A Beginner’s Guide to Digitizing Photos

Introduction

Many people, especially older ones, have shoeboxes full of old negatives, slides and photographs lying about. The problem is that no one except the person who took them knows what is where or anything about the photos.

A similar modern problem applies to the many digital photos stored on personal computers: the names are something DSC00110.jpg, which means absolutely nothing. If you are trying to find a specific shot or group of photos, you are out of luck.

Here’s some good news: There is a simple method to get organized. Once organized, finding photos and sharing them will be a snap, taking just a few seconds. The bad news is entering the information and the other steps take a lot of time if you want to do it right.

In the interest of simplicity, these instructions are being broken into two sections: one dealing with digitizing film (negatives, slides and prints) and one dealing with images already in a digital format.

I. Digitizing Negatives, Slides and Prints

Computer technology makes digitizing your stacks of photos simple, easy and affordable. Nothing, though, will eliminate all the work needed to turn your photo collection into one capable of being shared with anyone.

In addition to a reasonably current desktop or laptop computer, you will need these items: a flatbed scanner that can scan negatives and slides; photo image editing software; a separate computer hard drive to store the images.

1 A. Hardware and Software Requirements

The scanner converts your existing images into digital ones, the software lets you fix any problems, such as dust, scratches or color shifts and the hard drive gives you room to store everything without cutting down space for your main programs and games.

Scanners range in price from under $100 to over $1,000 for premium pro models. Good ones fall in the $150-$600 range. Companies to look at are Canon, Microtec, Epson, HP and Plustek.

A good idea is to buy scanners of 2400 dpi or greater. This quality lets you scan images that later can be printed up to 8 by 10-inches. Higher resolution (i.e., 4800 or 6400 dpi) scanners increase the upper limit.

For a review of one top-end desktop scanner, Epson’s V700, look at http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/V700/V700.HTM. Use this review as a starting point and scanner primer.

Most newspapers, magazines and websites tend to use the established leader in image editing software: Adobe’s Photoshop. There are two versions: Photoshop Elements (about $100) which offers basic functions, and the pro version starting at $199 if you are upgrading from a reasonably current older version to $699 if you don’t have an earlier version. For pricing, visit the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com.

Scanners also tend to come with some basic image editing software, which is fine for initial, entry-level work. Over time, you will find the control Photoshop provides is invaluable.

External hard drives come in a wide range of sizes. Since scanned photos can generate huge files, hard drives in the 500GB-1TB range are a good idea. This should let you store plenty of photos and still have additional room.

TIP: Compare the hardware and software requirements of any computer equipment you are considering with your existing machine before you buy. You will want to ensure that your computer has a fast enough processor and enough RAM (short-term storage) to run the new items in a reasonable time.

1 B. Before You Scan

It’s a good idea to follow some basic precautionary steps before scanning any negatives, prints or slides. These include:

· Only handle negatives, slides and prints by the edges. Fingerprints will show up on scans.

· Use a can of compressed air to gently eliminate dust from both sides of your negatives and slides.

· Use cotton gloves to handle every image as a further precaution.

· Do not use solvents like negative cleaner unless absolutely necessary, since they can permanently damage your film.

· Make sure your scanning bed is clean and dry.

I C. Select Your Images

There is no reason to scan every negative, slide or print in your collection. A tip is to select the best shots from each roll and scan them, ignoring the rest. “Best” refers to those you like, such as those showing people with the best expressions. You don’t need to keep 12 shots of Uncle Bob drinking a beer when one good one will work.

Also, realize that good scanning software can help you restore some older images. Software lets you adjust the brightness, contrast and color balance for every shot. You can also dodge (darken) and burn (lighten) small areas in each shot, just like photographers do in a darkroom. This lets you bring out details in shadow, such as a person’s face. Your image may be lacking in quality, but you at least have something to see.

