Having so much fun with old negatives!

EvelynD2

EvelynD2

Sweet Shoppe SugarBabe
I recently bought a Kodak Slide and Scan to be able to view and save old negatives as digital photos. Most of the original photos are permanently mounted in photo albums. I wanted to be able to use these photos for digital scrapbooking without lugging down the heavy albums and trying to scan or photograph photos. It has been a walk down memory lane to view these old photos. I am excited to use them in upcoming layouts!
 
It's a project that I keep postponing. I do have a lot of heritage photos that I'd like to digitize but I don't have slides/negatives for them. There are so many that having a flat bed scanner is too time-consuming. I need one that will feed through 30+ photos at a time. Everything I've found is way too much money to spend right now, but I did add this onto my wish list!

Can't wait to see your creations with your heritage photos!
 
Since the passing of my father, my mother has been cleaning out the house a lot (so my sister and i don't have to do it by the time she's gone as well). She 'discoverred' (well, she knew it was there, of course) a cupboard full with slides from the 70's & 80's! All these are old photographes/slides my father took back then.
I think we'll plan a night of slide watching, deciding which slides we want to get into digital photos. Since there are probably a lot of flowers and plants, we don't just want to send it away and get them digitized. That will cost us a fortune...
On the other hand, I can't wait to scrap those old memories.
 
Can't wait to see your LOs!!
I need to finish up my photo archiving project. I think I have HS and College left to scan. Maybe this summer.
 
Cheryl Ashcraft said:
It's a project that I keep postponing. I do have a lot of heritage photos that I'd like to digitize but I don't have slides/negatives for them. There are so many that having a flat bed scanner is too time-consuming. I need one that will feed through 30+ photos at a time. Everything I've found is way too much money to spend right now, but I did add this onto my wish list!

Can't wait to see your creations with your heritage photos!
Click to expand...
Speaking from experience, feeding multiple through at one time is not actually the best option. I did this with some of my old photos (were black and white photos so the color was not a problem) but they got skewed in the process. So when I do try to scrap them, I have to use my software to straighten them. A couple of times 2 photos went through together so I had to redo them separately.

At various times over the years I have done this. I've used feed scanners for photos, flatbed scanners (have one now that I really like and it is small enough to sit on the desk), negative scanners (mine does various sizes) and I've even sent negatives out to be scanned (before I got the scanner I have now). The first attempt was actually a fail. Even though the company said they color corrected, they didn't. All the photos had a green tint to them. I then sent the same negatives to another company and they were great. Color corrected and no backwards wording on the photos (yes, the first company didn't notice wording that was backwards on photos). I will say that both companies were great about the tracking of the packages when sent to them and sent back to me and I always knew where the negatives were. The company I really like is located in Indiana which was great for me since I'm next door in Ohio.

My current flatbed scanner has a feature that I can put multiple photos on the bed and when it scans it saves each of them as a separate file. I may have to make adjustments in my software after scanning at times when the photo isn't the greatest to begin with but it isn't always needed.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
Speaking from experience, feeding multiple through at one time is not actually the best option. I did this with some of my old photos (were black and white photos so the color was not a problem) but they got skewed in the process. So when I do try to scrap them, I have to use my software to straighten them. A couple of times 2 photos went through together so I had to redo them separately.

At various times over the years I have done this. I've used feed scanners for photos, flatbed scanners (have one now that I really like and it is small enough to sit on the desk), negative scanners (mine does various sizes) and I've even sent negatives out to be scanned (before I got the scanner I have now). The first attempt was actually a fail. Even though the company said they color corrected, they didn't. All the photos had a green tint to them. I then sent the same negatives to another company and they were great. Color corrected and no backwards wording on the photos (yes, the first company didn't notice wording that was backwards on photos). I will say that both companies were great about the tracking of the packages when sent to them and sent back to me and I always knew where the negatives were. The company I really like is located in Indiana which was great for me since I'm next door in Ohio.

My current flatbed scanner has a feature that I can put multiple photos on the bed and when it scans it saves each of them as a separate file. I may have to make adjustments in my software after scanning at times when the photo isn't the greatest to begin with but it isn't always needed.
Click to expand...

Thank you SO much for that input! I would hate to invest in a feeder scanner and it's not worth it if you have to do a lot of back end editing.
 
Can't wait to see your layouts! I remember scanning old photos from my aunt. Took forever! Then I had to "cut" them apart and save each one as it's own jpeg. I'm so glad that I did, though.
 
Romajo said:
Since the passing of my father, my mother has been cleaning out the house a lot (so my sister and i don't have to do it by the time she's gone as well). She 'discoverred' (well, she knew it was there, of course) a cupboard full with slides from the 70's & 80's! All these are old photographes/slides my father took back then.
I think we'll plan a night of slide watching, deciding which slides we want to get into digital photos. Since there are probably a lot of flowers and plants, we don't just want to send it away and get them digitized. That will cost us a fortune...
On the other hand, I can't wait to scrap those old memories.
Click to expand...
That is so wonderful! What a treasure to have! I can't wait to see your pages with your family photos!
 
HavaDrPepper said:
Speaking from experience, feeding multiple through at one time is not actually the best option. I did this with some of my old photos (were black and white photos so the color was not a problem) but they got skewed in the process. So when I do try to scrap them, I have to use my software to straighten them. A couple of times 2 photos went through together so I had to redo them separately.

