Efficiently Scan Your Photos in Bulk: Ultimate Tips and Tricks

Do you still have boxes of old photographs and negatives in your home? Though it’s admirable, it’s time to preserve these memories in digital format. Whether you choose a bulk photo scanning service or choose to scan your photos at home, it is important to digitize your photographs to keep them safe.

If you’re facing what seems like an insurmountable mountain of photographs to scan, it is recommended to opt for a picture scanning service to save time. On the other hand, if you wish to scan your photos at home, then consider the following tips to get the job done in a fraction of the time.

1. Sort through Your Photos

You’ll want to be selective about the photographs you scan unless you have plenty of free time. If you don’t want to spend hours after hours as your scanner churn through your enormous stack of old images, you might want to consider trimming down a bit.

If a photo is too damaged to be fixed, don’t bother with it. Photos can be damaged over time and may not be usable even if they are still in albums. However, negatives may be a viable option. Negatives don’t degrade as fast as printed photographs, meaning that you may have a better copy of more of your photos than you realize. If you have a damaged photo that is particularly important to you, you may want to consider using a digital photo restoration service. They use specialized photoshop techniques to make even severely damaged photos look brand new.

2. Get the Right Scanner

In order to move your treasured photo collection from the dusty attic to the dusty desktop, you will need a scanner. Regardless of brand, a scanner’s primary function is to digitize paper photographs. A professional-grade scanner is unnecessary unless you require extremely professional results.

A flatbed scanner is the most common type. However, there are other types of scanners that you can consider, including auto feed photo scanners or even film scanners that can digitize both slides and negatives and wand scanners that are portable, hand-held devices.

3. Do Not Attempt to Restore Your Photographs before Scanning

You may be tempted to try and restore your photos before scanning. However, doing so may cause more damage. The best you can do is to use a damp cloth or a gentle brush to remove the dust.

Scratches and other imperfections can be removed using a photo editing application after the scanning. Similarly, you shouldn’t snip your pictures. Once you have scanned the photos, you can crop them digitally.

4. Check Your Scanner Settings

Automatic settings are a great time saver and come standard on most scanners. With these options, a high-resolution scan of the image can be achieved. But these days, scanners come with many cool features, allowing you to play with contrast, brightness, and sharpening to see how they affect your photos.

It’s possible that you won’t need the maximum resolution, so tweaking the parameters will be more crucial. Images destined for the web or electronic mail should have a reduced resolution to reduce file size. An email can only hold up to about 25MB worth of files.

When the destination is the internet or an email, a resolution of only 200 dpi is sufficient. 600 dpi or above is recommended if the final image size exceeds the original or if you require a higher resolution to create a more polished final output.

5. Choose Printing Colors Carefully

You can choose to scan a black-and-white photo in grayscale or color. However, scanning in color will give you more leeway in editing the image. After scanning, you can convert it back to grayscale if required. Make sure to color scan anything that’s sepia-toned. Typically, scanners will automatically adjust their settings based on the type of document you’re scanning.

Some scanners feature default settings for newspaper photos, articles, illustrations, and even negatives. Select the pre-scan option if you want to see how your changes will look. This is a great resource for taking one last glance at the paper before sending it out into the world.

6. Batching Can Help You Save Time

We seriously doubt that you will be able to scan all of these photos at once, but scanning them in batches will save you a ton of time. It could take days to scan the boxes of photos, depending on the scanner you’re using and how recent your computer and its programs are. Batching can help you sort through bulk scanning like a pro.

7. Scan Multiple Photos Simultaneously

Scanning multiple photos at once or as many as will fit on the glass. You’ll be left with a single large photo that looks like a collage. A crop can be performed on each image and then saved separately.

However, remember that you can skip editing some photos while working on others. Scanning multiple images at once and editing them separately can help you get all of your images in quickly, so you can divide them up as needed or make any necessary adjustments.

Choose Bulk Photo Scanning Service with Smooth Photo Scanning

The best way to go about bulk scanning is to choose a reputable bulk photo scanning service like Smooth Photo Scanning. No job is too big for our picture-scanning service experts. You can rely on us to provide high-quality scans for a reasonable cost. Contact us today to learn more about our bulk scanning services!