Pictures, Pictures

I have been using PhotoStudio 5.5 to scan the old faded photos from the 60's, 70's and 80's. I can place 6 pics on my CanonScan 8600 scanner and then draw a box around each one and select whether it needs backlight correction or fade correction. Then I hit Scan and the 6 photos will scan one after another with the appropriate correction I selected. THEN I send them off to who is in the photo (mainly my brother, but cousins too). I am going to use winkflash.com to put together *new* photo albums. I will probably make just one of *me* from birth up to ?? I have also shared the digital files with family on Facebook and even emailed the photos to people that were in them (like a long lost childhood friend that I located). It IS time consuming, but I work from home. I'll scan for 2-3 days then take a break for a week.

www.scanmyphotos.com THE BEST $159 I have spent. After our MIL passed away there were thousands of pictures, 4x6s, 5x7s, and smaller.

There is a review on Our-kids.com and various options on the scanmyphotos website but I had divided how many photos I sent in and received DVD dats discs with true color 24-bit jpegs, but in the review the mom received a thumb drive with 1800 images.
Trying find link to review...
can't find it but someone also said they are having specials right now, so I may send off some more photos.
Good Luck
P

That's the real question, DOES anyone but you care?
I would pull out everything I wanted to keep (you get that privilege as the current guardian of the photos.) I would then send out an email to everyone, "hey, I've got all these photos, does anyone want to see them, sort through them?"
Do you all get together for Christmas? That would be a great time to put them up for grabs, so to speak. Otherwise you could mail them to family members and let them go through whatever you didn't want.
Whatever's left is trash, I guess. Sad but that's just reality, we can't keep it all!
I just scan mine on my home printer/scanner, though I think this looks interesting, I may be asking for it for Christmas:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VPPA56/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_...

My mom has been scanning pictures and slides onto the computer. Her plan is to give us flash drives with all the pictures.

I'd take what you & your husband want, then ship the rest off to the next closest relative. Include a note saying you got what you wanted and that (s )he is welcome to do whatever with them.

There's nothing wrong with making it someone else's problem.

Put the photos in a container/box etc. and put it in a place with no moisture or humidity. AND, put desiccants in each box to absorb the moisture. And replace the desiccants as needed.
And, put the photos in acid-free folders or envelopes or paper.
To properly archive and keep photos, it needs to be in acid-free containers and wrappings.
And/or in acid-free photo albums.
So that the photos do not degrade over time.

Just put them all in a box, maybe per family or year.
So, for each family, put all their photos in one box and within that same box, perhaps by year. Using file tabs. Because to file them into smaller chunks of "occasions" will take WAY too much of your time. Of anyone's time for that matter.

And per the photos, do not put your fingers on them. The skin oils will degrade the photos over time. Even if you can't see it now.
And do not use ball point pen inks or Sharpie pen inks on the photos itself nor on the back of the photos. That will degrade the photos too. Over time.
Use pencil.

Scanning ALL of the photos, will take... hours and hours and hours of time.
And if you have some professional do it, it will cost tons.
Just, keep the photos, in a box that is intact and sealed, and kept in a low humidity low moisture area/room/closet.

For the photos that are very old, you can also just take a photo of the photo too, then store it on your computer. And back it up on a thumb-drive.
Or only scan the very old ones or historic ones or heirloom ones.

Or yes, give each family their photos. So that THEY can do with it what they want and organize it, themselves. If they care too.
Unless you are the designated family photo historian.

I took an archival course in college.

Divvy them into piles. Each sibling gets a pile. Include school pix, etc., even if they're dupes.
Pack each pile into a box, ship them out & let the sibs scan or scrapbook them!

Scanning pictures is time consuming, but it is something that kids can do with some supervision if you have a flat bed scanner or a printer that scans onto a flash drive or memory device. If you don't have kids old enough to do that, you could consider hiring one to put the pictures on the scanner and then push the scan button. I would sort through the pictures and pull out the ones that need to be scanned. Sometimes those are the "one of a kind" print that all of your relatives would like a copy of.