Misc. Thoughts on Saving Memory Photos

There are a few things that I would like to touch on as this week's series on scanning and saving old family photos draws to an end. First the scanner, your needs may not require the highest price scanner available. If you are not attempting to restore the photos to a quality higher than when they were new, and you are okay with slight improvements to their current quality, a $100 scanner will likely do the job.

My middle brother and I before my aunt's wedding; check out his casual crossed ankles pose.

There are a couple of things the non-professional to might consider when looking over the scanner specs, optical/hardware resolution and Dmax. The minimum optical or hardware resolution should be 600 to 1200 dpi (really ppi but the scanner guys insist on calling it dpi). You will normally not need more than 300 dpi/ppi, but the extra capability will not cost more. Dmax is the ability to capture the dynamic range of a photograph. Dynamic range in photography quantifies the ratio between the maximum and minimum measurable light intensities. In black and white photographs, think of it as the range of tones of gray between white and black. The greater the number of tones more interesting the detail in the photo. A Dmax above 3 is okay; above 4 is much better.

I'm not too sure why my brother has a hatchet in his hands. My sister and I don't seem to be concerned.

I like the semi double exposure on this one.

Okay, you now have the scanning thing under control. You decide to "clean-up" some of those old photos. Turning discolored black and whites back to black and white, improving the color on a color image that has gone to orange, cyan, or some other unidentifiable color, or just fixing a few scratches. Taking a photo like this...

...and making it look more like this.


You will require some photo editing software. Since I teach Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom at the college level, my preference is for an Adobe Photoshop program. For most people who are not going to use these tools at a professional level, I normally suggest Adobe Photoshop Elements. It is often said that with Elements one gets 80% of the full blown Photoshop software at 20% of the cost. I didn't do the math, but Photoshop Elements is very affordable and it has lots of capability. If my memory serves me correctly, the current version is Elements 7. It can normally be found for less than $100. There are lots of "how to" books and lots of tutorials on line (some free and some for a charge). Check it out!

This looks like the end.

Don't hesitate to ask questions by entering them in the Comments section of the blog.