by Karen R.
Member since:
September 24, 2007

What are you doing with old photos after you scan them?

April 07, 2008 12:27 AM EDT
views: 86 | rating: 10/10 (29 votes) | comments: 33
Those of you who are scanning your old photos....what are you doing with them afterwards? Are you keeping the old pictures or destroying them?  I have some old boxes of pictures that are 25 years old or older and I doubt I will ever get them all in albums. How about all those old negatives? Are you getting rid of them? If you are keeping the pictures how are you storing them?
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Comments: 33

Mariana T. Apr 7, 2008, 12:31am EDT
I am storing them in archival acid-free boxes then encased in plastic - I've got loads of old negatives - back from the 40's and actually from before that in some cases...hopefully, they are all ok...I think the original old pictures are antiques - the ones from the 50's on are stored in albums...I guess in one respect, I am pretty organized with photos...but it's part of my life. Salud.
Ellie !. Apr 7, 2008, 12:47am EDT
like Mariana said: archival, acid-free boxes and encased in plastic to lock out moisture. Spartan did an article a little bit ago...reminded me that the life of a CD or DVD you burn is 7 years..and hard drives fail...
Carla *I have new fans yay me!* Apr 7, 2008, 1:12am EDT
I use shoe boxes...I know thats bad but it works.
Ellen Thatcher P. Apr 7, 2008, 1:25am EDT
I keep them and I restore them, those photo's need to be saved, in a acid-free box, your children will be happy to find them someday. Each day I restore, alot of pictures, and wish people would take care of them, before they ask me to do so.
Christy F. Apr 7, 2008, 2:52am EDT
I will always store my old pictures. If the computer crashes I don't want to risk losing them. It is always nice to keep the orginals too!
Karen R. Apr 7, 2008, 3:04am EDT
Thanks everyone. I read your article Spartan. That is good info to know.
Doug H. Apr 7, 2008, 8:51am EDT
I always keep my old photos. I figure that today's digitization technology might seem archaic and lossy 10 years from now.
Laura C. Apr 7, 2008, 10:07am EDT
I made mine into scrapbooks.
James B. Apr 7, 2008, 12:16pm EDT
The prints and negatives will typically have a much longer lifetime than digital media. I don't through any out and try to preserve them as well as possible (not always doing a perfect job, to my shame and frustration).
I have been keeping my older photos and in photo albums or "sleeves" and they are then kept in a sealed container. I don't want to trash any of them.
Marian L Apr 7, 2008, 5:40pm EDT
I keep all my old photos in albums. I take them out and scan a few at a time. I'll never get through all of them.
This comment is to let you know that this content has reached at least five votes and over 8.0 average rating, and as such has been removed from Rating Resurrectionists! Congratulations!
Amy H. Apr 8, 2008, 5:31am EDT
Well if you have kids. Ask them if they would like to have them!
Amy H. Apr 8, 2008, 5:33am EDT
I gave this article a 10. I comment back!
This comment is to let you know that this content has reached at least ten comments, and as such has been removed from Comment Speedway! Congratulations!
Karen R. Apr 8, 2008, 11:45am EDT
Thanks everyone. We do have a son (in his early 20's) and he does not care about the pictures. He has never liked to look at pictures of himself when he was little. I just hope he finds a good wife, and maybe has some kids, someday who will appreciate things like the pictures and some of our other belongings.
I scan and pass them on to family members as I know they may enjoy reminiscing and scanning for themselves; until I can a make the whole family scrap book for all, on BLUE RAY the disc of the future.
debra g. Apr 10, 2008, 10:25pm EDT
I have them in a lot of books for the kids to fight over.
The Red Headed Witch of Gather G. Apr 12, 2008, 12:33am EDT
I keep them in a box
Carl J. May 6, 2008, 12:14pm EDT
Most of ours are in photo albums. People often ask where we have been, what we have done makes it easy to just hand them a buch of photo albums.
Peter C. Frank May 14, 2008, 8:34pm EDT
I don't have a scanner anymore, and unfortunately all of my old photos are gone as my uncle threw away whatever of my belongings I couldn't carry out of the house when he made me homeless.
Angela <:3---}~~~~ M. May 15, 2008, 1:08pm EDT
I keep them just can not part with them
Amy C. Jun 4, 2008, 12:18pm EDT
I have been buying plastic shoe boxes and keeping them in there. I am slowly scanning all my old stuff.
Abby N. Jun 6, 2008, 1:30am EDT
Good question! :) I keep my photos but I don't take care of them properly and have had to throw out some that got ruined. I'm not very organized since I had kids!
Anne G. Jun 13, 2008, 10:46am EDT
I've been scanning old photos for a long time now, and family have started asking me to add more.
I scan the originals. Then I burn them to CD's, I usually make at least 3 CD's.
I then store the photos, and if I have them, the negatives, in archival boxes. I put the archival boxes and one cd in an off premesis fireproof safe, one cd is stored in my home office, and the third is given to a family member. We have some very old photos of family that the family would be devastated if they were lost.
Jessica S. Jul 26, 2008, 2:28am EDT
i definitely keep old photos... they are in albums or in piles in my memory boxes and in my hope chest that will be given to my own children one day. :)
Jessica S. Jul 26, 2008, 2:29am EDT
in fact, now that you mention it, i would really like hard copies of all of my digital images as well...
Patty H. Jul 26, 2008, 2:33am EDT
I have all of mine and so does my mom. I wish I was more like my mom and had everything in its own books. Her photo books make me sick. LOL Right now mine are all in the things I get them back from the store in and packed into a big box. Hopefully one day I will get some books and start taking care of them. With my back I cant sit for to long, so they just stay in there box and they seem really happy there.

I will never part with them. Even if I took the time to scan all of them. If you loss your hard drive you just might loss all your pictures. Its not worth the worry. If I need one scanned I will scan it and put it back into its happy box with all the others.
Stacey (Jesus is coming soon! ) U. Aug 2, 2008, 10:16am EDT
Putting them in albums, giving them away, or throwing them away--it depends.
Lisa K. Aug 3, 2008, 1:51pm EDT
I don't know that I'll ever have time to scan them all in, but what photos I do scan, I'll store in photo boxes.
Jerri H. Aug 25, 2008, 1:43am EDT
Oh gosh...I just put them back where I got them from...I guess I could put them up nicely.
Wendy F. Sep 10, 2008, 4:06pm EDT
I keep them but, unfortunately that don't always get put back in their albums and a few of pictures are just in plastic containers . That is not good that a cd/dvd only last 7 years - I have tons of digital pictures, that is mostly all I ever take since 2005.
R B Mar 1, 2009, 11:37am EST
Digitizing has never been a permanent replacement, just an easy way to share them. All the originals are stufed in a box, somewhere. The next generation will probably throw them away.

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