I've "intended" to scan my family photos for a long time, but realistically, I don't think I'll ever do it. There are just too many. In six years, I've done 3 albums (out of about 25). I've read about services where you send in all your photos and they scan them for you. Has anyone used them? It makes me nervous to think of sending the only copies of my photos through the mail (I no longer have the negatives) but perhaps it's a risk worth taking?
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Posted 2 years ago #
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I have an interest in this subject - I keep buying scanners, but can't seem to make any dent in the amount of pictures that I have. I have seen some ads, I hope this subject gets comments form people that have used the services. I think that I might keep the large pictures and send the snapshots. That way it wouldn't be such a loss if they were lost.
Posted 2 years ago # -
The one I've read about is scanmyphotos.com. They were written up in the NY Times. The cost is amazingly cheap ($65 for 1000 photos or $150 for a box). I checked out a local service and they charge over $1 per photo. However, they are only 300 dpi, and I don't know if that's sufficient.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I completely understand not wanting to mail off my only copies. I found a local camera chain that provides this service. It was still a little nervewracking letting somewhere around 2000 photos out of my posession. But they did a great job with it. Only thing was they were all in one folder, so I had to sort them out into subfoldrs by event, which took a bit of time. Still, it was totally worth it to have them scanned (because I knew I'd never do it myself) and be able to get rid of physical photos I never look at.
So I guess the short point of this is check your local camera shops. :)
Jen
Posted 2 years ago # -
My wife and I own a photo scanning service and would love to help anyone get all their photos transferred to the computer. Please give us a call at 402-934-4020 or visit http://www.yourdigitaltreasures.com.
Our cheapest rate for print scanning is $.10 per scan if there are over 1000 and all are at done at 600 dpi. I do not recommend going greater than that as you will not be able to get a better image from a print with a higher resolution scan; it would just be a waste of money.
If we cannot meet your needs, we will be able to steer you in the right direction.
Thanks,
James
Posted 2 years ago # -
I finally had this done this past September and it was amazing for decluttering. My prep:
1. Assemble all photos in one place.
2. Sort by decade (I had some old photos from grandparents too).
3. Remove any duplicates, bad shots, and other photos I didn't want.
4. I called the service, they came by my office, picked up the photos and scanned them all to a USB drive sorted into folders by decade.
My sister gets to make the final decision on the physical photos. If she doesn't want them, they get recycled. We have them all digitally now and can print on demand if anyone wants one.
We are doing this same work now with my folks and my in-laws in helping them clear some closets of decades of photos. They have computers and digital photo frames to help them view these photos that have been hidden for years.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I'm late to this thread but had to mention http://www.gophoto.com. I had the same issue and was scared to try them with my irreplaceable photos (!!) but I liked them the best out of all the online scanning services. I talked to them a few times and they were really friendly and reassuring. My photos went via UPS and gophoto sent me emails when they got the box, and scanned them etc. so I felt confident they were safe. I didn't even have to remove duplicates or do a ton of organizing like you mentioned above because they don't make you pay anything to start, and they let you delete as many online scans of the images as you want BEFORE you pay. I loved that! Plus then I shared them from the online albums with my aunt & sister which they loved too. The best is that I didn't have to do any of the work myself. Great all around!
Posted 8 months ago # -
As a technical note, most low-end printers and home photo printers will print photos at 240-300dpi, anything more is wasted detail in the print. 600dpi allows you a better high-end professional print, or gives you the ability to blow up your image to double its size at 300dpi.
Also, laserjet reproductions (images printed with lasers on actual chemical-photo paper) do quite well at 300dpi.
In closing, 600dpi scans if you can for the breathing room.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Since I posted my original question, I had my photos scanned at digmypics.com. It was a little nerve wracking to send off so many irreplaceable pictures, but I used FedEx and tracked the package every step of the way. I was very happy with the results. I scanned 1800 photos, which were most of the good pictures in my collection. The hardest part was trying to identify them all! I put them all into iPhoto and I've been trying to add dates and descriptions for all of the pictures, but it's more difficult than I expected. Label your pictures!
I have still kept all my original photos, but I was able to pack them up and put them on a closet shelf. I also got rid of a lot of old photo albums - they were the old "sticky" albums from the 1970's that are terrible for your photos. I organized the photos into envelopes (you can buy archival photo envelopes) and they now take up less space. If I want to create new photo albums, I can do it digitally on my computer or have an album printed. I am definitely enjoying my photos more now since they're so easy to access.
Posted 8 months ago # -
I like the idea of archival photo envelopes.
Posted 8 months ago # -
I also think so.
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Watch Kung Fu Panda 2 Online FreePosted 8 months ago # -
I had mine done by scancafe. They did a good job. Now it is taking me forever to make the digital photo albums I intended to make.
Posted 8 months ago # -
I just finished the process of having 300 slides done by Scan Cafe. The process took a very long time but the results were good and I'm pleased to have digital images of slides I would not have otherwise viewed. It also makes it easier to share with family members. It was not super cheap but considering the equipment and time it takes to scan slides I think it was reasonable.
Posted 8 months ago # -
fyi when i did my research originally for phtoo scanning companies, i found out that scancafe ships your photos to India. I think that's why it took so long. I decided for me, it wasn't worth that risk, so i ended up choosing a US based company. Something to consider.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Not done it yet, but has anyone thought about getting very old scanned photos printed into photo books? I recently bought a groupon offer here in the uk which was 100 pages of photos into a hard cover photo book for about £28! Will look very neat on my bookshelf and a lot less space than boxes full of curly old photos! Still means I have to scan them all in though, so I had better get on with it!!
Posted 3 months ago # -
If you go on elance.com you can post your project, ie scanning of photos, arranging them by date, etc. then wait for people to bid and award the 'contract' to someone! Id rather pay someone to do it than do it myself! The photo book sounds like a great idea!
Posted 3 months ago # -
You guys should be obsessive compulsive clutter phobics like me, because one of my obsessions is photos. I keep only the very bare minimum of photos, just the few that I like. Sometime this can be hard, as it means really having to decide what to keep and what to delete or throw out. If ripping up a photo brings bad luck then should have earned at least a million years of bad luck.
Anyways my suggestion, if you have too many to scan is to just scan your favorites. Select the best photos from each memory in your life, scan those and then relax. Then if the house burns now, not to worry, you'll have saved something.
Hope this helps
Maxine xxx
A Life Lived Ridiculously
When a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder falls in love with a sociopath, she fights for her sanity and her life.
http://www.ridiculouslife.net/Posted 3 months ago # -
If you use Elance, research your chosen bidder HARD. There's dozens of fake fronts claiming to be US based that are actually overseas, and lots of 'farmers' who bid on everything then post the projects they win again under a buyer account and go with the lowest bid - they play the odds that enough projects will come out satisfactorily that they can refund any project that goes south and come out ahead.
Sorry, I'm just a long term Elancer (I'm a professional copywriter and social media manager) and a lot of people go to Elance with no clue as to how the place really works or what sort of guarantee they have that the 'freelancers' there are representing themselves honestly. Half of my workload used to be 'fixing' projects that were originally awarded to someone else.
If you do find a good freelancer, treat them well. We pay an enormous amount of money to Elance - on the freelancer side there are fees to be a member, fees to bid on jobs, and then we have to fork over almost 10% of our earnings to boot as project fees.
I don't do a lot of searching and bidding there anymore due the the market degradation in my niche - but I still get lots of invites to jobs from buyers who see my profile and aren't scared of a $65 an hour price tag :)
Posted 3 months ago #
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