<p>lilmom–I upload photos to Sam’s Wholesale for printing. I have to start from the Sam’s site–they have their own software for uploading etc. Works great.</p>
<p>I have been scanning photos for a couple of months. I was doing great until the holidays came. Gotta get back on track. I have all my mom’s photos, my kids, so boxes and boxes. For me, the priority is getting them all scanned as they are degrading every day they sit in a box. </p>
<p>We are an Apple family so I am using my MacBook and the app ImageCapture. It will scan and separate as many photos as I can fit on my scanner and sends them directly to iPhoto, where it easy to do basic editing and share. I just have an inexpensive HP all in one that does just fine. With ImageCapture, I can change the scan resolution for the picture, depending on what the end goal is. Most I am scanning at a pretty high resolution as we like looking at them on our big screen tv. I have been pleased with the results. I even put a scanned photo on a large stretched canvas (2’x3’) as a holiday gift and it came out great.</p>
<p>Organizing will be the next thing but I am finding iPhoto to be pretty good. I like that it tells me which photos I have already shared. I am sending lots of photos out to family members and this feature is helpful. Getting all the photos digitized in my priority.</p>
<p>Most of my pictures are imported from my camera, but I have scanned some over the years. I also have a scanner that can do multiple photos at one time.</p>
<p>I just use the Windows Pictures files to organize. I’ve got folders for our older and newer digital cameras. Within those, I organize first by year, then by major event/holiday/etc. (Like Thanksgiving 2013, Chanukah 2011, Noordam cruise, etc.). If there are a lot of photos, I set up subfolders (like each day on the cruise, each float in the Rose Parade post parade viewing). Basically, anytime I take more than about a dozen pictures, I set up and name a folder to hold them. My (newer) camera software automatically sets up a folder for each day so all the stray pictures that weren’t dragged and dropped are left within those folders. Periodically I back up all these digital albums to the external hard drive.</p>
<p>I do have a separate folder called “Scanned and edited” but don’t really do a lot of scanning; most of the old pictures are in scrapbook albums already. (I took the older years out of the cheap albums I used to use and put them in photo boxes. DS’s pictures are still in the better albums.) I also have a folder called “Bluetooth” because I have a dumb phone that takes cheap pictures. If necessary I just drag and drop those into the applicable camera event folder.</p>
<p>We don’t print too many photos so just do them at home, mainly to send to relatives. I have done several photobooks - favorite site is My Publisher but I also like Shutterfly. I mainly share by creating Facebook albums (also saves them in the cloud), but also did a TripAdvisor TripWow! online album which was kind of fun; I can send the link via PM is anyone is interested how they look.</p>
<p>Also, I just sent 165 old slides of me as a baby to Costco. They will scan them to a DVD, but also leave a file on the cloud that I can send to my brother to see. I don’t think he is in any of them since the youngest never gets a photo, but still.</p>
<p>29¢ a slide seemed like a true bargain . haven’t gotten them back yet to say how the results were…</p>
<p>H spent a lot of time running the VCR linked to the computer to digitally copy our old disney VCR movies. (I think he ran it VCR into TIVO and TIVO to disk, but not sure). Tore off the front paper and saved them to prove that we had the right to make a copy and we are good to go for grandkids. Helps to have a techno-hubby. But anyone can do it. And you DO have the right to make your own copy, just don’t sell it or put it out where others can get it.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for starting this thread! I have what feels like 1000s of photos in file type boxes around my house. I had done albums but disassembled them through the years as I did Bar/Bat Mitzvah montages and ran out of energy to put pix back. </p>
<p>Gouf, thanks for the tips on CD VS DVD VS Jump drive. </p>
<p>Esobay, which specific scanner do you have?</p>
<p>On Groupon and other such sites, there is often an offer to scan X number of photos for Y dollars. I wonder if anyone has done this?</p>
<p>Does anyone (gasp!) throw out photos either because they are duplicates or close to duplicates or just not great pictures?</p>
<p>I have a bunch of old photos in boxes that I want to go through. We moved recently, and I am trying to go through every box I have of <em>stuff</em> – So, at least most of the photos are together in one place, even if disorganized. My digital ones are on I photo, and I photo has sort of organized them for me by date at least. I am worried about a crash, though, and will back them up on hard drive. I went through this year’s photos and made a photo book (through Shutterfly) of 2013, so am kind of proud of myself for that, at least. I have lots of albums on FB – kind of the best of the digitals – those are somewhat organized. I would like to make some physical albums of some of those pics sometime this year as well. I like having actual physical albums better than looking at pics on a screen.</p>
