Blog

What Is the 3-2-1 Backup Rule? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Scanning old photos is one of the best ways to preserve your family history. But creating digital copies is only the first step. If you keep those files in just one place, you could still lose them because of accidental...

How to Scan Photos With Writing on the Back: Preserving Both Sides of the Memory Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Flip over almost any old family photo and you'll find something. A date in your grandmother's careful cursive. A name scrawled in pencil. A location, a joke, sometimes a whole paragraph. That handwriting is half the memory. Lose it, and...

How Long Does Professional Photo & Video Digitization Actually Take? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

The number one question we hear before customers ship us a box is how long will this take? The honest answer is, it depends on what you have and how much of it. Small orders can wrap up in a...

Why Professional Tape Decks Matter for VHS Transfers Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

The VCR collecting dust in your basement will probably eat your tapes before it gives you a clean digital copy.  Consumer decks were built to play tapes for a living room TV, not capture them as broadcast-quality digital files. If...

How to Digitize Fragile Newsprint Before It Crumbles? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Newspaper clippings and magazine articles can disappear faster than most people expect. Unlike photographs, albums, books, and archival documents, newsprint was never designed to last for generations. The paper contains acids that gradually break down its fibers, causing pages to...

What Is Vinegar Syndrome? How It Quietly Destroys Your Film and Negatives? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

You opened a film canister and it smelled like vinegar. That smell means your film is already in trouble. Vinegar syndrome film is not a minor storage issue you can deal with later. It is an active, self-accelerating chemical process,...