Archiving family photos

You may want to consider saving as jpg, also. I have been doing this for years. Also, I scan all of my photos at a low resolution for viewing, emailing, and storage. Then I do a higher resolution. I have a coding system to identify each one by that. Then I made a spread sheet that can be read in excel, word, etc. that identifies the photos. Planning ahead on something like this saves frustration later on when trying to share photos later.

Years?! Uh oh. I may have gotten in over my head here.

What is the advantage of saving a JPEG and a BMP?

I have set up a series of folders to organize all the pictures and documents.
I have an external hard drive I am storing these photos on. When I have completed the project, I plan on copying everything on the drive to an identical drive for relatives that live out of state.

JPG is the more preferred standard. You don't want to create headaches for yourself if the photos get divided and you will never have them to scan again. I do this for a living and also for my family and friends. My notes included any comments on the back of the photo and also the date if available. The sheet had a unique number for the photo, description, location, comment and date. I would scan the photo at a 75 dpi and also a higher resolution such as 200 or 300 depending on the photo. Remember to scan a sepia or black and white appropriately with your program. Backup frequently. Once done I transferred them on to CDs with a nice CD label and also included a text file for instructions and the spreadsheet of the details. You don't have to be this elaborate, but the scanning is important. Any questions, just ask.

Thanks. I will consider these suggestions. I was trying to avoid a having to create a seperate index document, but I think you are right and it is needed.

I'm doing a similar project. I'm trying to include the person, date, and occasion in the file name (where known) to also aid in identifying the various photos. I have also developed index documents and have separate folders for each branch of the family, or person when I have a lot of photos for that particular person. I've also uploaded them to Shutterfly as albums and have emailed links to those albums to the appropriate older relatives to enlist their help in identifying some of the oldest photos. It's been great being able to share photos like this across long distances.

Did you figure it out Pat? Still need any suggestions?

You can always put extra text right on the image, or add a small space below it for comments. Maybe make a presentation if you have Powerpoint? More work!