Advice needed about scanning photos, negatives and slides.
Advice needed about scanning photos, negatives and slides.
Hopeful this is the correct subreddit or someone would be willing to point me in the right direction:) I have 1,000’s of old photos, slides and negatives that need to be scanned for prosperity. The task will be incredible daunting so I’d like advice on a scanner. My goals are firstly quality images as well as ease of use and workload. The images range mostly from the 1930’s-early 2000’s. I want to do the job “right” the first time and willing to pay up to $3,000ish. Please help:)
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I became the family photo and negative custodian a few years back. It was a mix of 126, 120, 110, APS, 35mm and various other formats. I bought a Plustek 8200i for the 35mm negatives and slides, which formed the majority of the collection, and an Epson V600 for the rest. I had to get some 3D printed holders for some of the odd sized negatives which was a pain back then but is far easier now.
I used (and still use ) the vuescan software as I found it easy to set up and I ended up with a fairly quick worflow. I scan the negatives at the highest resolution as TIFF and JPG and then upload downsized JPGs to Goolge albums for sharing with the family. The scanned images are stored on multiple hard drives and in the cloud. Negatives were stored in archival sheets in binders. Prints and the like went into acid free storage bags.
By far the hardest thing was to find the time and motivation to do all the scanning and all I can suggest there is to break it into manageable chunks and to work at your own pace. Oh and don't fall into the trap of post processing every image to perfection when you scan them in, you can do this or even rescan individual images later.