If you’re like me, you’ve inherited old photo albums with the pictures held down on so called magnetic pages. The trouble with these albums is that the adhesive used and the plastic liners damage the photos over time. Removing the photos is a priority. I went looking for help and boiled my research down to these seven essential steps…Read more.
Posted in Ancestors, How to, Photos, Preservation, Resources, Restoration, Tips
Tagged Facebook, flickr, How to, old photos, Photograph, Photograph album, Photographic Activity Test, photography, Picasa, preserving, save, storing, Tips
Are you looking for a dedicated photo scanner that’ll give you excellent results without breaking the bank? Here are three that deserve your attention – the Canon CanoScan 9000F and the Epson Perfection V500 and V600. All receive high ratings by users and reviewers.
But before you rush out the door to purchase one, keep this in mind. If you have a high volume of prints and slides to digitize, you’d be wise to consider using a local lab. It simply takes too long on a flatbed scanner to process a large collection. If you don’t have a local lab, check out ScanMyPhotos They’ve been around for 22 years and have impressive reviews.
If you’re still determined to buy a photo scanner, you might take a moment to read Guide to Desktop Scanners by Imaging Resource.
After some careful research here are my top three picks:
Canon CanoScan 9000F ( Amazon $213.33 , B&H $174.95
“While Canon’s CanoScan 8800F and Epson’s V600 battle it out in the sub-$200 flatbed film scanner sweepstakes, Canon has quietly trumped them both with its highest resolution film flatbed ever: the CanonScan 9000F…[it] delivered credible results. We were surprised by how well our slides were captured with detail in both the highlights and shadows.” Imaging Resource Complete review
Epson Perfection V500 (Amazon $139.99, B&H $139.95
“Epson has knocked one out of the park with this scanner. It offers high-quality scans for both prints and film and features an LED light source that eliminates warm-up time. Like almost any flatbed scanner, the V500 can handle all-purpose scanning, but it’s focused on photos. This makes it most appropriate for anyone (short of a professional photographer) who needs to scan a backlog of prints and film (including slides) to digital format.” PCMag.com Complete review
Epson Perfection V600 (Amazon $199.00, B&H $170.95
“The V600 fits in Epson’s line between the less expensive Editors’ Choice Epson Perfection V500 Photo, scanner and the more expensive Epson Perfection V700 Photo. Despite the evenly spaced model numbers, it’s much closer in price and capability to the V500, but it offers some important extras. In particular, it includes Digital ICE—the hardware-based approach for digitally removing dust and scratches—for both prints and film. The V500 includes Digital ICE for film only…[the V600]offers more than acceptable scan quality and speed, and compared to the V500, it offers additional flexibility for medium format film plus Digital ICE…” PCMag.com Complete review
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Posted in Home Office, Photos, Preservation, Resources, Tips
Tagged best, budget priced, Canon, Canon CanoScan 9000F, Digital ICE, Epson, Epson V500, Epson V600, excellent, film scanner, Image scanner, photo scanner, scanner, Tips, under $200
Where do you start to learn some of the basics of Photoshop? There are a bewildering array of Photoshop tutorials available online. But most personal history newcomers want lessons that relate more specifically to their work.
With this in mind I’ve selected these 20 free tutorials. Let me know if you’ve found a site, not listed here, that’s been particularly useful to you.
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Photo by Bart van de Biezen
Posted in How to, Personal historian, Photos, Restoration, Tips
Tagged Adobe Photoshop, Graphics, help, How to, Image, Image editing, Personal historian, personal histories, Photo manipulation, photography, Photos, Photoshop, Tips, Tutorial
Posted in Ancestors, How to, Photos, Preservation
Tagged Ancestors, How to, old photos, Photos, preserving, Resources, save, storing, Tips
In the past twelve months these are the posts that have ranked as the most popular with readers. If you’ve missed some of these, now’s your chance to catch up over the holidays. Enjoy!
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Posted in Book reviews, End of life, How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Marketing, Personal historian, Photos, Publishing, Restoration, Tips, Video production
Tagged End of life, fees, How to, Life stories, Marketing, Personal historian, Photos, preserving, print-on-demand, Tips, top 10 posts, videography training, Women's memoirs
Posted in Ancestors, Book reviews, Inspiration, Personal historian, Photos, Preservation
Tagged books, family stories, Inspiration, keepsakes, Photos, Preservation
If you’re like me, you’ve inherited old photo albums with the pictures held down on so called magnetic pages. The trouble with these albums is that the adhesive used and the plastic liners damage the photos over time. Removing the photos is a priority. I went looking for help and boiled my research down to these seven essential steps.
