Scanning photos

 This is a reply to a friend, offering suggestions that my be of general interest,

John, just a few suggestions. If your printer has a built-in scanner, clean the scanning glass, and see if its results are acceptable before going out to buy a dedicated scanner. If your printer does not include a scanner, you can probably buy a nice basic flatbed scanner for about $100.

I prefer to scan photos at 300 or 600 DPI (dots per inch) so that any copies can be printed at their original size and still look good. (I usually use 600 DPI for small photos to make them larger.)

My scanner defaults to JPG as the default type of image, so that is what I have used.PNG tends to be an increasingly preferred format, as the file size is still reasonable and there is no degradation if the image is edited multiple times.

If I know who is in the image, I identify them in the file name so that the names and the photos don't go separate ways. (If I don't know who is in the photo, I don't usually scan it.)

Uploading photos to FamilySearch Memories, from the Gallery view works well, as you can upload several (40 at a time, if I remember correctly).

Note that FamilySearch limits the size of photos and documents to 15 MB per item, 

To easily colorize black and white photos, try https://www.myheritage.com/incolor If the contrast in the original is good, the results can be amazing.

I mentioned on the phone that one family project involved over 500 photos. I see in My Contributions that I have uploaded over 5000 total. Note that 1000 is the maximum number of Memory items that can tagged to any one person. 

Please give me a call if you have any further questions. 

Bill Buchanan