How to Convert Old Photos to Digital
Buying a digital camera doesn't mean your old prints, slides, or negatives are obsolete. You can easily convert them with a scanner to bring them into the 21st century.
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You Will Need
- Photos, slides, or negatives
- A computer
- A flatbed scanner with attachments for slides and negatives
- A soft photography or makeup brush
- A lint-free cloth
- Isopropyl alcohol
- Photo editing software
Steps
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Step 1
Organize your photos
Before scanning, organize your photos – and slides and negatives, if you have them – into logical groups. This will make renaming and labeling them much easier later on.
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Step 2
Clean your photos
Using a soft photography or makeup brush, gently clean your photos. Any dirt or smudges will be visible in your scans.
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Step 3
Clean the scanner
Using isopropyl, or another cleaning agent that won't leave residue or streaks, and a lint-free cloth, wipe any dust, smudges, and fingerprints off the scanner's glass bed.
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Turn on the scanner's light to reveal any overlooked smudges, fingerprints, or dirt.
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Step 4
Select your DPI based on your image use
For images you intend to print, a DPI (or dots per inch) of 300 is recommended. Slides or negatives need a DPI of at least 2,400. For use on the Web, a DPI of 72 is acceptable.
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Step 5
Scan your old photos
Using the software that came with your scanner, scan each photo into your computer.
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Step 6
Rename your digital scans
Your scans will likely have numerical names that tell you nothing about the content of the scanned image. Rename each file.
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Step 7
Edit your images
Using photo- editing software, view each image, cropping out bits you don't want, straightening slightly crooked images, and using color correction where necessary.
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Step 8
Backup your images
Photo library software makes organizing and viewing photos on the computer simple, but you should also burn your scanned photos to a CD, DVD, or an external hard drive for safekeeping. You can typically save about 1,200 images on a CD and close to 7,000 on a DVD when you save them as JPG files.
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You can get a scanner the size of a ballpoint pen, meant for scanning single lines of text.
