Old Photos query

[Aeneas]

I am looking at putting together a book for my parents wedding anniversary. We pilfered all their old photo albums and picked out a few hundred photos to choose from.

Has anyone done something like this?

Should I take digital photos of the pics, or try to remove all the pictures and take them somewhere? I have no negatives.

Where would I go? London Drugs was suggested to me. Anywhere else where they might be able to put something together that looks nice?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Aeneas

[awildermode]

get them scanned. digital photos of photos usually turn out skewed or fish-eyed.

then upload to a site like shutterfly and make a book from there. very simple. about $50 starting price.

this way you have a book and get to keep original photos for framing, etc.

[tete]

First question - what are the photos in? If they're in an old "sticky back" album - I would be very hesitant trying to remove them - those albums go two ways - either the glue has dried and the photos fall off the page or the glue will adhere to the back of the photo and they won't budge for anything. If they don't budge, leave them. You'll likely end up wrecking them if you try to pry them off.

Okay, now onto reproduction - I'd suggest scanning the photos - digital photos won't turn out very well. If someone you know has a scanner at home, you can just do it yourself. If you do use a photo lab of any sort, I'd make sure they don't send it off somewhere else - that just increases the likelihood of loss.

There are a number of places that'll do coffee-table type books out there - I've never used them, but I know many have been happy with that.

Good luck!

[Aeneas]

Some of these albums are from the 60's. Pictures were falling out as I turned pages. Looks like most were stuck to the pages.

Don't have a scanner, so stupid question: If I leave the photos attached to the page, I could still scan them?

I did look at some websites: Kodak gallery, Shutterfly, picaboo, Blurb, etc.
I may leave that part to my wife, I am not very computer savvy!

[Rathji]

We did some photo scanning when my dad died, turned out real nice and all the originals were unharmed.

[awildermode]

Some of these albums are from the 60's. Pictures were falling out as I turned pages. Looks like most were stuck to the pages.

Don't have a scanner, so stupid question: If I leave the photos attached to the page, I could still scan them?

I did look at some websites: Kodak gallery, Shutterfly, picaboo, Blurb, etc.


I may leave that part to my wife, I am not very computer savvy!


you want your photos, or pages to be flat as possible on the scanner. if you can take out the pages (like in a binder), then do that. otherwise, you will get warping towards the middle of the page where it is not flat.

yes, those sites are the ones i am talking about. they are all about the same. just different page layouts and pricing. i have used shutterfly and they are pretty good.

good luck, have fun

[chid]

You want to try to get the photos off the sheets, but if not at least remove the sheet cover to scan them, the more things covering the photos, the more skewed they will when they get scanned.

[Aeneas]

Thanks all.
Just started to look into scanning. Called London Drugs, say they can do everything from scanning to book making (though they farm that last part out) and it will all be done in a week.

They kind of lost me though when they said it is $2 per picture scanned for starters.

Is that was a bit steep? Or do I just not get out much. I was thinking around 50 pics or more, so this is $100 plus just to start.

ps Chid you should come out to Optimist and play some ball tonight.

[flamesgirl18]

I'm doing the same thing for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. It really cuts down on the cost if you can do it from home or find someone who has a scanner you can use. The quality is pretty decent, I just touch each one up in photoshop a bit to get rid of the dust and scratches on the photos and stuff.

Shutterfly is probably the way to go for the photo book, it's cheap and really easy to use.

[Peanut]

Costco is also a good option for printing. I don't know if they do books (I bet they do) but I know for sure they print out scrapbook pages and they always turn out very well from what I've seen.

[Cowperson]

Blurb.com might be an idea for getting a book done, but you'd need to scan them and build the book on your computer from there.

Cowperson

[troutman]

Printer/scanners are dirt cheap now - $50.

[Aeneas]

Printer/scanners are dirt cheap now - $50.
So I could buy a scanner for the cost of someone else (LD) scanning 25 pictures?

[Aeneas]

I'm doing the same thing for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. It really cuts down on the cost if you can do it from home or find someone who has a scanner you can use. The quality is pretty decent, I just touch each one up in photoshop a bit to get rid of the dust and scratches on the photos and stuff.

Shutterfly is probably the way to go for the photo book, it's cheap and really easy to use.
Do your grandparents look anything like my parents?

Just thinking we could save some money here!

[FurnaceFace]

Yeah, buy a scanner and then if you want to get more fancy, buy them a nice digital photo frame and load the pics to it. and if you get REALLY fancy you could copy Ace of Cakes:

http://www.delish.com/cm/delish/images/Ace-Present.jpg

Yep, that's a photo frame attached to a cake.

[JerzeeGirl]

You can also bring your photos into a place like Wal-Mart and scan them yourself using their Kodak machines (what I did when working on a similar project for my grandmother) and the rates are pretty comparable to getting pix developed and they can be burned to a disc or printed as well.

[troutman]

So I could buy a scanner for the cost of someone else (LD) scanning 25 pictures?

Scan your pictures at my place - bring me a bottle of wine.

[Pagal4321]

I did this awhile back for my parents, granted the pictures were from the 80s and 90s. But did it all pretty easily Kinkos, but I'm sure the services they offer are similar to that of Wal Mart, London Drugs and Costco.

Can't say I recall paying for scans though.

[Aeneas]

Scan your pictures at my place - bring me a bottle of wine.
Deal!
My finest Irish Red Wine.

[troutman]

Deal!
My finest Irish Red Wine.

You will need some kind of memory card to store the scanned photos on.

[Aeneas]

You will need some kind of memory card to store the scanned photos on.
Wow, slipped the "irish wine" past you.

Alright memory card, whatever that is. What happened to disks?

I have a Brunello picked up in Montalcino...but I think you'd prefer something more Gallic?

[troutman]

Wow, slipped the "irish wine" past you.

Alright memory card, whatever that is. What happened to disks?

I have a Brunello picked up in Montalcino...but I think you'd prefer something more Gallic?

Brunello is very nice.

I'll check which kind of memory cards work with my computer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_card

[FlamesKickAss]

You could burn to disk but with a memory card it can scan right to that, Or pick up a USB flash drive. Probably better because then it fits all computers.

http://www.techsolution.co.za/catalog/images/usb%20flash%20drive.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

[flamesgirl18]

Do your grandparents look anything like my parents?

Just thinking we could save some money here!

haha...

Actually, it's a good idea to scan them into your computer anyways even if you're not making a photo book right away. For me, I'm making a slideshow/movie to show at their banquet so it's kind of a bonus to only have to scan them once and use them for two different projects. It's more organized than flipping through a million albums of old photos.