Transfer your old photographs to a secure digital format and repair some of the damage

What we often forget about our old photos is that their value increases with time.

Few people regularly dig out last year’s holiday snaps from their box, yet we often can’t wait to see the ones we took 10 or 20 years ago.

What’s more, photos taken by parents and grandparents can become family treasures.

Yet while all these photos are gaining in significance, they’re also degrading.

Black and white photos tend to survive fairly well through the generations because the chemistry of the prints is simple.

Colour prints are different. The dyes used in these prints are far less stable, so they are prone to fading and colours can change over time.

In this article we’ll show how to digitise old photos before it’s too late, repair some of the damage and fading and share these memories with your family and friends. Old photos are precious and they need to be saved for posterity.

Scantastic
Almost any scanner, whether it’s a standalone flatbed model or one built into a multifunction device, will produce excellent scans of photo prints.

The Canon Pixma MP210 is a multifunction printer and scanner that does a fine job but costs just £46, so it’s ideal for those on a budget. Alternatively, HP’s Scanjet G4050 is a great scanner that can capture images from film as well as prints.

Flatbed scanners are a little like photocopiers. The original is placed face-down on a sheet of glass, called a platen, for scanning, but instead of a paper copy the scanner produces a digital file rather like the ones made by a digital camera.

Scanners come with a scanning program for the computer. This sometimes works as a standalone program, but others must be started from within an image-editing program, such as Adobe’s Photoshop Elements. Generally, using a scanner is a three-step process.

First, the scanner performs a fast, low-resolution preview scan so the software can show what’s on the scanner. Sometimes this happens when the software is launched, but other programs wait until the user clicks on a preview button.

Once the preview scan has appeared, the user can then crop the image ­ selecting the part they want to scan ­ and set the resolution at which it will be scanned. There are usually other adjustment options, too and we’ll explain these later.

Finally, once the user is happy they can start the final scan. This will usually take a little time, but once it’s finished the image will be either saved as a file on the computer’s disk, or more usually opened in the image-editing software for it to be adjusted if necessary.

Some scanners have fully automatic modes that preview the image, choose options automatically and then start the main scan.

This can save time, but the software won’t always select the best options. For this reason, even if your scanner does have a fully automatic mode, it’s best to familiarise yourself with how to change the scanning resolution and set other options yourself ­ fortunately, this is easy.

Resolution rules
Scanners convert photos and other originals into a grid of dots, known as pixels.

The finer the dots, the smoother the scan and the better the detail.

Scanner resolution is measured in dots per inch, or dpi for short, and a typical scanner might have a resolution of 2,400dpi, which is more than enough for scanning photo prints.

A very good print might have detail worth scanning at 600dpi but most aren’t worth scanning at a setting higher than 300dpi.

The scanner software may offer to scale the photo to produce different sizes of print. In conjunction with different resolution settings, this can get complicated.

It’s much simpler to set the scanner resolution to the values we’ve suggested and leave the image scaling set to 100 per cent.

This will extract all the detail the print contains, and the print size can be chosen if and when you decide to print the photo later.

Top of the crops
Scans need to be cropped because the size of the original photo is almost always smaller than the
area of the scanner’s glass surface. ‘Cropping’ means dragging out a rectangle over the photo to identify the area you want to scan so the blank areas around it are discarded.

Generally, this is a simple process. Place the cursor over the top left-hand corner of the print and hold down the mouse button. Now, still holding the button, move the pointer until it is over the bottom right-hand corner. Release the mouse button, and the photo should be surrounded by a box. If it’s not quite right, try clicking on one of the corners and dragging it into the correct position.

Many scanners can detect where the photo is positioned and will attempt to crop it automatically ­ if this is the case, simply check that it has placed the box in the right place and adjust it if necessary.

There are usually a few other options that can be changed if necessary. Most scanners will attempt to correct the photo’s colours automatically, and it’s necessary to disable this feature to make any manual adjustments. Look for a checkbox labelled Auto Exposure, Auto Colour or Auto Contrast.

These automatic adjustments usually do a good job, but some scanners go a bit too far and produce too much contrast so that brighter parts of the photo are bleached out and darker areas are lost in blackness. If this happens, it’s often possible to get better results by adjusting the contrast manually.

Don’t be afraid to experiment a little. Remember that even if a scan produc es terrible results, it’s always possible to go back and try again with different settings.

Negative energy
It’s not possible to scan slides or negatives on a regular flatbed scanner as they work by measuring the light reflected from documents and photo prints.

Slides and negatives don’t reflect much light, so the only result will be a dark oblong shape.

Some flatbed scanners, such as HP’s G4050 as recommended earlier, come with a transparency adapter specifically for slides and negatives.

This is essentially a bright light that shines through the film, allowing the image to be recorded by the scanner below. The scanning process when using one is the same as for prints, but with two key differences.

First, because the slides and negatives are so small but have such a high resolution, it’s essential to use the scanner’s maximum resolution when scanning. Check the scanner manual to find out its maximum optical resolution and use that setting. Ignore any higher interpolated resolution figures, as these add no quality to the result.

Second, because of the tiny size of the original, any dust or hairs on the negative will be magnified hugely when the picture is scanned. Some scanners have dust-removal systems that can eliminate these marks digitally during the scanning process.

For the best results, though, remove as much dust as possible before scanning. A blower brush is handy for this as it allows you to simply blow away specks of dust ­ these cost about £5 from photography shops.

Invisible mending
Sadly, some damage isn’t easy to blow away: grain, scratches and other damage can’t always be avoided when scanning, but fortunately they are often easy to fix in an image-editing program.

Some pictures, especially those taken on old snapshot cameras or with high-speed film, can look grainy. Image-editing programs usually have tools to disguise this ­ in Photoshop Elements it’s called the Reduce Noise filter. Noise-reduction tools work by suppressing fine detail and this can lead to a loss of sharpness.

