In order to reduce clutter, I’m interested in converting albums of photos dating back to the 70’s to digital copies.

Is this a rather cheap endeavor? Are the free apps you see advertised on the web really good for doing this, do I need a professional service, or would a scanner and moderately priced program all ow me to do this?

Computers and I aren’t really the best of friends but I’m not afraid to try as long as I can get some helpful advice.

What do I need to be looking for?

Hi!

I have been doing this over the last year. After my father passed away we found thousands of photos. After sorting through all the duplicates and splitting them between my brother and me I went on a journey to figure out how to scan them into digital so I could share them with my fathers siblings and other family but still have memories for myself.

There are services but I can't remember the names, I know QVC had one they sell but the cost was a lot in my opinion. After doing some research I ended up purchasing an Epson Fastfoto FF-680W. I have been able to scan wallet size to 8x10 with no real issues. It scans fast - I can do 50-100 pictures in minutes. It will scan front and back automatically if you want so any names or dates on the back are scanned as well. You can also set it up for different resolutions or types of files. I have been very impressed with it and have scanned photos from the 60s through today and even some from the 20s and 30s.

The only draw back I couldn't do some of the professional type photos with backing on them or if they had old tape/glue residue that wouldn't come off but for those I put them on my flat bed scanner.

You can create folders to save them in so I had split them up by family member and have them all separated and saved to my cloud.

And even though it is a photo scanner I was able to use the printer/scanner software for my Epson printer and scan documents as well. Amazing how fast it scanned 80 pages (I just fed 20 at a time or so) - I want to say it was faster than the big monster printer I used at work.

I hope it helps. And you are also reminding me I have 10 photo albums and 4 photo boxes of pictures I still need to scan. LOL

I forgot to mention I opted to purchase the scanner new. Last year it cost me about 600bucks. I do know people sell them used as well. Just keep an eye out for a sale.

I've been in the midst of a probably lifelong project of digitizing thousands of images, including paper prints going back to the early 1900s, 2.25x3.25 B&W and color negatives from the 40s, 35 mm, 127, 128, instamatic, super 16, and some I can't identify. I started with a Scanwit (Acer) 2720 35 mm slide / negative scanner with Epson software, switched to a Plustek scanner when it became impossible to make newer (Win11) computers work with it, an old Epson Photo Perfection 2400 flatbed unit with a transparency lid good for up to 4x5 transparencies, and another Epson V600 I scored at an estate sale for $20 (Amazon has them for >$1000). All are good and recommended. I use Vuescan Pro software in lieu of the software that bundled with the scanners because 1)it is easier to use 2) gives more control over the final result and 3) is the same interface regardless of which scanner it pulls from. It's worth the $180 and works with just about every scanner made.

The most important advice I can give you is this - never get rid of the originals. No matter how cluttered

Try and tag every image as you scan it with a description - include it in the file name as you go.

Save the scans in a hierarchical file directory tree that makes sense to you. I start by dumping all the scans into "scanner output" then dragging them into the appropriate place

I copy all the image files to an external 5 terabyte drive, and then make additional copies onto DVD's and lately SD cards. This makes sending copies to family easier.

Never get rid of the originals, my father in law copied all the family memories onto an 8mm magnetic tape video recorder by projecting them onto a screen from a Bell and Howell slide projector, and then trashed the originals! Even if he made great copies of it all (he didn't - the mess he made of it was/ is atrocious) try finding a working 8mm mag tape playback unit. There is no guarantee that the medium you choose to copy the digital files to will be readable in the future or even that the file type JPG, TIFF Ping, whatever will be around either. Keep the originals!

All that said, good luck to you, be judicious in what you actually save (you don't need all of it) and be sure you have a comfortable chair. It's amazing how much time you'll spend sitting in it.

It would be cost prohibitive for me to use a service for all of my photos. I’m going to start eating the elephant here soon after having moved into our new house. We got rid of the furniture which held all of them, and this is the spark which will light my candle finally getting around to it.

I will use my old Windows based HP photo scanner if it still works along with my HP print/copier/scanner. I’m still debating what to do with the photos afterward, but I’m probably going to burn them.

My wife went back to reading real books and not using her KINDLE anymore, but I’m happy looking at the pics on the screen without all of the hassle of digging them out and dealing with all of the boxes. Digital for me!

There are companies that do this, but they can be pricey.

I bought a really good flatbed scanner and worked on it as time allowed. It wasn’t hard but it was mind numbing boring.i

Along with "don't trash the originals", have new photographic prints made of the most important images. Numerous companies offer archival quality photographic printing, which is photographic rather than spitting ink onto plain paper. These prints should last 100 years with no or minimal color degradation.

(I love having original photos even if they are degraded. A future descendant may love old originals, too. But most people prefer a high quality non-fragile physical print).

There is no way to know what tech will be in use even 10 years from now. Having an excellent, archival new print of the most important photos can save the day.

Like so many things we get sucked into holding on to longer than we should, ask yourself who, precisely, is going to look at these in the next month, year or decade.

It's unlikely to be kids or grandkids other than a few "highlights" from different eras/periods in a family history.

Consider culling out just a few of these, scan and upload to a shareable site like Google Photos, Amazon, etc. Then you can give folks access who might want it and preserve some elements of whatever historical perspective you're trying to.

Don't delude yourselves into thinking preserving thousands of photos is in any way a good use of your time or money. No more than those niche collectibles your aunt had, the antique tools cluttering up your garage, etc. Do your kids a favor and clear that shit out while you can so they don't have to. IMNSHO, this applies if you are 50, 80 or anywhere in between.