| 8 Tips for Photo and Document Scanning Tips | |
by Diane Haddad
Does a pile of papers and pictures stand between you and your dream of a digitized family archive? Digitized files are easier than their paper counterparts to share with relatives, back up, and turn into a family history book one day.
1. Not sure where to start? Start digitizing your most valuable and irreplaceable items first. 2. Set an achievable goal, such as scanning 10 items a week, or participating in Scanfest (genealogists meet online the last Sunday each month and chat as they scan). 3. You could speed up the scanning process by scanning multiple photos at once. Some photo software (such as Adobe Photoshop Elements) automatically separates the scanned images into separate files. 4. Choose the right resolution-usually, 300 dpi for documents and at least 600 dpi for images. If you plan to print an enlargement or zoom in for detailed retouching, go up to 1,200 dpi. 5. Consider saving master copies of photos as TIFFs, and use JPG copies to share and for everyday viewing. The PDF format is a good choice for documents. 6. Before you scan, clean your scanner glass with a soft, dry cloth. If it's really dirty, spray a little glass cleaner on the cloth (never on the glass). If the photo or document is dusty, gently brush it with a soft, dry brush. 7. Organize digital files as you scan. Decide on a file structure for your scanned images and file them right away. If you use photo-organizing software, tag images with the name of the person or family associated with the item, plus a place, date, type of record, and other pertinent information. 8. Back up your scans in multiple locations, such as to the cloud, to an external hard drive, and on your sister's computer. | |
Showing posts with label Photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photos. Show all posts
Sunday, November 3, 2013
8 Tips for Scanning Photos and Documents
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
How Do I Edit and Manage Photos?
When my husband and I attended the Family History Expo in Colorado Springs in August, I attended a class taught by James Tanner about Family Tree, the new product for our genealogy at FamilySearch.org. A light bulb came on in my head. I decided that Family Tree would be the best place for me to store (and archive) the Family History research I've performed in the last 15 years. Because of the new developments on the Family Tree, we are now able to upload a maximum of 5,000 photos to our personal account and can attach photos to the appropriate individuals in the Family Tree.
If the photos we want to upload are not already online or in digital format, it's necessary for us to scan those photos into a digital format. I've resumed my activity of staffing the Family History Center each Wednesday 5:00-7:00pm so I can help our Consultants and Patrons learn how to scan and edit our family photos and upload them to the Family Tree.
I encourage our Consultants to get familiar with Family Tree and start sharing (and storing) our old family photos so we can collaborate with others.
I regularly follow the posts that James Tanner publishes on his "Genealogy's Star" blog. I've learned so much from his teaching. Today he posted an article called "Update on Photo Management Software for Genealogists". Since I use Picasa for my photo editing software and have been teaching it in the Family History Center, I'm sharing what James posted about it in his blog.
At the entry level, there is Google's Picasa. This program is up to Version 3.9 and is a free download from Google. The program will automatically begin searching your computer's hard drive and any attached hard drives for images. It does not make a copy of the images and it does not share any of the images with the online world. It merely makes a thumbnail version index of each image and leaves the original image exactly where you had it on your hard drive. You then have a visual index of every image on or connected to your computer. Using Picasa you can move an image to a different file, rename images, rename file folders and find the original image on your computer. The program will also do some basic photo editing. There are many more functions of the program including tagging people in the photos and adding metadata tags to the images.
If the photos we want to upload are not already online or in digital format, it's necessary for us to scan those photos into a digital format. I've resumed my activity of staffing the Family History Center each Wednesday 5:00-7:00pm so I can help our Consultants and Patrons learn how to scan and edit our family photos and upload them to the Family Tree.
I encourage our Consultants to get familiar with Family Tree and start sharing (and storing) our old family photos so we can collaborate with others.
I regularly follow the posts that James Tanner publishes on his "Genealogy's Star" blog. I've learned so much from his teaching. Today he posted an article called "Update on Photo Management Software for Genealogists". Since I use Picasa for my photo editing software and have been teaching it in the Family History Center, I'm sharing what James posted about it in his blog.
At the entry level, there is Google's Picasa. This program is up to Version 3.9 and is a free download from Google. The program will automatically begin searching your computer's hard drive and any attached hard drives for images. It does not make a copy of the images and it does not share any of the images with the online world. It merely makes a thumbnail version index of each image and leaves the original image exactly where you had it on your hard drive. You then have a visual index of every image on or connected to your computer. Using Picasa you can move an image to a different file, rename images, rename file folders and find the original image on your computer. The program will also do some basic photo editing. There are many more functions of the program including tagging people in the photos and adding metadata tags to the images.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Online Photo Storage Options
I've been using Google Drive to store my photos and I use Picasa (a free Google product) to edit them. CNET offers a comprehensive article today on the options available to us for managing our photos. You can read it at this link: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57462902-285/comparing-the-best-ways-to-store-your-photos-online/
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