Scanning - almost complete

[Freis968]

Well, I have scanned photos and documents over the past few years...trying to get everything digitized and I am finally on the home stretch. Since last Friday I have scanned in excess of 500 items, mainly documents, diary entries, legal documents, song lyrics, etc.

I have used different scanners over the years to scan the items but this time around I have been using the Canon LiDE200 scanner. I scanned the documents using the basic scanning software at 600dpi when wanting to replicate the "look" of my handwritten diary entries to 300dpi black and white when scanning in basic legal docs or paper with just black and white text.

I have about 50-100 photos left that my mother found the other week that I have to scan in and THAT IS IT! I should only have to scan day to day things that need scanning, but it is sure nice to get everything digitized.

I would say since I bought my first scanner back in 2000...I have scanned, between pics and documents, probably 5,000 or more items.

How about the rest of you? I would love to hear your scanning stories, methods, tips, etc. Do you keep your old photos after you scan them or discard/shred them?

PS Now I have to name all the scans and sort them into folders...legal docs, song lyrics, diary entries by month, day, year...etc. I have been on vacation this week so it has made it nice to work a bit each day on this project....that I have been putting off for the past year. And YES, I have everything backed up a couple times. I have it all on my WD Passport drive. If anything should ever happen and I have to run out of my home quickly, I can grab my cat and my passport drive and haul ass...and my iPhone, Mac Pro, guitar, drums, PS3, BluRay collection...LOL! So much for portability!

 

[gkarris]

You scanning prints or negatives?

Hope you have all that backed-up...

 

[rufhausen]

I'm planning on sending off a box of old photos for scanning to http://www.scanmyphotos.com/photoscanning.html when I'm ready.

$50 for 1000 photos.

I've heard mostly good things about the service so far.

 

[skybolt]

I recently scanned all my family's old photos -- no telling how many, dating back to around 1900. What a great feeling to have it done! One tip is to scan B&W photos using the "color" photo setting. Have heard of some folks having issues with B&W scanned as such.

I took the time to organize the photos first, by date (or at least approximate date) and/or other criteria of my choosing. That allowed me to scan in batches and then I had like things together in the same "event". It's like, "how do you eat an elephant?" -- "one bite at a time"! I saved each batch to a folder on my desktop, and imported them into iPhoto from there. The Canon software allowed me to "multi-scan" so that each photo was scanned as its own file -- so much easier. A tip here -- when you have your photos organized, and are asked by the scanning software to name them, don't put the actual name you want to use on them at this time. The resulting folder will be organized by name, rather than the date (or whatever) order you started with. I named each one a consecutive number, and then renamed them in iPhoto once they were imported. I also changed the date on each to better reflect the time the photo was taken (as best I could -- my grandmother was good about dating, but nobody else was -- had to guess a lot!), used keywords and made smart albums. Easy to do if you are working with batches.

When I finished, I created DVD's of them using iDVD and gave them to the appropriate family members. They LOVED them! Especially the cousins I had not seen in 40 years! iDVD allows you to include the jpgs on the disk, so that the recipient can access the photos themselves. This way, they are backed up yet again! I also gave the hard copies to the appropriate people. It was a fun project.

I had looked at scanmyphotos, but when I realized how they had to be sorted and packaged (size, orientation, etc.) I just felt that with the capabilities of my scanner, I was just as well off to do them myself. Does look like a good deal, though.

Enjoy!

 

[ChrisA]

I would say since I bought my first scanner back in 2000...I have scanned, between pics and documents, probably 5,000 or more items.

2000 was nine years ago and you have "only" done 5,000 document. That works out to about 50 per month.

I've in the middle of a big scanning project too. But I work differently
On average I scan about 1,000 every two months. This works out to about 500 a month. What I do is box the stuff up and ship it off to a service that scans them to a DVD. Then when the job is done I still have to catalogue everything. Even so It a LOT less work to do it that way.

When I decide to do something myself or send it out I first place a value on my time in $$/hour and then do the math. Sometimes I end up doing work myself even if not cost effective because I need it done "now" or to have more control over the process.

 

[Freis968]

2000 was nine years ago and you have "only" done 5,000 document. That works out to about 50 per month.

I've in the middle of a big scanning project too. But I work differently
On average I scan about 1,000 every two months. This works out to about 500 a month. What I do is box the stuff up and ship it off to a service that scans them to a DVD. Then when the job is done I still have to catalogue everything. Even so It a LOT less work to do it that way.

When I decide to do something myself or send it out I first place a value on my time in $$/hour and then do the math. Sometimes I end up doing work myself even if not cost effective because I need it done "now" or to have more control over the process.

Yes, I am like a turtle when it comes to my projects...slow and steady as she goes!

Wow! You scan 1,000 every two months? How many photos have you scanned so far?