What to Know About Digitizing Your Photos
You can do it yourself with a scanner or smartphone app, or hire a mail-in service or local pro to do it for you
The shift from film to digital photography in recent decades has given our memories protection. However, many of us still have older photos that we have not yet scanned into digital form. Printed photos are susceptible to floods and fires, but most often the culprit of destruction to our photos is time. The longer our old photos sit in photo albums and boxes, the quicker they will decay. There are three routes you can take when you decide to scan your photos for further safekeeping. You can do it yourself by purchasing or renting a scanner, ship your photos away to a scanning service, or hire someone locally to scan your photos. First you need to determine how many of your photos need to be scanned. In addition to photographs, you may also want to scan the original slides or negatives, old newspaper articles, artwork by your children, and any other memorabilia. Let’s assume that you have an average-size collection of 3,000 to 5,000 photos. Here are your options...