The trick lies in choosing settings that reduce the grain enough to improve the picture but without softening the detail unacceptably.

Dust, scratches and blemishes can be removed effectively, although this takes a bit of practice. Dust spots are easy enough to deal with in Photoshop Elements using the Spot Healing Brush.

This tool, represented by a sticking plaster in the tool palette, takes pixels from the surrounding areas to fill in the blemish and produce an invisible repair. It can also be applied to scratches ­ here, the brush should be dragged along the scratch in a single movement.

Tears and larger faults need to be repaired using the Clone Stamp tool, which looks like a rubber stamp in the tool palette. This works by copying another part of the image that looks similar and painting it over the damaged area.

To use the Clone Stamp, find an area of the image that is similar to the one being repaired ­ in most photos this will be near to the damaged area ­ then right-click on it. Next use the left mouse button to paint over the damaged area.

Using the Clone Stamp is tricky at first ­ if you make a mistake, simply use the Undo command (or press Ctrl and 2) to try again.

Colour correct
Photos don’t always appear perfectly after scanning, and some may still be faded or discoloured.

There are a number of ways of fixing these problems, but they all work differently.

In Photoshop Elements, the best place to start is the Auto Levels command, and most other image-editing programs have a similar option.

This works slightly differently from automatic contrast adjustment because it adjusts the red, green and blue components, or channels, of the image separately. Using this command usually improves the contrast of the image significantly.

If you don’t like the results produced by Auto Levels, the more sophisticated Auto Color command is worth trying. It is designed to produce more natural colour than Auto Levels, though it is subtler.

Finally, if the entire image has a colour cast ­ it might look slightly pink or blue ­ try the Remove Color Cast tool. This is simple to use ­ select the tool, then when the eyedropper icon appears, click on a white or grey area in the picture. This can restore natural-looking colour to photos that don’t respond to the other two treatments.

Safe storage
Digital images can be stored in dozens of file formats. Many experts recommend saving photos as TIFF files as they retain all the detail in the image, but these files are large and few programs can open them.

We recommend saving each photo as a JPEG file, but using the High Quality setting whenever possible. This will produce files that aren’t too big while keeping the image quality high.

There’s one more thing. The point of this exercise is to preserve your precious photos for ever ­ but what happens if the computer’s hard disk fails, or the computer is destroyed or stolen? For this reason, it’s vital to keep backup copies of your scanned images.

If you use Photoshop Elements, the Elements Organizer includes a backup tools that are easy to use. If not, it’s easiest to simply copy the entire photo folder to a safe location every so often.

But where do you save these backup files? It’s crucial to use a removable device that can be kept at a separate location for maximum security. CDs and DVDs are cheap but they’re also slow to use. You should also read our online backup feature.

The simplest solution is an external hard disk that connects to a USB port. A 120GB model will hold thousands of photos, and these can be found for about £6 0. After copying photos to the disk, detach the external disk from the computer and store it in another location.

Once all your precious photos are scanned, restored, filed and backed up, you can start to enjoy them properly, sharing them with friends and family who may not have seen them for many years, if at all.

The easiest way to share pictures is to use the internet (see 'Sharing photos online' below). So don’t leave your old photos to fade away in the loft. Get them out, scan them in and save them for ever while there’s still time. It’s very easy to do, and in years to come you’ll be so glad that you did it.

Film scanners
A flatbed scanner with a transparency adapter can do a decent job of scanning slides and negatives, but if the originals are of good quality it’s unlikely to pick up all the detail in the picture.

This is because capturing lots of detail from a tiny rectangle of film requires both a high resolution and precision-made optics.

For this reason, keen photographers may want to invest in a dedicated film scanner instead. They can scan only slides and negatives, not prints, and they are expensive – prices start at about £500.

With prices this high it might be tempting to look for a second-hand bargain, but take care. First, check that the scanner is made by a well-known brand: Nikon and Minolta scanners are generally well regarded.

Make sure the resolution is high enough (2,700dpi is a minimum, 4,000dpi is better) and check the scanner interface – older scanners use an connection called SCSI and won’t connect to a modern PC, so be sure to buy a USB model.

Free photo-editing programs
In this article we’ve used Adobe’s Photoshop Elements to demonstrate common photo-fixing techniques, but there are many other choices, including Corel Paint Shop Pro and Ulead Photo Impact.

These are commercial programs, but there are free alternatives too, and one of the best is called Paint.Net. It’s quick to download, although you may have to download Microsoft’s .Net framework if you don’t have it already, and this takes a little longer.

Paint.Net is a very clear and simple program to use even if you’ve never edited photos with a computer before.

It can rotate and crop skewed scans and it has a clone tool for repairing damage and defects. It even supports layers, which are used to combine photos and make montages or panoramic images. Several photos can be edited at the same time, and they’re listed in a vertical panel on the right of the screen.

While most programs will list the photos you’ve recently worked on in the File menu, Paint.Net goes further, displaying them as large thumbnails for easy identification. It’s easy to use Paint.Net alongside Google’s Picasa, which is also free, giving a complete set of photo organisation and enhancement tools.

Sharing photos online
It is possible to email photos to other people, but this can be an inefficient and time-consuming business.

It’s much simpler to upload them to an online gallery that friends and family can visit. Most are free to use, though many are supported by advertisements.

Google offers a free online album service called Picasa where images can be selected and uploaded using Internet Explorer or the Picasa software.

Flickr is another popular place to share photos, and it allows you to restrict access to your personal photo albums to friends and family only if you wish.

Many online photo printing services, such as Photobox, also offer online albums, making it convenient to both share photos and order prints as required.

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