PHOTO ALBUMS AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

Dougwe · Chief one feather

PHOTO ALBUMS AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

aussie_paul · Guru

Doug, a photo scanner is what I use. They can do slides, negatives and photos.

Aussie Paul. smile

Big Gorilla · Guru

I wont be rude and tell you what you can do with them !!! biggrin biggrin biggrin But it's a problem we oldies all face. Old technology which includes photo albums that we don't want to lose. We used to hoard things in bxes and rooms, now we hoard them on our computers and laptops. If what you are currently doing by photographing the album contents and it works, go ahead. I'm not familiar with a photo scanner that Paul mentioned, so it might be worthwhile checking it out. Whichever way you go, sounds like you're gonna be busy for a while !!!

Dougwe · Chief one feather

I do have a photo and a negative scanner but I have writing under each photo and wanted all that as well so taking a photo of the page is working, for me anyway. Who knows, I might even look at them more often.

kandagal · Guru

A few years ago while I spent time with a daughter who was undergoing treatment for breast cancer Keith spent his time scanning 70 years of photos into the computer. And then we threw the albums away. So now all photos go straight from the camera to the computer. I also keep a diary & had 20 years of A4 books so I spent the time putting them onto the computer & threw the books away. No room in M/H & they also weigh heavily.

wendyv · Guru

I have scanned a lot of my pre-digital photos onto the computer. Can't quite bring myself to throw out the actual photos though - yet - so thought I would take them out of albums and store them in special photo storage boxes. Won't take up nearly as much room (we do have home base) - and I can write on back of them if necessary.

GerryP · Veteran Member

Personally, I would be very wary about throwing away the originals. Computers can and do crash... OK, so you have backups... on CD, or DVD, or Blu Ray, or an external HDD, or a USB stick, or maybe somewhere on-line in cloud storage. Sounds great...

Except that technology changes, and it does so in an almost exponential manner. I used to store "stuff" on 5 1/4" floppy disks, then on 3 1/2" floppies. I still have some, but I don't have a computer that can read them anymore. I also used external hard drives... they were serial port or maybe parallel port connections. Guess what, those drives won't work on my computer anymore - they don't use those connectors anymore.

Apart from all that, all digital storage devices have a finite life. A number of my very early CD storage disks can no longer be read as they DO deteriorate and fail over time, even if they're never used.

Not trying to be a smart ass here, but seriously, if they're at all precious to you, I would strongly suggest you keep the originals, in the dark and somewhere safe.

aussie_paul · Guru

At least the negatives Gerry..

Aussie Paul. smile

Dougwe · Chief one feather

All the negatives as I said are properly archived away so all good really. I know what you are saying Gerry but all good this end.

GaryKelly · Guru

Yep, I scanned whole pages from the old family album so that my dad's handwriting is included. It's easy enough to crop a single photo if you want it to be separate or to frame. I scanned them a couple of years ago because I had the only copy of the old album in existence. Then I copied the scans to disk and sent all my bros a copy. Now we all have a copy!

aussie_paul · Guru

GaryKelly wrote:
Yep, I scanned whole pages from the old family album so that my dad's handwriting is included. It's easy enough to crop a single photo if you want it to be separate or to frame. I scanned them a couple of years ago because I had the only copy of the old album in existence. Then I copied the scans to disk and sent all my bros a copy. Now we all have a copy!

Good move Gary, I am transferring our stuff to 5 copies, one for each of the kids and ourselves. My Dad began taking standard 8 film in 1955 and we have a continuous media stream of our families from then to now as I carried on.

Aussie Paul. smile

chaslib · Senior Member

What are the pros and cons of laminating photos?...... I know several people who have done this and swear by it, and others say over time the photos deteriorate? I have scanned 100's of photos - in particular ones from my Dad who was a WW2 pilot and present at the bombing at Darwin ..... many of his photos have no names, but they show where he was during those years (Wagga, Nth Qld, NT, USA and Canada are a few). I just wish photos that have been passed down the family to me had the information included as to who they are and where the photos was taken ...... very frustrating .....

03_troopy · Guru

GerryP wrote:
Personally, I would be very wary about throwing away the originals. Computers can and do crash... OK, so you have backups... on CD, or DVD, or Blu Ray, or an external HDD, or a USB stick, or maybe somewhere on-line in cloud storage. Sounds great...
Except that technology changes, and it does so in an almost exponential manner. I used to store "stuff" on 5 1/4" floppy disks, then on 3 1/2" floppies. I still have some, but I don't have a computer that can read them anymore. I also used external hard drives... they were serial port or maybe parallel port connections. Guess what, those drives won't work on my computer anymore - they don't use those connectors anymore.
Apart from all that, all digital storage devices have a finite life. A number of my very early CD storage disks can no longer be read as they DO deteriorate and fail over time, even if they're never used.
Not trying to be a smart ass here, but seriously, if they're at all precious to you, I would strongly suggest you keep the originals, in the dark and somewhere safe.

I totally agree with GerryP. I have some photos from my grandparents that date back to when they were kids, a couple are even on thin metal plates. These hard copies go back to close to 100 years and most have things written on the back of them. These will keep for another 100 years if they are looked after properly.

With digital copies, you have to update the media to current technologies every so often so they can still be accessed by current machines. And unless you have multiple copies on different media, you can lose them through deterioration of the media.. (that DVD won't read any more.. that HDD is trashed.. oops, I accidentally saved the clipped photo as the original...etc)

And anyway, just the physical appearance, texture and even the smell of the original photos is so much better than digital pics on a screen.

Keep both...

Note, 127 is a pic of my grandad as a young child on metal plate.

-- Edited by 03_troopy on Tuesday 2nd of September 2014 07:35:55 PM

Nelly · Guru

I know where you are coming from Dougwe but also agree with GerryP. Friend of ours parents had passed away and there was all these photo albums of their holidays which meant nothing to the kids so I can understand if they were thrown away but as for photos of family members they ought to be retained if possible for future generations. Please remember if writing on the back of photos don't use biro as this will come through eventually - buy a pencil that is used for printing on glass - all to do with the acid. Great photos troopy.