Scanning Your Images

Scanning your images will help you save your memories. This can be a very time intensive process. If you choose to try to scan them yourself, I have listed some key points below. If this is more of a project than you have time to do, then there are people, like myself, that do this every day. Please contact me by email or phone for more information.

Now for those key points:

Images are scanned in the REFLECTIVE mode

First of all, you need to scan at a resolution that will give you acceptable results. Images should be scanned at 240 - 300 pixels per inch so that you can print them at the quality that you see them at right now. A 4 x 6 print would therefore be scanned at 1200 x 1800 pixels. If you send them to a photo processing store, for example, they will produce a good quality 4 x 6 print. If, there is a small print, I may scan at 600 pixels per inch so that I can double the size of the final print.

A basic rule of thumb, make sure that the glass of the scanner is clean. This will avoid having your fingerprints showing in your final images. Try to get the images as straight as possible.

When you scan, remember to name the files in a way that you will be able to find them after they are scanned. My scanning software allows me to number the files sequentially so I just name them "Scan-001", for example, and let the scanner assign the numbers.

As I scan images, I keep a log of the number and who is in the image. I use an Excel spreadsheet and also make note of the city, state, date taken and the number of the disk that they will be stored on. This makes it very easy to find the images months later. I also make duplicate copies of the disks and store them in separate locations.

Once this work is completed, you need to find a safe storage location. If your number of disks is fairly small, a small, fireproof box or safe may be enough. The house of a relative may also a good solution.

Another way to preserve your images is to take a digital picture of them. This is especially good when the picture is too large to scan. If you can easily remove the image from the frame, you will eliminate glare from the glass. If you would damage the image by removing it, take the picture with the frame. Try to get as much of the original in the picture and make sure to use the highest quality image that the camera will take. You may not be able to reproduce the same size image but you will have the best quality, should you lose the original.

The above instructions are very basic information. If you need more information, please feel free to contact me at n2toy@comcast.net and I will help you through the process.