The color balance function also helps you restore images where the negatives or slides may have faded with time. Using your software’s auto color balance (CTRL, Shift B in Photoshop) will do some of that automatically for you.

1 D. Save Lots of Data (Applies to Scans and Digital Photos)

Scanning your photo collection is worthless unless you have an idea how to name every image so others can find it. One idea is to create a folder or directory for each major event then save images into that folder.

Give every photo a name that makes sense such as “Christmas 1982 at home.” Attach a number for those shots that are similar and taken at the same time and location.

Photoshop also lets you add metadata (information about each image) to your digital photos, giving you even more detail. Go to the File menu and select File Info. Here you can add “keywords” that make it easy to group and find similar images. For example, your Christmas 1982 images can contain the names of everyone in the photo, the location and other details you consider important. Every keyword or phrase is separated by commas.

Adding this information is the single biggest time consuming step you will face, but also the most critical. Without it, you will not be able to find your photos nor will your family know who is in each shot.

II. Dealing With Digital Images

Have you have found an old photo that looks so nice you want to enlarge it? The problem is once it’s enlarged, the quality vanishes.

That same issue can vex digital images, no matter if they come from a scan or directly from a digital camera. The simplest approach involves the most work: scan or shoot every image at the highest resolution your equipment can handle.

Top-end digital cameras, often those with interchangeable lenses, let users save their photos in DNG (digital negative) or RAW (a variation of DNG) formats. These formats retain all the information captured at the moment each photo was shot. As with a film negative, if you don’t like one print, you can adjust the digital image until you get what you want. The downsides are large electronic files (10MB or more per image) and formats that most people cannot view.

II A. Save Multiple Versions

One way around these issues is to save multiple versions of every shot, which again takes time. Start by adding your keywords to your DNG version, then make any additional exposure adjustments and fine-tune each shot here.

Next, save the full size image as a high-resolution JPG (a very common file type, viewable by internet browsers and many other programs). The high-res JPG file will be about half the size of your DNG version and about the same quality, but without the ability to fix any issues that come up. This image is the one you will want to use for printing, since you can get 8-inch by 10-inch or larger—some can be much larger—images from most current digital cameras. These images should have a resolution of 240 dpi or higher.

To check resolution in Photoshop, open an image, go to the Image menu and click on Image Size. This will give you the horizontal and vertical measurements and resolution measured in dpi (dots per inch). The keyboard shortcut is CTRL-ALT-I (letter “I”).

Your third step is to save a copy of your high-res image at screen resolution, which is 72 dpi. Since people are used to seeing 4-inch by 6-inch prints, do a Save As (CTRL-Shift-S in Photoshop) at 4x6 at 72 dpi. Make sure the Scale Size and Constrain Proportions boxes are check to keep everything normal. Personal preference is to give these files the designation “x72” at the end so viewers know they are looking at screen, not printer, resolution shots.

You can email the screen resolution images to friends and family and not require a long time to view.

There’s nothing stopping you from making even smaller copies, which help when using them on web pages. Just make sure each image is big enough for people to see clearly.

II B. Optional Steps

An optional fourth step is to make sub-folders within your main folder for the different resolutions. For example, under “Christmas 2010” you can have “DNG,” “High resolution” and “Screen resolution” folders.

An optional fifth step that helps when dealing with large numbers of photos is to use Photoshop’s Contact Sheet maker that puts all of the images onto various pages. You can adjust the number of rows and columns, plus the resolution.

You will find this function in Photoshop under the Edit menu, Automate, Contact Sheet II.

III. Even More Information

Some people like to have every bit of information about their photos at their fingertips. If that description fits you, consider making a database. Programs such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Works and the free Google Docs work perfectly.

A sample database might contain the date and location of each image, the keywords and, if you want to really get fancy, a small version of each photo.

The advantage of this method is it makes finding every image extremely fast without having to install a separate program or write your own code.

Questions or suggestions? Email David B. Reynolds at davereyn83@gmail.com.