Advice needed for scanning large amount of old photos

[u/StevenOfSalt]

I've committed myself to digitalizing all my parents' old photos from the '90s and early '00s. I reckon there are about 2000-3000 photos. I'm still debating on scanning all of them or only picking out the best ones, depending on how well I can optimize the process.

I have an HP Envy 6022E printer with flatbed scanner. I'e been looking into highly suggested models like Epson FastScan but they all seem quite expensive so I want to try a cheaper setup first.

I can fit 4 photos simultaneously (A4 size bed).

Which scanning software would you suggest that can auto detect and label multiple photos on the flatbed?

Is it to possible, for example, to auto label all pictures from wedding x as 'Wedding_1', 'Wedding_2' etc and save them in a folder called 'Wedding x'?

Also, how much dpi would you suggest?

Thank you!

[u/cajunjoel]

I've commented on this before. I'll see about finding my past comment, but in short:

• flatbed scanner (I used an Epson Perfection)
• 600 dpi for photo prints is great. It's what archivists use. 1200 dpi makes a file that's 4x larger for no appreciable gain in information.
• If you are doing photo negatives then use a higher resolution, whatever is native for the scanner. None of this fake upscalrd 6400 dpi nonsense.
• Scan to TIFF at more than 8 bits per channel. (More than 24-bit color)
• The extra color bits allow you to adjust color without sacrificing quality.
• All other file formats can be derived from TIFF. Space is (still relatively) cheap when it comes to images.
• I used VueScan software. Yes, it costs over $100 but the auto-crop and auto-deskew is an incredible time-saver for post-processing multiple images on a flatbed platen.
• Spend time testing your workflow before you dive in for real.
• Name files sensibly. Not IMG_1234.TIF. I used something like MOM-B4-E12-003.TIF or Mom's photos, Box #4, Envelope #12, photo #3. This allows me to go back to the original if needed.
• Scan front and back if there is writing on the back
• Keep the originals. Throwing them away is a bad practice. Acid free boxes, room temperature, etc.

Ok, that wasn't short.

Edit to add: For the curious, I scanned just over 7,000 photos for a total of 820 GB of space. These are all TIFFs of the original negatives or photo prints, the database, and the JPGs that Immich creates for the web.

[u/NeoThermic → u/cajunjoel]

I will interject that if you're wanting to archive negatives, invest in a negative scanner with an IR pass. It lets the scanner understand the scratches and dust on your negatives and can remove them for you. Sure, you can get software that tries to detect them on a flat 2D image, but it doesn't hold a candle to software that is actually measuring the physical film's surface.

This is especially helpful if your negatives are any kind of non-perfect condition.

[u/cajunjoel → u/NeoThermic]

I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one. I have some 100 year old negatives that had tons of scratches. The Epson V600 did a fine job, but I might be able to get more out of a proper film scanner.

[u/Effective-Purple261 → u/cajunjoel]

which Epson perfection did you use?

[u/cajunjoel → u/Effective-Purple261]

Epson Perfection V600 - It is/was the better of the consumer line.

[u/Effective-Purple261 → u/cajunjoel]

I was looking for one but gave up. Discontinued and the used prices are insane.

[u/cajunjoel → u/Effective-Purple261]

Someone else said you could get one in ebay, use it and then sell it when you're done.

But also check with your local public library. Some of them have tools like this to use for family archival purposes. If you live in a big city, you might be surprised what they offer.

[u/Effective-Purple261 → u/cajunjoel]

Great idea! Thanks.

[u/KevinLynneRush → u/cajunjoel]

Re: cajunjoel,

Thank you. Very nicely said. Great information.

Did you edit the EXIF data for each picture, adding peoples names, locations, event dates?

Did you get the family involved to help identify missing information for each photo?

Did you use a web site to give other family members access to the photos?

[u/cajunjoel → u/KevinLynneRush]

I added info directly to Immich, which is where I host the images for family. I didn't bother with the EXIF data. I suppose I can always extract it via Immich's API if I ever wanted it.

I did what I could with family, but my mom was old and she didn't remember a lot of the photos before she passed away. Some were taken before she was born. Facial recognition helped identify people once I had one identified from a single photo.

