Preparing Your Photos

Having your photos prepared for scanning can help you save quite a bit of money. Here are some things you should know before bringing in your photos.

Use of Automated Scanning Equipment
To help speed the process and reduce scanning costs we utilize a scanner that automatically loads each photo one after another and scans front and back simultaneously.  Because this is significantly faster than manually loading a table scanner we can offer pricing significantly lower than others.

Picture in Good Condition

To make sure photos are scanned quickly and safely they need to be in good condition.  They cannot have significant tears, any tape or adhesive residue, deterioration, or other physical problem.  Any photos that are not stable enough to be scanned will be set aside from the batch. On the right you'll see some examples of photos that are too frail to be scanned with our equipment.  The first photo has a lot of flaking on the back, and the second one has a tear.

Sorting by Size
Each batch needs to be segmented based on size, and you can save a lot of money if you do this before bringing us your photos.  For example, if you have a batch of photos that has photos that are 3x5, 4x6 and 5x7 then that batch will need to be sorted into those three groups.

Naming Convention
We have some flexibility how the scanned files are named.  You probably saw on the Pricing page that there is a line item for "Change to Naming Convention". Personally we try to archive our own photos based on date.  I use the YYYYMM format (i.e. 198403 for March 1984) so that when you sort the photos by name they're all in chronological order.  To do that we broke our own photos into batches by month.  You have to reset the equipment to modify the naming convention between each batch which can slow things down a lot.

For folks who want to have scans from smaller batches with customized naming conventions we can help you out.  If you don't mind a larger batch size and you only have minimal naming requirements you can save some money.

What Else Is There?
Really there isn't much more to it.  The photos need to be check to make sure they're in good shape, you group them in batches (by event, month, year, or just one big batch), they get sorted by size, and in short order you'll have digital copies of your photos!