Organizing, Sorting and Preserving your Print Photos
For many clients, boxes and boxes of photos have been sitting around feeling unappreciated for years. I am always asked, “Where do I even begin?”
Step One: What is your goal?
To preserve for future generations? To capture your stories behind the photos before those stories get lost? To share with family members? To create a slideshow or photo album for an event? To make searching for a specific photo easier? To free up space?
Knowing your goal helps direct your efforts, envisioning the final results.
Step Two: Gather all your photos together in one place to assess the mess. Gather your tools and prepare a space to work.
Photo safe pencil for writing on the back of pictures
Cotton or latex gloves for handling photos without depositing oils from your fingers
Sticky notes, Ziploc bags and index cards for sorting
Dental floss or a photo spatula for removing photos from old sticky photo albums
Interim storage boxes. These don’t need to be of archival quality at this point.
Step Three: Sorting.
The following are some tips to get you started:
Use your phone to take photos of the album order or written notes before you begin dismantling anything.
It often helps to do a first big general sort, and then a second sort to fine-tune.
Write down a family timeline that can guide you when photos don’t have the date.
Resist the urge to sort by family member. Chronological sorting makes the most sense for a large collection.
Decide what you will do with the duplicates.
Watch for dates and information on photo processing envelopes to give you clues.
Sort and store memorabilia separately from photos.
Try to adhere to the 2-second rule as you sort your photos. Resist the urge to reminisce and linger. There will be plenty of time for that later.
If you have random photos with no dates, it can help to turn them over and sort by shape or size. This can help to get photos back into the group in which they belong.
Step Four: Scanning
You can digitize your photos yourself at home, but the time it takes, the purchase of a photo scanner, and learning the technology can be be a barrier.
When scanning with Narrative Photo Organizing, our goal is to give you a functional photo library that is searchable, organized and software independent. All media is professionally scanned at 600 PPI for prints or 4000 PPI for slides and negatives. All media is professionally handled and cared for using industry standards.
Basic post-processing is included with the cost of the scan and includes minor whole image color processing, date correction, and batch renaming of files with dates included, so photos sort chronologically. Additional photo restoration or repair is available for any of your photos as needed for an additional charge.
Your family photo archive can be made even more searchable with the addition of tags or keywords to identify people, places, events, captions, etc. We love to help with this, and it can be done after scanning as an additional add-on service.
Step Five: Archive and backup
Step Six: Enjoy and Share!
Know that you are providing the gift of an organized and meaningful archive of your family story and legacy.