scanning pics ?
November 21, 2007 8:45 PM Subscribe
I have 2500 pictures which I want to turn into jpegs what is the fastest and cheapest way to do this? Hire a high schooler or ?
What format are they in? If they happen to be negatives or slides, you might find this article I wrote earlier this year about 110 and 35mm slide and negative scanning to be useful.
In short, don't scrimp on the scanner. I'd suggest a Coolscan V ED, as it can be resold on eBay for marginally less than it costs new.
If you are talking about print photos, I suggest looking for a scanner with some sort of batch mode and be ready to spend a lot of time swapping photos in and out. I'd imagine you can get this pretty automated, so it is done while doing other tasks. (I did a similar batch job for all of my parents 110 slides...)
posted by c0nsumer at 8:59 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]
In short, don't scrimp on the scanner. I'd suggest a Coolscan V ED, as it can be resold on eBay for marginally less than it costs new.
If you are talking about print photos, I suggest looking for a scanner with some sort of batch mode and be ready to spend a lot of time swapping photos in and out. I'd imagine you can get this pretty automated, so it is done while doing other tasks. (I did a similar batch job for all of my parents 110 slides...)
posted by c0nsumer at 8:59 PM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]
ScanCafe
Can't vouch for them myself, but they come highly reccomended. I am going to give them a test run with some non-essential rolls after the New Year, with an eye to scanning about 7000 prints.
posted by samh23 at 9:09 PM on November 21, 2007
Can't vouch for them myself, but they come highly reccomended. I am going to give them a test run with some non-essential rolls after the New Year, with an eye to scanning about 7000 prints.
posted by samh23 at 9:09 PM on November 21, 2007
I digitized 2100 of my photos in just three evenings. Basically all I did was gang up as many as I could on one scan (usually five did the trick) and scanned in one image into Ye Olde Paint Shop Pro. Then I quickly cropped them out into different photos.
Efficiency and speed is key, so the simplest tools are usually the best. I'd say just set aside some time, put on some tunes, and give yourself a couple of hours to get into a groove and pretty soon you'll be humming along.
posted by chips ahoy at 9:15 PM on November 21, 2007
Efficiency and speed is key, so the simplest tools are usually the best. I'd say just set aside some time, put on some tunes, and give yourself a couple of hours to get into a groove and pretty soon you'll be humming along.
posted by chips ahoy at 9:15 PM on November 21, 2007
Do you work in an office that has a color copier/scanner? I ran through about 2000 pics in about an hour over lunch one day just by feeding them in to the tray, and that scanner even cropped and straightened my photos.
In a pinch I'd just scan 4 or 6 photos, whatever fit, and use something like GIMP to have a set height x width ratio as the select tool and crop them up that way.
posted by sanka at 10:22 PM on November 21, 2007
In a pinch I'd just scan 4 or 6 photos, whatever fit, and use something like GIMP to have a set height x width ratio as the select tool and crop them up that way.
posted by sanka at 10:22 PM on November 21, 2007
"2100 of my photos in just three evenings," let alone "2000 pics in about an hour over lunch," is the equivalent of throwing your slides and prints on the patio and taking a snap of them from the roof.
Find the right teenager, buy him/her a terrific scanner, and give him/her six months to practice and get good. If you get twenty good scans per month from this arrangement you are blessed.
posted by gum at 11:22 PM on November 21, 2007
Find the right teenager, buy him/her a terrific scanner, and give him/her six months to practice and get good. If you get twenty good scans per month from this arrangement you are blessed.
posted by gum at 11:22 PM on November 21, 2007
There is a service that will do this for you for about 15 cents apiece. That works out to maybe $300 for your 2k photos; probably a great deal given the advice you've already received, and I hear they do a bang-up job, too.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the service. I just saw it written up recently, maybe on Cool Tools. Give me a bit and I'll see if I can dig it up.
posted by Aquaman at 11:40 PM on November 21, 2007
Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the service. I just saw it written up recently, maybe on Cool Tools. Give me a bit and I'll see if I can dig it up.
posted by Aquaman at 11:40 PM on November 21, 2007
ScanCafe. From Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools blog. 19c per. Still cheaper than buying a decent scanner and spending the better part of 2 weeks doing it yourself.
posted by Aquaman at 11:43 PM on November 21, 2007
posted by Aquaman at 11:43 PM on November 21, 2007
yeah hire a high schooler. QA their work regularly. Depending on the high schooler in question they'll need more or less supervision, but this is going to be the most cost effective way.
posted by singingfish at 12:12 AM on November 22, 2007
posted by singingfish at 12:12 AM on November 22, 2007
I'd be nervous about a service where I have to mail things around, they could get lost in the mail or something.
posted by delmoi at 12:26 AM on November 22, 2007
posted by delmoi at 12:26 AM on November 22, 2007
Scan them and scan them only via high school temp help. Finish them off (crop, resize) with OS X's Automator.
You'll still spend a couple hundred.
posted by sourwookie at 12:48 AM on November 22, 2007
You'll still spend a couple hundred.
posted by sourwookie at 12:48 AM on November 22, 2007
http://scanmyphotos.com/scanning.html
For $100 you can scan as many pictures as you can fit in a prepaid box. Could be as cheap as 6 cents per photo ... or so they claim.
posted by SoulOnIce at 6:12 AM on November 22, 2007
For $100 you can scan as many pictures as you can fit in a prepaid box. Could be as cheap as 6 cents per photo ... or so they claim.
posted by SoulOnIce at 6:12 AM on November 22, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
Google turns up a Slashdot thread from a year ago that you might find useful. Hiring a teenager who has a scanner is probably the fastest and cheapest way in the short run.
posted by JDHarper at 8:54 PM on November 21, 2007