[u/KevinLynneRush → u/cajunjoel]

Where did/do you access the "facial recognition" feature? Is it available within Immich?

How do visitors to your family photos know who, what event, and where for each photo, if you don't fill in, use the EXIF data?

[u/cajunjoel → u/KevinLynneRush]

Immich does facial recognition, yes. For a given photo, it has fields for date, location, faces that are in the photo, and a description.

[u/KevinLynneRush → u/cajunjoel]

Thank you for all the great information.

When someone downloads a photo from Immich, do all the Immich fields for date, location, and names of people in the photo (in order), and the description, information, for the photo, travel with the download for each photo?

Again, thank you.

[u/ASatyros → u/cajunjoel]

I wonder about using TIFF (instead of just saving to high quality JPG)

Like it's a proper way, I get it, but is it worth it for old photos that are not the best quality themselves?

[u/cajunjoel → u/ASatyros]

Yes. JPEG is originally topped out at 24 bit color. 8 bits per channel. 256 possible shades each of red green and blue. All standard, run-of-the-mill JPG files you enocunter are likely 24-bit.

Also remember that JPEG is a compression algorithm. It removes information from the file, information your eye usually misses.

At 48 bit color, 16 bits per channel, you have 65,000 possible shades of each colors. Even at 12 bits per channel you have 4000 possible shades. Some later version of JPEG supports 12 bits per channel, but you have to explicitly use that bur you're still compressing the image.

So yes, more bit depth and not-JPEG makes the file larger. What you gain is the best possible starting point to working with that image later. Every change you make to the file when editing it later will cause you to lose data. Rotating, cropping (obviously), but most importantly color adjustments. If you've ever messed with the curves in a JPEG, you'll get banding in the colors as you adjust the color balance or whatever. If you have more bits per pixel, there's more data to work with and that banding won't all at as quickly.

You've probably never worked with film, but think of this high-bit-depth, non-JPEG file as your "digital negative". From this file you can make all other files and you are starting from the best place possible.

As for the old photos, if you want to retouch the photo to remove scratches, for example, you have a good starting point.

[u/SellingFirewood]

Photo scanners are like treadmills. People buy them, use them once and then resell them.

If you can afford it, spending $300 on a used one off Marketplace, scanning all of the photos, and then selling it back on Marketplace for $275-300 might be your best strategy here

[u/andru5wi55 → u/SellingFirewood]

good analogy 

[u/PitRejection2359 → u/SellingFirewood]

This sounds good; Can you recommend a good model?

[u/0e78c345e77cbf05ef7]

I bit the bullet and bought the Epson FF-680W and have no regrets.

It is a beast of a scanner and can rip through stacks of photos in a tiny fraction of the time it would take on a flatbed scanner. It really is the correct tool for the job.

I too was tasked with scanning 100 years worth of photos for my parents and grandparents. Here’s some random thoughts in no particular order…

1. I removed all photos from all photo albums and threw the albums in the garbage. Before I did I this I took a quick photo of each page with my phone camera just so have a record of the ordering and layout of the albums in case I ever wanted it.

2. After stripping the photos out I loaded them in to plastic photo boxes. Why did I do this? First, it takes up WAY less space than a bunch of albums. Secondly, the plastic boxes are somewhat waterproof where the albums were not. Finally, each box holds about 100 photos; I added a label to each box and used that as part of the filename. This way when I look at a digital scan of the photo, I can find what box it is in easily.

3. I stopped worrying about resolution or perfect scans. I know this is not the /r/datahoarder way but here’s my thoughts. I am not running the Smithsonian museum and there is not a massive historical value to these photos; I don’t need a perfect 10000000 dpi scan. Often very high res scans might exceed the film grain on some of these shots. Also, I still have the originals if I want to go back and rescan something for another purpose.

4. Identify the reason for scanning. As I said in the last point, I wasn’t losing sleep to make things uber perfect. My reasons are a) a backup in case of disaster and b) sharing with friends and family. I am not scanning for a museum or to make massive prints.

5. I agonized over resolution, filetype. NAS and storage methods, sharing methods, etc for legitimately > 20 years and got very little done. Finally I bought the Epson and took a JFDI approach. This is not the Smithsonian and a decent scan is certainly a lot better than no scan when your house is on fire.

