2023
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Myths vs. Facts: What You Need to Know Before Digitizing Photos Written by: Brandon Harris, Smooth Photo Scanning Services
An increasing number of families and individuals are relying only on digital photo archives instead of printing out their cherished family photos from the past. Yet several highly misleading beliefs about digital media and the benefits of digital files may be keeping you from making the most of photo digitization. Read on to learn everything you need to know before digitizing your photos.
1. Once Scanned, Your Photos Will Last Forever
While digital files can be stored indefinitely, more upkeep is required than most people believe. It is because technology is always evolving. Consider the floppy disks of yesteryear. Not to mention cracked and unusable CDs and DVDs and the fact that USB devices can become useless after as little as a year. Moreover, hard drives can fail, giving us little time to back up our data.
Today, cloud storage services provide a tremendous resource, which may appear to be the answer to all our digital preservation issues. However, it’s important to remember that the cloud isn’t without problems. Most people have no idea that “The Cloud” is just a name for the service where an external company provides users with access to a pool of storage space on demand.
Your information is still being stored on physical servers in some parts of the world. So, problems may arise with those servers. The server owners may go out of business. Therefore, the best way to archive digital photos is to make multiple copies and store them at different locations on hard drives, flash drives, or your computer.
2. Scanning Provides Standard Quality Images
It can be devastating to invest time and money into digitizing photos only to learn that the resulting files are too small or insufficient for long-term storage. Though they seem great on Facebook, photos may appear fuzzy or pixelated when reproduced in a family history book or newspaper article. The truth is that not all scanning efforts produce the same high-quality results. Therefore, working with professional photo scanning services is the easiest way to scan photos and ensure excellent results.
If you decide to digitize your pictures at home, remember to save the original high-resolution scan of any photos or documents you scan as your “digital negative.” If the resulting file is too huge to post online, you can save a smaller JPEG version of the “negative” and post that instead; the original will remain unaltered. With high resolution, we’re talking about at least 300 DPI. If the photo is small or you want to trim and zoom to a small area, scanning it at 600 DPI or greater is a good idea. This is the best way to scan photos.
3. You Must Sort Your Photos before Scanning
When it comes to scanning and sorting photos, there are different approaches you can consider based on your preferences and priorities. By sorting photos before scanning, you can select the photos you want to preserve and exclude any that you don’t wish to scan. This approach ensures that you have a collection of digital images that are already organized. However, contrary to popular belief, this is not the only option.
Another approach is to scan all of your physical photos as they are, without prior sorting or organization. This method can be less time-consuming, as you can scan the entire collection without having to make decisions about individual photos. Once the photos are digitized, you can then sort and organize them in a way that suits you best. Doing so allows for flexibility and can be particularly useful if you are uncertain about which photos you want to keep until you see them in digital form.
The best way to scan a large collection is to choose a professional scanning service that offers bulk photo scanning services and will do indexing for you. It makes it easier to sort through your images later.
4. Auto Settings on Scanners are the Best
For best scanning results, you must play around with the contrast, brightness, sharpness, and other controls to see how they affect the final look of your photos. The majority of scanners have pre-programmed defaults, which are a great time saver, but standard scanning settings may not give you the best results. You can also improve the quality of the scanned images using additional software such as Photoshop.
Images destined for the web or electronic mail should have a reduced resolution to reduce file size. On the other hand, if all you want to do is keep your images safe, a resolution of 300 DPI should be sufficient. Use 600 DPI or greater if you plan on making prints that are larger than the original picture or if you require a higher resolution to capture more detail for editing down the road.
Choose Smooth Photo Scanning for All Your Photo, Video, & Slide Scanning Needs
Smooth Photo Scanning Services has been offering individuals, families, and commercial and municipal clients quality scanning and digital conversion services for over two decades.
If you are interested in premium scanning services but do not wish to spend a fortune, take advantage of our commitment to excellence to get high-quality results for an affordable price. We offer photo and album scanning services, bulk scanning, slide scanning services, video transfer services, photo retouching services, document scanning services, and more. Contact us today to learn more and get a free quote.
My father has been in the document scanning industry for as long as I can remember. I worked for his company Smooth Solutions, Inc. during summer breaks growing up and for a couple years after college. Wanting to venture off on my own, I gained experience in several careers including wholesale seafood sales as well as owning and operating a bakery for several years. When my father approached me with the opportunity to expand upon his already successful business by providing high quality, professional scanning services to the general public, I jumped on board. From personal experience, I recognize how important it is for most people to have their family memorabilia preserved for future generations and I want to be a part of helping others do that.