Asking tips for scanning weekend "projects" - Using ScanSnap 1500

Parent Cafe
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<p>I have been “volunteered” to help scan and organize boxes of older pictures. I estimate that there will be around 10,000 of them. The good news is that I own this tool that has been very useful in the past:</p>

<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner for PC: Electronics](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-Instant-Sheet-Fed-Scanner/dp/B001V9LQH0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1382658429&sr=8-5&keywords=snapscan]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-Instant-Sheet-Fed-Scanner/dp/B001V9LQH0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1382658429&sr=8-5&keywords=snapscan)</p>

<p>The process will first be in a Windows environment, and then shared with the usual Apple devices. </p>

<p>As it stands I was planning to scan all the pictures with a lower color resolution such as 300, and perhaps batch them into pdf files, and then rescan the must-have as higher resolution individual JPEG files. The scanning of the pictures is really fast (even at the higher resolution) but the labeling and organization of the process might backfire if I do not start correctly.</p>

<p>Any tips on organizing the process? Especially from someone who might own the same scanner and is familiar with the options?</p>

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<p>I use that scanner for documents. The Rack2 file cabinet software that came with it enables you to easily scan into separate folders. However, i would be reluctant to use it for valuable photos since it seems that the paper bends when going into the sheet feeder and occasionally jams or gets “eaten” if not placed correctly.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the response. </p>

<p>I have to admit that I did not encounter the “eating” problem so far. I scanned a few hundreds pictures and I had no issues, even at the fast speed. Of course, the feeder only accepts about 20 to 40 pictures at a time. </p>

<p>My issue was mostly about the organization of the process, as I am debating using the simple command on the scanner and processing large batches at once versus processing smaller stacks and taking the time to label them with more details. </p>

<p>The solution is perhaps to simply worry about the labeling later and process them all as “2000-0001” and “2001-0001” and let the counter run for a year. :)</p>

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<p>Well, I have been scanning in old photos using a flatbed. I won’t say that I have the perfect solution, but over time I have finally decided that I need to be able to keep the “roll” or source info for each photo, mainly to help ID people and dates. Perhaps that is an unnecessary concern in your case. The old photos I am dealing with are sometimes portraits, sometimes loose prints, sometimes loose negatives, sometimes stuck in albums, sometimes loose in the same cigar box, etc. Some categories overlap. For example, I might find some old 2x3 prints in several places with ‘31’ in pencil on the rear (old processor mark), so I will include that info in the file name so that all the ‘31’ photos can be found for ID and dating purposes.</p>

<p>I also think that I need to organize photos by date, since that is primarily how I think about them. I ended up starting the scanned image file name with year, month, date of roll if I know that, e.g. 20131025 for a roll dated today. Then I append a picture number, the one on the print or my own. File name format is date-001-note, where note can concern the roll or the event. These file names will sort alphabetically.</p>

<p>If I am dealing with older photos, like the ‘31’ type photos, those that predate stamped dates and print numbers, then I will make up a prefix, like SBA (for Small Black album), then will add page or print number, and a note, for a file name like SBA-p1-001-Tillie or similar.</p>

<p>For my own current photos I am renaming files with the date-note format e.g. 20131025-PumpkinFarm-01 (or 001 of I took >100 shots).</p>

<p>I think your idea of lower resolution scans, then going back for higher res scans of the best shots makes sense. If the photos are typical blurry, crummy images most people shoot, there is no reason to scan at a greater resolution than that needed for a 4x6 print. At 300 dots per inch, that would be 1200 x 1800 pixels. On those small olden day prints, like the 2x3 prints, I will scan at 600 dpi, and negatives at 1200 dpi.</p>

<p>Hopes this makes sense. You have a big job ahead.</p>

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<p>Also, for my modern photos, I rely on directories, one for each year, with subdirectories for each shooting event, or for some months, one per month. Subdirectory names are of the format 20131025-PumpkPtch.</p>

<p>For photo retrieval, say I want to look at the pumpkin patch photos from - was it 2004 or 2005? I can enter the 2004 directory and look at subdirectory names starting in the fall.</p>

<p>Some photo viewer software offers batch renaming that can be useful.</p>

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<p>My H just spent a couple of weeks scanning in our three rubber bins full of binders of photos. I don’t know what resolution he used. He cleaned the glass pretty often as some of the photos were sticky on the backs, depending on the mounting in the binders. We have the scan snap, too, love it for docs.
For the organizing, he scan a binder, name the PDF or jpeg file to the binder name, and that was about it. At least they were named as well now as they were then.
For the bigger individual ones, he had a process where he would scan, the rename the phot while the other scanned. He spent a lot of time, but over all it went very fast.</p>

<p>He also used the scanner to scan documents from my moms that we didn’t want to move. It then generated tons of trash, but feels good to just have a disk where I can find her papers, organized by year. We are talking, boxes of receipts bank statements and crud needed for tax stuff later. Gak.</p>