Digitize Your Photos - 7 Easy Steps_4289

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Where are your photos stored? Under the bed in an old shoe box or scattered from one end of the house to the other? If you do digital scrapbooking or you want a simpler way to organize and share all of your photos with friends and family, then you would benefit from having those photos scanned and placed onto a CD or DVD for easy viewing.
The method explained in this article is a little time consuming but worth the effort.
Materials Needed:
A good scanner.
A computer.
Photo editing software.
A CD burner or a DVD burner.
CD or DVD burning software.
Instructions
1. Shop around for a good Photo Scanner. Tell people what you want to do and ask questions. Do research on the internet to find the scanner that is right for you.
2. Clean your photos and scanner. Using a lint-free photowipe, gently clean off any dirt or smudges, being careful not to leave fingerprints on the photos. Again, using lint-free wipes, clean the scanner glass from any smudges,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], fingerprints or dust.
3. Set the scanner parameters. The scanner software should allow you to specify what image resolution you want to capture. Keep it in the 300-600 dpi range. A higher range will take longer but will give you a higher quality scan.
4. Scan photos. Place the photo face down on the scanner glass and start scanning. Do a preview to see if the alignment is correct. If not,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], adjust it and do another preview until correct.
5. Edit photos. Once you have scanned your photo, send it to your photo editor for fixing or cleaning up. Most photo editing programs will be able to help you remove dust and speckles, remove red eye,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], adjust the colors and contrast,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and sharpen the image.
6. Organize and save your photos. While working on your photos, it is a good idea to organize them. A good way is to set up three files: Raw photos, edited photos and unsorted photos. Once they are edited and placed into the unsorted photos file, they can be organized further and saved onto a CD or DVD. I like to organize them into years,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], then breakdown those files into subgroups, such as: 2010 Trip to Hawaii,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 2010 Steve's Birthday Party, 2010 Hunting Trip...
7. Burn onto CD or DVD. Using your CD/DVD burning software, burn your photos onto CDs or DVDs. You now have all your organized photographs in a format ready to show (or send) to families and friends.
TIP: You can also burn your photos onto a flash drive. Since it's small and can be kept on your key chain or in your purse, you can have it with you at all times. It can be plugged into most any computer's USB port, allowing you to show your photos just about anywhere.