Sanning & Archiving

scottsdalescott · Nov 26, 2006

My task is to scan and archive family photos dating back to the civil war. Im looking for the best scanner and archiving software for this purpose. I would like the highest possible resolution as I will only want to do this project once. I will need to scan many faded images, & a few film images.

I can work on PC or Mac platforms.

Any suggestions?

Alex_B · Nov 26, 2006

1. well, if it is many photos .. think of data storage, not a trivial task .. in particular if you scan in high res ... gets worse if you want 16 bit colour depth as then you are bound to tiff and other large formats

2. get some good software for your scanner if it does not come with some excellent one ... silverfast seems to be a good option. and software DOERS make a great difference.

3. think of postprocessing, noise reduction, restoration of colour ...

I'm not an expert on scanning prints... i only have experience with scanning film ,so maybe someone else can comment in more detail than i

scottsdalescott · Nov 26, 2006

I have approx. 400-500 photos. However, this is a once in a lifetime Complete family history type project. The results of which will be handed down to other generations. I have no problems purchasing multiple external drives to accomplish the task and eventually saving to both DVD and online (offsite) storage. I guess cost is not the issue. It is more getting the correct scanner and archival software to do the job.

I have Photoshop and experience to some corrections. Is there a professional archival software for organizing the photos for later retrieval? Or do I have to build a FileMaker Pro type database for that?

Alex_B · Nov 26, 2006

scottsdalescott said:
I have Photoshop and experience to some corrections. Is there a professional archival software for organizing the photos for later retrieval? Or do I have to build a FileMaker Pro type database for that?

hm, 500-600 is not that much, i recently scanned about 6000 images from film without using archival software.
I just put them in folders on my harddrives sorted by year and location

so you might have a folder called 1930_to_1940_nyc or something like that. this will also be understood by future generations. in particular if you actively migrate the data to new filysystems every couple of years. It is totally unknown however, if in 30 years time the archival software which in en vogue today or seems convenient does still work ...therefore: keep it simple, keep it safe.. that is my opinion.

PS is fine for postprocessing. you might think about neatimage or noiseninja if the scans are very noisy ... i would not remove all the grain though, as this is part of the historical images.