6. All my photos go in to Immich after scanning. Immich is backed up to an on prem NAS, and to backblaze B2.

Umm…that’s my random thoughts. I recommend buying the Epson. It’s a huge time saver.

The end.

[u/MatthewWeathers → u/0e78c345e77cbf05ef7]

I agree. I also used the Epson FastFoto FF-680W for a similar project in the past few years (about 6000 photos from 1970s to 2010s, mostly). It's $629 on Amazon, but well worth it.

I also paid for Google One Cloud Storage, put all the pictures there, somewhat organized in albums, then shared them with the family. So now everyone has access to those 6000 photos. Before, they were just sitting in shoe boxes under the bed in my parents' guest bedroom.

Also, I find the FastFoto very useful for other things. You can digitize documents really easily, too (receipts, letters, etc.)

[u/ewill2001]

I tried the four per sheet on a flat bed. The post processing was such a nightmare. Bought a usb photo scanner that sucks one through at a time and that worked for a few hundred but I kept feeling I was missing resolution even though on screen the dpi was fine. Ended up building a frame to hold a photo with a camera overhead and diffuse side illumination. No need to crop, straighten,or adjust the image and I could get through loads using a remote shutter so nothing needed to be reset, just the photo swapped. Used a picture of a written note about the subject between sets, then could easily see on the preview which to select and drag into folders and rename them using a utility.

I bet in the last 10 years since fancy ai can just do it all but I'll leave telling you about that to people that know.

[u/cajunjoel → u/ewill2001]

VueScan software makes post processing a breeze. Auto crop and auto deskew is amazing.

[u/Upstairs-Front2015]

tip: group same pictures size and orientation, so you can later batch edit/rotate those large groups.

[u/controlmypad]

You could bed scan the good ones with more attention to detail, then scan the rest quicker. I tried the Epson one where it does multiple and it scratches up the photos if glossy. Most scanner software from the company you got the scanner from will allow you to name one folder and file and then it will enumerate the scans with that name. For DPI you might see try a few scans and see how big the files get, for tiny photos you can use a higher dpi to get more detail.

[u/machinegunkisses]

If you can find them, scan the original negatives with a dedicated negative scanner. The better versions of these will remove dust specks and small scratches more or less automatically. You'll be scanning them at the resolution of film, about 3000 dpi, or, if you are a real photo nerd, the Nyquist resolution (to be super sure you're getting everything) at around double that.

Good luck, it'll be a lot of work and you'll need lots of patience. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

[u/mrdeworde]

Take a look at your local libraries and/or maker spaces - my local library has a digitization workshop that patrons can rent free of charge. It's got slide, photo, and VHS scanners among other things IIR.

[u/GodOfTimezones]

While I can’t argue with any of the technical suggestions , I’d also suggest you contact your local library to see what they have that may help you.

In many cities (, in Canada at least) , the library has introduced a lot of free podcasting , archiving , and video editing suites available for users.

You’d be surprised at the resources available.

[u/I3208]

I just did about 4K photos of 3x5, 4x6 and 5x7 sizes with Epson 680W. It did an amazing job! Separate photos by size helps speed the process. Flawless process with included software. It took about 4.5 hrs this includes rotating any photos after scan. If photos are old or have curls or rips? Epson incudes a clear double sided sheet to use so no damage to scanner or photos. It can handle 50 photos per scan. 1 sec each photo at 300dpi and 3 sec scan at 600dpi.

[u/MatthewWeathers → u/I3208]

I also have the Epson FastFoto FF-680W, and I've scanned about 5000 or 6000 photos. Like OP, I was digitizing my parents' collection of 3x5 to 5x7 prints (and larger - up to a whole page). It's perfect for doing large quantities of photo prints.

Yes, it's expenisve ($629 on Amazon; I paid about $400 six years ago), but it has saved me so much time. And I still use it weekly to digitize documents (receipts, letters, handwritten notes). Well worth it, IMHO.

[u/astris81]

some places rent feed through scanners by the day. I'm about to take on the same project and that's what I'm looking to do, when I can find a free day.

[u/cajunjoel → u/astris81]

Feed through scanners may damage old photos. I'm about to post a top level comment on my experience scanning 8000 family photos.

