If you're anything like me, you probably have a lot of old paper photos in your home. I've got photos I've taken, photos I've been given by family and friends, and photos that I've inherited. It's amazing how just looking at a photograph can take you back to a specific time and place and open up memories, reminding you of things you may have forgotten.
I love my old photos, especially the ones I inherited. Some of them are over 100 years old. And while it's wonderful to be able to look back on family members who are no longer with us, the photos themselves need to be handled ever so carefully. 100 years or even less can be really difficult on old photos. They can get bent or scratched. So many of my old photos have coffee stains on them from family reunions where people were passing old pictures around the table for everyone to see after dinner. And some of the papers and chemicals used to create photos throughout the years have not stood up well to the test of time. In my albums, coloured photos that were taken from the 1950s to the 1980s are fading badly, and turning yellow.
Another thing that hit home this past summer is climate change. The extreme drought and wildfire situation in British Columbia in the summer of 2021 was terrifying! Then on top of that were the floods that hit later that year in November. So many people lost everything! And even with the most thoughtful preparation, sometimes you have very little time to evacuate. I know of one lady who had a wonderful go-bag ready by the front door, just in case. But when the order came to evacuate, they had just 10 minutes to leave, and the bag was left at home accidently in the stress and confusion. Fortunately, their home was spared, but whew!
I've probably got over a thousand physical photographs, and this past summer I spent a few weeks quickly photographing them one-by-one and storing them on my personal computer and a flash drive. We were planning on being away for a few weeks, and with the dry weather conditions, our city could have gone up in flames very quickly. Having my photos stored on a flash drive that I was able to slip into my purse and bring with me gave me peace of mind while I was away.
Photographing old photos isn't really the best solution, but, as in my case, it works well when you need it done quickly, and you'll still have your precious memories. The problem with a camera is the lens. Most cameras tend to distort on the edges. That could give your photos a pinched or wavy look along the edges, and distort the faces of your loved ones. Also, old photos tend to curl, so that can also add another layer of distortion.
What I did after I got home was invest in a good quality scanner. The photo sits flat on the scanner bed, and there is no camera lens distortion to pinch or pull the edges of your pictures. Some scanners even allow you to do some basic colour corrections, so it's great for those old colour photos that are yellowing and/or fading.
Another thing about going digital, is that if you have good photo-editing software, then you can digitally remove the dust and scratches, stains, and even repair tears. Every year the technology gets better and with some of the newer programs, you can even take blurry photos and sharpen them!
Resizing old photos is easy too. Many photos that were taken before the 1950s were printed 3" x 5" or even smaller. If the photographer was standing far away from the subject, then you can't make out too much detail of faces. But by digitizing these old photos, and viewing them on a larger screen, or even your TV, you can see so much detail in those old photos that you didn't realize was there! When you resize, you can also edit the photo to cut out all the extraneous detail you don't want and put the focus on the people and objects you really want to see.
With rents spiraling upwards and tiny houses and apartments becoming fashionable out of necessity, bulky old photo albums can take up a lot of room. Although it's sad to lose that tangible feeling of a paper photo that passed through the hands of your loved ones to you, digitizing will save you a lot of room. And it's so much easier to view your photos on your phone, or quickly send favourites to friends and family with a tap of your finger.
So if you want to learn how to digitize your photos, contact me if you have questions, or would like me to do it for you for a fee. I'm not set up with price lists yet, but I'm sure we can work something out!