Scanning printed photos

[Kitartas]

Two of my children were pre-digital cameras and now that I only do digital scrapbooking I feel bad that their cute baby photos are not getting the attention they deserve.

I have tried scanning on my home printer/scanner on the highest resolution but the photos are never as sharp as the original and often end up with a washed out/overexposed look.

Does anyone have any suggestions for the best way to scan in photos? I tried googling but all the information i can find is for really old black and white photos but my photos are from the late 90s early 00s

[SeattleSheri]

I'm curious what others say. I've actually taken digital photos of my printed pictures and found them to be ok in a pinch. My scanner is good quality, but it takes FOREVER to scan each photo (even if I group them on the platen). I've been looking for solutions a while myself. My wedding photos were taken with traditional film.

[rach3975]

I've found it challenging to get sharp scans of printed photos, too. Any color issues I just correct in PS. I know there are tutorials out there, even though they haven't been showing up in your searches, but I'm on my phone right now so I can't link you up. That said, in your situation I think I would get the best scan I could and then scrap with them anyway, even if it's not as good as the print. If the alternative is unscrapped pictures that no one looks at, then I'd consider slightly inferior scrapped scans a good compromise.

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[craftytam]

Scanning photos won't give you the crispness that the original has. I've scanned hundreds of photos from my grandparents (black & white are a little better quality than color) and my daughter was a pre-digi baby.
If you have the negatives, I would scan those on a flatbed. You'll get a better image. If not, I would scan the photos and use them in digi. That's what I've done. Because, the alternative is not scrapping them at all, and for me, that wasn't an option for me.
Scanning on a flatbed at a high resolution takes forever. But the results are worth it compared to other scanners. I scanned 10,000 photos for a friend over a 4-day period using a feeder scanner. The images were passable, and in a pinch would work fine. Her goal wasn't scrapping the photos, but to have digital images in case of a fire (she lives in the mountains). For myself, I definitely prefer the flatbed... But, you will literally spend hours (probably days or weeks) doing the scanning.

[jacinda]

My home scanner is just average, so I personally take a high res photo of printed pics. They turn out OK.

[hollyxann]

I've used my scanner and I've used my phone with the PhotoScan app from google. I usually correct and clean up any pictures in photoshop or even just a basic editor. If I'm using my scanner I make sure to have the sharpen option chosen as well as the a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

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