Step 1. Before attempting any photo removal make certain to scan digitally each album page so that should a photo be damaged, you can still recover it from the scanned image.
Step 2. Select a practice photo that has no value to you or is badly out of focus. A word of caution. When removing photos be sure not to curl or peel them back as this could cause permanent damage.
Step 3. Use a piece of dental floss and carefully pull it under one corner of the photo. Using a sawing motion slowly work your way to the opposite corner. With any luck the photo should pop right off.
Step 4. If a photo is glued so tightly that floss won’t work, then try one of the following removal methods:
a. Use un-do, an adhesive remover that won’t harm photos. It comes with an applicator that allows you to slip the remover under the photo.
b. Place the album page in your freezer for a few minutes. The glue will become brittle, making it easier to remove the photo.
c. Use a hair dryer set on low heat. Run it back and forth on the back of the page holding the photo. Be careful not to overheat the photo as this could damage it. Once the glue has softened, quickly and carefully remove the picture.
d. Place the photo album page in a microwave. Make certain there are no metallic pieces. Start the microwave and run it for five seconds. Check the photo and keep using five second blasts until the glue softens and the photo comes free.
Step 5. Take your photos and where possible write on the back the following information: the names of people in the photo, their ages, the year, the location, and the event. Avoid using a ball point pen as this could damage the photo. Use a soft lead pencil or an acid free pen available from a craft store.
Step 6. Digitally scan your photos, store them on your hard drive, and than upload them to a web based site like Flickr or Picasa. That way if your hard drive crashes, you won’t lose your digitized photos.
Step 7. Store your photos in cardboard photo boxes that pass the Photographic Activity Test (PAT). You can obtain such boxes at Archival Methods, Carr McLean, Light Impressions, Gaylord, and University Products. If you have a large collection, layer an acid free sheet of paper between each photo. Photos should be kept in a cool room with low humidity. That generally means keeping them out of attics and basements.
Photo by iStockphoto
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Posted in Ancestors, How to, Photos, Resources, Tips
Tagged Facebook, flickr, How to, old photos, Photograph, Photograph album, Photographic Activity Test, photography, Picasa, preserving, save, storing
In a previous article, How to Make Your Life Story Workshop Memorable, I showed the photo below from my personal collection.
from Dan Curtis photo collection
I suggested that an interesting workshop exercise would be to make copies of this photo, hand them out to the participants, and then have them write what they thought was the story behind the photo. After people shared stories, I’d reveal the actual story. I haven’t yet used this exercise but for those of you who read last week’s post and are curious to know the real story, here it is.
The man second from the right in the group is my father. It was 1941 and he was sailing from England back to Canada on a merchant ship, the Port Freemantle. He was a radio operator and navigator with the Ferry Command. The men surrounding him were fellow airmen who had recently flown bombers to England from Canada as part of the war effort. What I find interesting is how formally the men are dressed with their ties and jackets. You wouldn’t see that today!
All of this is a way of introducing you to the wonderful world of photo identification. This is fascinating and highly skilled work and no one does it better than Maureen Taylor, also known as The Photo Detective. The Wall Street Journal has called her “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective”. If you attended last year’s Association of Personal Historians conference, you would have had the privilege of hearing and meeting Maureen in person. If you’re not familiar with her work, check out her blog and her articles in Family Tree Magazine. If you have an old photo whose history is long lost, you can send your mystery photo to Maureen and for a fee she’ll work on identifying it.
For those of you who want to do it yourself, here are some resources to get you started.
***Be sure not to miss Cyndi’s List: Photographs and Memories. It’s an amazing collection of sites that will keep you busy for a long, long time!***
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Posted in Ancestors, How to, Personal historian, Photos, Resources, Tips
Tagged Ancestors, genealogy, How to, Maureen Taylor, photo identification, Resources, Tips
I always use some short, entertaining exercises to help break the ice and add a little fun and variety to my life story workshops. If you’re looking for something, consider some of those on my list. Please let me know in the comments below if you have some other exercises you’ve used and would like to share .
Photo Dan Curtis collection
Here’s the exercise. I’ll hand out a copy of the photo to each workshop participant and ask them to take 20 minutes to write a story behind the photo. I won’t give any clues as to the real story. Then I’ll ask various people to read out their stories. I think there’ll probably be some interesting variety. To conclude I’ll tell the real story of the photo. Curious? Well, you’ll just have to come to my workshop. 
Or you could check out my post on Wednesday, February 10th.
Photo by iStockphoto
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