<p>Ohhhh .reading this thread is just making me feel guilty. I should be spending my time organizing photos instead or reading random threads!</p>
<p>I have so much to say on this subject but nothing too helpful. I have boxes and boxes of photos, duplicate/triplicate printed, organized chronologically, with the best of intentions to some day scan them all before they are damaged in my basement. The only time I pull them out is when someone needs years of photos for a graduation, wedding, or funeral slideshow, and I tell myself I will get to it soon.</p>
<p>I even purchased a dedicated photo/negative/slide scanner, but boy is it tedious to arrange those tiny negative strips into the little trays only to discover that I placed the negative strip in backwards. </p>
<p>I have used our HP flatbed scanner when needing photos quickly for a slideshow. I didn’t know there was an app that would separate four photos so I just end up duplicating in iPhoto and then cropping out the three I don’t need. Will have to try the app whitepicketfence mentioned upthread.</p>
<p>lastminutemom asked if we ever discard photos that are less than perfect. I could never bear to discard a photo and after my father died, I was glad that I hadn’t. I pulled together a slideshow and found that a less than perfect photo that was supposed to be of a couple of children, but had Grandpa standing at a distance looking at them. So …I hold onto everything, never knowing what I will be looking for at a later date. The intended subject is not always the one you aim at.</p>
<p>I have tens of thousands of digital photos in multiple iPhoto libraries and before that in Window libraries (that I actually preferred b/c I like the file hierarchy that Marilyn described above). I try to back up iPhoto to duplicate HDs a couple of times a year and then store one HD off site. Time to do that again!</p>
<p>Anyone looking to print photos .I find Costco to be excellent. My brother was married several years ago and I tried out several printing options, using the same photos at each. Costco’s colors were more real than Shutterfy, Snapfish, Walgreen’s, CVS and our now out-of-business old-fashioned photofinishing shop. I prefer My Publisher for serious albums (leather or linen covers) but like Shutterfly for whimsical (clip art drop-ins). We own more than 30 Apple products but I have never tried their album printing. </p>
<p>For those looking to share photos or slideshows with family members—Dropbox is excellent. The site allows upload of full-sized files and free download of same. (They just raised another $250 million in financing so who knows how long this will remain free–or not bought up by someone larger?) When I first used the site four years ago, viewing photos was clunky and slow. It is not excellent and so easy to upload, view and download. You are awarded more free storage space by having friends register after you invite them to view your albums a bit of a Ponzi scheme, but harmless. I do not want to rely on the cloud for on-line storage, but love it for sharing. I had paid an annual fee to Smug Mug but find the free Dropbox easier to navigate.</p>
<p>If I order a large number of photos of a trip/special event, I usually order a CD of them at the same time. It doesn’t cost much. I do it because I’m terrible at backing up my computer so I know I’ll have SOMETHING if my computer crashes.</p>
<p>@lastminutemom … it is called ScanSnap. Really nice to have dual side scan with one pass for documents. … and pictures with names on the back. Ordered it on-line from Amazon. about $300 as I recall.</p>
<p>I almost put it into the "what are your SPLURGE " thread, but decided it was worth it’s weight in gold as I scanned all last years receipts, lawyer letters and stuff… sorry off topic!</p>
<p>We also had a slide scanner, and H did scan a lot of his own slides but it was SLOW. He was trying to save some of this really good photos. One should be printed, it was mirror Lake at Yosemite when Mirror lake WAS a lake. (I took him there first time in 1972, it sure has filled in a lot since then. me, too).</p>
<p>thanks esobay. I am really tempted to get one of those. We have so many photos and I would love to scan them all in – in an efficient manner.</p>
<p>For those of you who take lots of meaningful photos on your phones, are you familiar with this…
[GrooveBook</a> - Your Photos Revolutionized](<a href=“http://www.groovebook.com/]GrooveBook”>http://www.groovebook.com/)</p>
<p>My daughter saw it on a repeat of Sharktank and I think it is a really cool idea. For about 3 dollars a month, you get up to 100 photos from your phone printed in a 4by6ish book and that includes shipping. Also, the pictures are perforated, so you can tear them out if you want.</p>
<p>I don’t use my phone for many meaningful photos (it helps in big parking lots though) so this doesn’t appeal to me, but I thought I would share.</p>
<p>I posted my photo organization approach here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1568398-asking-tips-scanning-weekend-projects-using-scansnap-1500-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1568398-asking-tips-scanning-weekend-projects-using-scansnap-1500-a.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks, treetopleaf. I’ve been wanting to scan our photos for some time now.</p>
<p>Lastminutemom, Groovebook is something my younger d would love! She takes tons of “selfies” with her friends.</p>