Photo scanning?

Borzak

Borzak

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Quick dumb question. Do the scans at WalGreens of photographs turn out to be usuable and worth viewing? I have boxes and boxes of photographs from before the digital camera age and I'd like to get them archived before I lose the ability to identify some of the people. I have a scanner but it's geared toward scanning in 11x17 drawings and takes forever. Plus it has no way to feed in photographs. Just curious if they turn out OK or something I would have to slog thru myself?
 
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Zapatta

Zapatta

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Borzak said:
Quick dumb question. Do the scans at WalGreens of photographs turn out to be usuable and worth viewing? I have boxes and boxes of photographs from before the digital camera age and I'd like to get them archived before I lose the ability to identify some of the people. I have a scanner but it's geared toward scanning in 11x17 drawings and takes forever. Plus it has no way to feed in photographs. Just curious if they turn out OK or something I would have to slog thru myself?
Click to expand...

Most modern business copy machines have scanners in them now. Good ones. Go hammer the one in your company's office.
 
Borzak

Borzak

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My choices are walgreens or do it at home and mess with loading them one at a time. I don't have an office. Guess I'll send some photos to walgreens to try it out and compare to the ones I do slooooowly.
 
Denaut

Denaut

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A good phone with a decent camera or, even better a DSLR with the proper lens, would be better and faster than using a scanner to digitize the pictures. Our artists usually just use their phones. If you have a ton to do you should set up a little rig so that you can just slide them in and out quickly into the correct spot.
 
fred sanford

fred sanford

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I'm curious about this also. My dad passed away recently and my siblings are tech neanderthals so it's on me to archive/share boxes full of photos of varying sizes. Some are regular 4x6 and others are 8.5x11 that are 'rare'. Rare as in photos of my grandparents when they were young and are possibly the only ones in existence. Up until now I've been scanning them manually at home and it sucks. Even just doing it a few at a time one my work from home day sucks and will take me forever. Are there reliable places you can just take bulk photos to for scanning?
 
mkopec

mkopec

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Legacy box is one of them, about a $1+ per picture. They have a 500 photo pack for $550ish. One of the more expensive ones.

Memory Fortress is another, cheaper, $99 min order but its like $.35 per picture for 600DPI, just send them a box of loose picts (up to 8x10 but they can do even poster size too) and they take care of the rest. Provide you with a thumb drive.

There is tons of options just google lol. some even have a box you fill (up to like 1.5K-2K pictures for about $200)

300DPI is good enough to web share and reprint same size, 600DPI is for archive, bigger reprints.
 
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Borzak

Borzak

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I called Walgreens they don't scan at this one. I really don't need anything high DPI as I won't be posting it or anything like that. I got all the boxes out. Would definietly have to thin it out to even attempt it. No way I could pay shipping let alone $1 per photo to scan. I had 12 full boxes of just pictures, those file folder boxes that are 18"x12"x12". I weighed one box and it weighed 14 pounds. So 14 x 12 lol.

I think I'm gonna try my scanner and scan more than one at a time since it's 11x17. If I decide to do more than that I'll look into some kind of scanner that has an auto feed deal on it. I don't need to scan them all. Lot of pics from 1983 to 1996 and then I guess digital took over.

I have a craptastic cheap smart phone so not gonna try that. I have a Sony DSLR but that seems like a lot of work unless you just wanted to do a few of them.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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DSLR I would do If I had negs, but pictures? Nahh too hard to get proper lighting on them without glare and other shit like that. Scan is def best way. Just keep at it, do a few a day, and before you know it you will be done. Slow and steady wins the race.

Or do both, go through them and pick out the best of the best and have them professionally scanned. There is cheaper than $1 per, lol. If its anything like my families pictures, 3/4 of them are shit, lol.
 
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