Genealogy Chat

Can someone tell me how I can get copies of old photographs. I have a scanner but they are not scanning well and therefore not printing well.

I have quite a few to copy onto a disc. Which is the best way to do it please?

Dee

You could try taking a digital photo of them. I have got some great images this way - even using the phone camera. Or you could always go to snapp snaps or similar photographic shop..

Thank you Barbara, never thought of that.

As said above check the dpi (dots per inch) the scanner is set to. Also check the 'mode' you are scanning in. Most scanners have pre-set scan modes and if you have it set to scan documents rather than photographs then they will not come out very good.

Mark.

I took about 30 old photos to a kodak shop and they downloaded and printed two sets of photos for $68 plus I got the disc.so can print as many as I want.Stewart

When you scan the photo you should be able to select the dpi (dots per inch) setting which sets the scanner resolution. If you want to print the photo without enlarging it then a setting of 300dpi should be fine. If you wish to enlarge the photo then double the dpi number each time you double the enlargement size. So for example choose 600dpi if you wish to print the photo at double size. Hope this makes sense - and make sure your scanner glass is clean!

If you decide to try using a camera to photograph your old snaps, it usually works better if you use the "macro" or close-up setting.

Thanks to all for the help.
I have discovered that I had the configeration set to Black and White (hence the negative quality copies), once set to colour, they come out much better.
The Dpi information is useful for sizing. I will try that too.
Many many thanks
Dee