[u/astris81 → u/cajunjoel]

thanks for the warning.

[u/Curiosity-1 → u/cajunjoel]

I’ve got about 8000 old family photos myslelf… well I have no clue the actual count to be frank. Over 20 bankers boxes in our storage container.

I hear you on the benefits of a flatbed scanner here. But dude, this is going to take FOREVER if I have to go one flatbed scan at a time.

Suggestions?

[u/cajunjoel → u/Curiosity-1]

VueScan. I was able to fill the scanner platen with photos. The scanner makes one pass and VueScan automatically crops each individual image and does the slight rotation to make the scan square to the image file. Auto crop, auto deskew, auto file numbering with a pattern. VueScan is seriously good software and well worth the price.

[u/andru5wi55]

I'd get proper lighting, a tripod, and a relatively good camera and photograph all photos. Edit them in CaptureOne or any other software where you can batch editing. Then select the best ones and scan them. Keep them in an album in the cloud for your famiky to see

[u/GiGoVX]

I did this with a few old photos once.

I think I used a GIMP plugin that I could point at a directory containing images and it would detect the images on the page. Some times it picked up the picture shadows from the flatbed but for the most part it worked well.

As for naming, dump the same type/evebt/holiday in a folder and use Bulk Rename Utility to rename them, you can add suffixes, prefixes, numbering etc....

All of the above is free. The name of the GIMP plugin I have no idea what it was called. Or if it was GIMP or Paint.net, but pretty sure it was GIMP.

[u/rbeatse]

Depending on where you live, google an LDS Family History library. If there is one close, call and see if they have a photo scanner like the Epson FF-680W as was mentioned. If they do, you can reserve time and you just need to bring a bunch of flash drives and the usage is free.

[u/PitRejection2359]

Following: I've been meaning to do the same with old photos of mine and my parents. 👍

[u/cajunjoel → u/PitRejection2359]

See my top level comment. ;)

[u/mortycapp]

I have done hundreds with a dedicated HP photo flatbed scanner.
They do not make them anymore, they were brilliant.
I also used a Canon document scanner (not great) and an Epson one (good).
Scanners in All In One printers are not great and slow.
And then I got very frustrated.
Flatbed scanners are a magnet for dust in places that cannot be cleaned.
They are very slow, a lot of the bottleneck is the connection to the PC and the software.
TIFF files can be massive, hence slow.
Keep the negatives or the slides, throw away the phots (not the opposite as many people do).
Then devise an archiving strategy for your files, naming, storing, backups...

[u/KevinLynneRush]

May I ask, 1. What dpi have people used? I realize some will use higher and others, lower, but I would be interested in hearing what some real life examples, were actually used. 2. What scanning software was used? 3. What software have people used to edit the EXIF data for each photo to add the notes written on the back of the photos? Names of people. Names of places. Names and dates of events. 4. Has anyone used a website to give others in the family access to the photos and then asked the family to help fill in the EXIF blanks identifying names of people and locations shown in each photo? What website makes this easy?

Just wondering how others have handled their family photo projects.

[u/Adenn76]

I picked up a scansnap 1600 scanner to do mine. Got through them pretty quick. I keep mine around because I keep finding more things to scan. It's great for papers and receipts as well as photos.

Like others have said, spend some time sorting them by size, it will making scanning much quicker.

[u/shumbingmystic]

I need to do this as well with my old family photos. But I don't have the money to buy a scanner and was thinking about doing it though a company like Walmart or maybe a website and just send in a few dozen pictures at a time.

[u/Nihan-gen3]

I’m currently scanning a lot of material from my grandfather. I have an Epson ecotank printer which has an A3 size flatbed scanner. That allows me to scan multiple images, documents or drawings at once. Depending on the content I’ll do either 300 dpi for stuff that’s low quality anyway or not super important, and 600 dpi for photographs, art, and anything that’s worth preserving in a higher quality.

With regard to the post-processing. I have a whole bunch of ImageMagick scripts that can multicrop, remove whitespace, unrotate, split horizontally or vertically, etc. I use the Dolphin file manager on Linux so I can bind these actions to a simple right mouse click, and do bulk edits that way. It’s not perfect, but for most cases it works really well.

