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What to Do With Original Photos, Tapes, and Film Reels After Digitization? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

When you finish digitizing a box of family photos, VHS tapes, slides, negatives, and film reels, it is tempting to clear the shelf and throw everything away. Don’t.  The safest answer to what to do with old photos after scanning...

How to Spot Early Signs of Tape Degradation: A Visual and Sensory Guide Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Your old videotapes can look perfectly fine on a shelf while the tape inside slowly breaks down. If you know what to look for, you can stop risky playback and get important footage transferred while it is still recoverable. The...

How to Sort and Digitize a Jumbled Collection of Mixed-Media Boxes? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Opening an old storage box can feel overwhelming. One minute you are expecting a few family photos. The next, you are staring at loose prints, photo albums, negatives, slides, VHS tapes, film reels, cassette tapes, and mystery envelopes that have...

How to Digitize Family Travel Photos & Videos Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Think your old vacation memories are safe in a shoebox or a drawer?  They probably are not. Printed photos can fade, colors can shift, and videotapes lose quality every year. The good news is that you can digitize vacation photos...

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...

DVD Disc Rot: How to Digitize Home Movies on DVDs Before It’s Too Late? Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services

Your DVDs are dying. Not metaphorically. Not eventually. Right now, some of them are quietly corroding from the inside out, and the home movies burned onto them are disappearing frame by frame. This is called DVD disc rot home movies...