I want to scan old photos - some are almost 100 years old. Will scanning damage the original ph?

Question

I have original photos,some that date to late 1800's. If I scan the photos will it do any damage to the original - and how many times scanned is safe? I'm doing genealogy and I want to share my information.

Answer 1

You shouldn't have a problem, so long as the photos aren't Sitting in the light... ie especially sunlight! no no.. and UV lights... no no... but regular scanning should be fine, once you have a digital image you can reproduce a print, and continue scanning that... or compile a bunch of prints and put the originals in an acid free box for safe keeping.

Answer 2

Depends on the scanner. Most scanners work by bouncing light from a moving light source over a small area of the photo before moving on to another area. Each section of the photo will only be exposed to the light for a small amount of time so I doubt that the photo will be damaged at all. Why scan each photo several times? Scan each once and save and re-use the scanned image if you are worried about damaging your photos.

Answer 3

Get a pair of cotton gloves and gently place the photos on the scanner or photos them under even lights. Toughing the photos reasons greater harm than the easy act of scanning. it incredibly is an incredible thank you to maintain them. only take a while.

Answer 4

No. It won't damage the photo. The scanner is just shining light on the photo for a short time. Its nowhere near long enough to fade it, as might happen if you left photos in the sun for weeks.

Just make sure their is no dirt, dust or sticky substances on the glass of the scanner. Use a soft, lint-free cloth to remove dust from the scanner glass if required (like for eye-glasses). For dirt and sticky substances, you would use screen-wipes, as you would for a computer screen, then make sure the glass is dry of course before putting a photo on it for scanning.

There's no need to scan a photo multiple times. Just scan it once and save it to a file, then use that file whenever you want to send it to people attached to an email or upload it to a genelogy site or add it to a genaology program, etc.

For genealogy photos, I've found that I often wish I had taken a higher resolution than I've got. Its a good idea to scan at a fairly high-res, such as 1200 dots per inch, save a high-res file in a format that doesn't lose information by file-compression, such as a.TIF or .BMP file, then scan and save another smaller version as a 300 dpi .JPG file. If you have a photo editing program, you can take just one scan and save 2 versions with different sizes and file formats.

You can then use the low-res file in your genealogy program or website or send it to friends as an email attachment or by uploading it to a photo-sharing site like www.flickr.com and keep the high-res one in case you want to examine some detail of clothing, uniforms, medals, buildings, etc, later on.

Ask more questions on here if you want to improve the appearance of your old photos digitally, using photo editing programs such as photoshop or paint shop pro. Google has a free photo editing program called Picasa that you can download.

You can see a lot more detail by fixing the brightness and contrast and you can fix tears and scratches, etc. Paint shop pro version 10 or 11 has a very good 1 click 'Smart Photo Fix' function to make the brightness and contrast of an old photo look as good as new (see 1st link) . Google's picasa has an automatic contrast fix button.

The 2nd link is to an article with tips for scanning genealogy photos.

I've done a lot of restoration of photos for my family history. If you have any scans of faded photos that you'de like me to take a look at, send me an email and I'll see how much I can improve their brightness and contrast, etc. I've enabled email in my profile. I enjoy tinkering around with old photos just to see how much they can be restored.

Answer 5

No.. Scanning should not harm the photo.. I have scanned a few 50 year old photos and no harm came to them..

Answer 6

The scanning process its self wont danmage the photo, how ever... the care you use with the photo when scanning it (moving it, placing it on the glass, ect..) may damage the photo.

Answer 7

nope! wont hurt them abit.

id take them down to your local copy place and havecolor copies made as well. that way you have copies to share with those who cant print them from thier computer

dont laminate them either, the heat will burn them.

Answer 8

NO! I have a scanner too it will not damage anything.

Answer 9

no .carefully for what you will do. use glass to protect it.

Answer 10

No.