Table of Contents
How to Scan Old Family Photos for Archiving
This article will explain how to do archival quality scans of old family photos. It is my hope that this guide will be simple enough for your grandmother to follow so that she can preserve her photos with little outside help. It will not explain image processing, digital restoration, or Photoshop. These can all be done later. The goal is to get photographs preserved as soon as possible before they deteriorate or are lost.
Step 0: Get Those Photos Out of the Sun!
Sunlight causes photographs to quickly fade in a way that's very difficult to restore. Cover any irreplaceable photos or move them away from areas that get direct sunlight.
Step 1: Gather Materials and Equipment
Gather the following:
1. Your photos, slides, and negatives. See the article on “source media” for tips and more information.
2. A flatbed scanner. See the article on “flatbed scanners” for more tips on choosing a scanner.
Do not use a sheetfed scanner or document feeder. It may scratch or damage the photo.
A scanner will create much better scans than a smartphone. However, a smartphone is more convenient, especially with an app like Google PhotoScan. Doing what's convenient first and following up later with a high quality archival scan is a perfectly good strategy.
This article focuses on scanning with a flatbed scanner, but you can adapt these instructions for the use of a smartphone.
3. Scanner software. I use VueScan Professional because it's easy to save raw scans.
4. A soft, lint-free cloth, lens brush or shaving brush, and/or air blower to gently remove dust from photographs before scanning.
Do not use compressed air to clean photographs as it may leave a residue.
5. (Optional) Something flat and non-scratching (something not metal) to weigh down a photo flat against the glass of the scanner, maybe a book or a slab of acrylic.
6. Digital storage for 3 copies of each file, 1 copy of which should be offsite. Read more in the article about “backups”.
7. Archival grade photo storage to prevent further deterioration of your photos. Most photo albums are archival grade. Ordinary Ziploc bags are a good temporary alternative.
Step 2: Prepare the Equipment
1. Clean the glass of the scanner. See the article “cleaning scanner glass” for more information.
2. Calibrate the scanner. In VueScan, go to Scanner > Calibrate.
Calibrating the scanner will prevent vertical lines and other artifacts in the photos.
3. Set your scanner software to 48-bit Color1), TIFF file type (or Raw), and all software corrections turned OFF. In VueScan Professional, this is done by choosing the following options:
| Tab | Option | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| Input | Media | Color |
| Input | Bits per pixel | 48 bit RGB if available, otherwise 24 bit RGB |
| Input | Scan resolution | 800/1200 DPI2) |
| Output | Raw file | ON |
| Output | Raw file type | Auto, or 48 bit RGB if available, otherwise 24 bit RGB |
| Output | Raw DNG | ON |
Step 3: Prepare the Photographs
1. GENTLY remove the photo from the photo album or photo frame glass, if you can do it without damaging the photo.
If you can't remove the photo from the photo album or photo frame glass without damaging the photo, you will need to try to scan the entire album page or photo frame glass. A CCD scanner or a tripod mounted DSLR camera works best for that.
2. Carefully dust off the photo, even if you don't see any dust.
Removing dust now will save you a lot of time later in Photoshop trying to remove all the little dust particles.
3. If the photograph is severely curled, you may need to rehumidify it.
Do not attempt to flatten a severely curled photograph without rehumidifying it first. It may create folds in the photograph or cause the emulsion layer to crack and require digital restoration.
Step 4: Scanning
1. Select a DPI (dots per inch) setting according to the article “Optimal Scan Resolution”.
2. Lay the photo on the scanner. Try to keep the edges of the photo straight, and move the photo away from the edges of the glass at least ¼ inch. If the photo isn't perfectly flat, lay a book on top of it.
Moving the photo away from the edges of the glass will make it possible to scan right up to the edges of the photo.
3. If the photo is not cracked or brittle or severely curled, place the book or weight on top of the photo to press it against the glass of the scanner.
If the photo is cracked or brittle, have it professionally restored and scanned by a digital archivist to avoid further damage.
4. Do a Preview scan.
5. Use the selection tool in your scan software to select an area just outside the borders of the photo paper.
6. When you're ready, do the final scan. Remember, save directly to TIFF or RAW.
If you accidentally choose JPG, do not open the JPG and resave it as TIFF. You must scan it over again.
7. Closely inspect the scanned image. If you see dust or lint, dust off the photograph and scan bed and scan it again. If you see vertical bands in the image, calibrate the scanner and scan again. If you still see vertical bands, consider another strategy to eliminate banding.
7. Name the scan file. See Step 5: File Naming below.
8. Feel the photograph. If it isn't perfectly smooth and glossy–if it is textured, creased, or cracked–then rotate the photo 180 degrees on the scanner glass and repeat steps 5 through 8, changing the filename slightly for the second photo. If it's heavily textured, scan again at 90 and 270 degrees. See the article “Texture” for more information.
Step 5: File Naming
Main article: file naming
Name the scan file like this: 2018-07-04_Fireworks-1_4x6print_48bpp_1200dpi_raw.tif
| Date | Description | Media | Bits Per Pixel | Dots Per Inch | “Raw” | Extension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018-07-04 | Fireworks-1 | 4x6print | 48bpp | 1200dpi | raw | .tif |
Step 6: Documentation
Document the image. See the article “documenting images” for more information.
Step 7: Digital Archiving
Main article: backups
Make two (2) additional copies of each file. One copy should be on a separate hard drive or DVD or Blu-Ray from the original; and another copy should be offsite in case of theft, fire or malware.
Step 8: Safely Storing Photos
Main article: Photo Storage
After scanning your photo, store it away from sunlight, heat, moisture, and any chemicals that may harm it. On the back or on a piece of acid-free paper or cardstock, using an acid-free pen, write the filename of the scan. Read the article “Photo Storage” for more information.
Footnotes
todo