have a general idea of how many times you need to spend so you can prepare it well. However, if you don’t have too much time to spare, there’s always a reliable photo scanning service like Scan ur Pics to call in your local area.
4. Dust-Off the Photographs
The cleanliness of the photograph is as important as the scanner bed. Use compressed air to blow the dust off of your photos, don’t ever use a paper towel, tissue or even apply any water or cleaning solution on your photos. Don’t force to flatten any folded parts on the picture, gently lay the photo flat on the scanner, then scan it.
5. Scan the Images
Enable the full-colour photo scanning of the scanner to get the best result, except for the black and white photograph with stains or damages on it, you can use the grayscale setting. You can remove the stains or marks later with photo editing software. After scanning all of the photos, don’t forget to take care of and store the old photographs properly.
Conclusion
A lot of advantages you from digitalized all of your old photos, it will be easier for you to access the photos, organize them in folders, create back-ups and share the images on any platform or to anyone. Also, you can print the image in various sizes. No time to finish all work? Contact your local photo scanning service in Perth to get your old photos professionally digitalized.