At various times over the years I have done this. I've used feed scanners for photos, flatbed scanners (have one now that I really like and it is small enough to sit on the desk), negative scanners (mine does various sizes) and I've even sent negatives out to be scanned (before I got the scanner I have now). The first attempt was actually a fail. Even though the company said they color corrected, they didn't. All the photos had a green tint to them. I then sent the same negatives to another company and they were great. Color corrected and no backwards wording on the photos (yes, the first company didn't notice wording that was backwards on photos). I will say that both companies were great about the tracking of the packages when sent to them and sent back to me and I always knew where the negatives were. The company I really like is located in Indiana which was great for me since I'm next door in Ohio.

My current flatbed scanner has a feature that I can put multiple photos on the bed and when it scans it saves each of them as a separate file. I may have to make adjustments in my software after scanning at times when the photo isn't the greatest to begin with but it isn't always needed.
Click to expand...
Wow! Your scanner sounds awesome! What scanner do you use?
 
LynnZant said:
Can't wait to see your layouts! I remember scanning old photos from my aunt. Took forever! Then I had to "cut" them apart and save each one as it's own jpeg. I'm so glad that I did, though.
Click to expand...
I know those photos are such a treasure!
 
EvelynD2 said:
Wow! Your scanner sounds awesome! What scanner do you use?
Click to expand...
A CanoScan LIDE 400. It is several years old but it works for what I need it for.

Another thought from me. If you don't mind doing post-scanning editing, then doing it yourself is the way to go. But if you don't want to spend the time doing it, or aren't comfortable with the editing, then sending negatives out to be scanned is totally worth the price to pay for it. You are paying them for their time and/or expertise to get those negatives scanned. They have the expensive equipment to do it as well.

Now, personally I would never send photos away to be scanned. I'd rather do those myself. Over 25 years ago, I scanned a lot of loose photos back when I didn't know a whole lot about editing those scans even though I was using Paint Shop Pro. About 15 years ago when I sent out negatives to be scanned (not knowing what was on a lot of them), I got back some of those same photos I had scanned. What a difference!

Basically it comes down to personal preference. Do it yourself and spend money on equipment to do it (such as both a photo scanner and a negative scanner) or trust someone that has expertise to do it for you and pay for that expertise.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
A CanoScan LIDE 400. It is several years old but it works for what I need it for.

Another thought from me. If you don't mind doing post-scanning editing, then doing it yourself is the way to go. But if you don't want to spend the time doing it, or aren't comfortable with the editing, then sending negatives out to be scanned is totally worth the price to pay for it. You are paying them for their time and/or expertise to get those negatives scanned. They have the expensive equipment to do it as well.

Now, personally I would never send photos away to be scanned. I'd rather do those myself. Over 25 years ago, I scanned a lot of loose photos back when I didn't know a whole lot about editing those scans even though I was using Paint Shop Pro. About 15 years ago when I sent out negatives to be scanned (not knowing what was on a lot of them), I got back some of those same photos I had scanned. What a difference!

Basically it comes down to personal preference. Do it yourself and spend money on equipment to do it (such as both a photo scanner and a negative scanner) or trust someone that has expertise to do it for you and pay for that expertise.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for your helpful advice! I may send a few negatives away that I took when our son was little. They are blurry. Can they fix those?
 
kristalund said:
Can't wait to see your LOs!!
I need to finish up my photo archiving project. I think I have HS and College left to scan. Maybe this summer.
Click to expand...
I'd love to hear more about your project. I'm just starting by organizing what I have printed and saving all my pictures from different places into one place.
 
EvelynD2 said:
I recently bought a Kodak Slide and Scan to be able to view and save old negatives as digital photos. Most of the original photos are permanently mounted in photo albums. I wanted to be able to use these photos for digital scrapbooking without lugging down the heavy albums and trying to scan or photograph photos. It has been a walk down memory lane to view these old photos. I am excited to use them in upcoming layouts!
Click to expand...
I have been wanting to do this! I will look into the Kodak slide and scan. I've got a lot of my older pictures scanned but I also have slides that I'd love to do this with.

Does anyone have recommendations for what to do with old VHS tapes?
 
That's such a cool idea! My mom gave me a box full of old slides that she was worried would be lost but I had no idea what to do with them.
 
I want to buy one of those Advantix negative scanners. I think I had most of my 35mm scanned years ago, but I still have tons of those still in cases that I'd love to dig into. I'm sure I didn't scrap half of the photos from them and a lot of those was from my first year stationed in Japan.

Have fun!
 
mabyluna said:
I have been wanting to do this! I will look into the Kodak slide and scan. I've got a lot of my older pictures scanned but I also have slides that I'd love to do this with.

Does anyone have recommendations for what to do with old VHS tapes?
Click to expand...
I sent my old movies off to be made into cds. I think you can do that with vhs tapes as well. I used a local company. Maybe you can look online to find a place near you.
 
I also have a Kodak Slide N Scan - love it! I've had it for several years now. I find it quick and easy to pull out when I am just wanting to have a few old photos from my childhood to play with. I then usually end up scanning more from the slide carousel or my negatives because I get in a groove while I have it out and then i have those done already for later ;)
It doesn't have the best resolution out there, but the scanned pics are plenty big for scrapping on a 12x12 page. You can do manual adjustments on images as you go if you want to. One of my small gripes is it doesn't go back far enough on the date counter if I want to set it so that that is written on the digital image - I know, I'm old :LOL:
 
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