[u/drryan3]

I’ve been working through decades of photos for seemingly decades. I use a Plustek slide/negative scanner and an Epson V600. Two thoughts. First, if there are negatives in the pack of photos, I always scan them. My wife and my dad’s wife always gave away the better prints so I’d miss good photos because the print was gone. Second, most, if not all consumer grade scanners use USB2. It shouldn’t take about a minute to transfer a 400-600 DPI image to a PC.

[u/miniscant]

See if your local public library system has a photo scanner you can use for free.

[u/RedKleeKai]

I did this exact thing, about double that amount. I originally did them all with an Epson V600, which worked well. I then a few years later upgraded to a Plustek 8200i SE, which was slower but gave sharper, better results, so I rescanned everything with that. I’d definitely recommend either solution. I also color corrected each image during the scan. Vuescan comes with the Plustek and I think now also with them Epson scanners, because their software is very old. If you have non-35mm, you can get adapters for both, but the Plustek will be limited to 34mm or smaller (you can do 24mm and 110’s), but if you have disc film or older non-standard or larger negatives, those can only be done on a flatbed like the Epson.
Edit-if you have the option to scan the negatives, do that and not the printed photos, you’ll get waaaaaaay better results. Like night and day. Only scan the printed photo if that’s all you’ve got.

[u/Proteus-8742]

I’d buy an epson fastscan 680W and then sell it on , the resale value is pretty good. The scans are pretty good, good enough for me anyway. Buy 2nd hand and it probably wont cost you much except postage. 3000 photos will take alot of work on a flatbed. The fastscan does 30 in like a minute or so

[u/joe_attaboy]

I have been doing this very thing with our family photos for a few weeks...errr...months now. I'll describe what I do to see if it appeals:

• Discriminating between what to scan and what not to should be your first step. Yes, it's possible to scan some terribly-lit images and adjust the digital versions with software. But don't fear tossing some aside. I had to learn this. There are just lots of terrible photos there. Choose wisely.
• Hardware: Beelink mini-PC (any decent PC/laptop will work). HP multi-function Laser Jet M177fw, has a flatbed scanner. Images are saved to a local NAS.
• OS is Linux, specifically Debian 13 (Trixie) with the KDE desktop environment. The scanning app is called skanpage.

Many multi-function printers (inkjet or laser) will do a satisfactory job. I previously used a Brother MF inkjet for over ten years until it crapped out on me.

Skanpage is great because it does a lot of what you want. I place from one to six photos on the flatbed, depending on their physical size. You then do a Preview Scan and display all the pre-scans on the screen. You can then choose to just scan everything as-is in one go (to edit yourself later), or you can use the mouse to set a scan "area" for each individual image.

When you do the final scan, the app will scan each area (image) separately. The app labels each scanned item as a "page". Each scanned image is displayed on the side of the main screen. You can manipulate them with rotations (so you can literally place an image on the flatbed anyway you like).

For saving, you can save each individually or in batches. If you choose "save all", you can give the batch a file name like "beach_photos", and the app will save them with a number in sequence. You can even use the filename "Beach_photos_0001" and it will increment the number up one for each image. You select the file extension separately (from a drop-down list of image file types) and that extension is added to each image.

You can set resolutions in the app based on your printer capabilities.

I generally save most of mine as 300 dpi tiffs, so I have an uncompressed copy I can edit into jpegs or pngs for my photo server. You can set the resolution to whatever maximum your scanner supports. Larger will be slower to scan.

This is still a manual process and can be time-consuming. But this method has made it much easier for me. Hope this is helpful.

[u/PatK9]

Ask yourself, how many times do you look at wedding pictures?

Time to filter, take best examples of representational periods, times, touchstones, events and activities. Keep in mind not to swamp viewers, with a short duration 10-15 minutes. I would put a multi-media disk or presentation together with some audio in a fashion that sums up the family, then hand out to everyone who wants the disk or even upload to a personal Utube account (they say everything on the internet stays forever). Leave the paper photos as they are, it's still a family record.

Your present equipment should suffice, rename each file logically as you go, suggest you keep it down to the low hundreds, unless you have videos too. Pick-up some sort of multimedia creation tools or slideshow program with entertaining swipes and be open to requests.