If you’re planning to digitize photos with Current Pixel, then there’s a few things you can do to prepare. Photo scanning is the best way to preserve your photos in one place where you can enjoy them over and over again, and even share them easily with friends and family. You can also organize your photos to view them based on meaningful categories to you. Visit our page to find out more information about Current Pixel’s photo scanning services.
At Current Pixel, we love having the chance to help you keep your memories safe and organized through our photo scanning services. Since we have been digitizing photos for decades, we have found our customers appreciate some tips to know before bringing their photos in for scanning. This helps them avoid extra costs, as well as ensures their photos are organized and prepared for the best possible result. Here are some ‘to-dos’ before you bring your photos into Current Pixel for scanning services.
Make Sure Your Photos are Clean
What this means is that in order to process your photos for scanning, they need to be removed from any albums, album pages, sleeves, mounts, or frames. Also be sure to remove any glue or sticky residue even if tacky or hardened. This process is great for people, because it’s a perfect opportunity to exclude any photos from your order that are duplicates, over or under exposed, out of focus, or just not as important as other photos.
Carefully Organize and Store Your Photos
After you make sure your photos are clean, place them in photo organizer boxes, other plastic or paper boxes, or in Ziploc bags. Keep in mind that it is usually best to place photos together of the same size. Do not use rubber bands, as they can break, especially during shipment. Also, do not use tape on your photos, as it easily damages photos beyond repair. As you store your photos you can also take the time to organize them in a meaningful way to you.
Write your categories or labels clearly on Ziploc bags or use tabbed index cards to provide a concise label for each group. If you want, you can even organize photos within each group of photos, if that’s important to you. Just make sure the order is clear for the technician who is digitizing your photos.
Keep Your Photos Safe
When you’re storing your photos for shipment or delivery to Current Pixel, ensure your photos are straight and will not bend and that they cannot shift easily in a way that will disturb the order. This could happen, for example, if you use a box that is too long or too wide, allowing photos to slide around and become shuffled in transit.
*TIP* You can use cushion foam or another soft material to fill in voids in boxes to prevent photos from shifting—just like packing any other box for moving or shipment.
Know What To Expect From Your Order
We don’t want you to pay any more than you expect to for your photo scanning services, so make sure you know what to expect and have your photos ready for scanning when they arrive at Current Pixel. You should count or closely estimate the total number of photos you are planning to preserve through the scanning process to better understand the cost of your project and avoid surprises.
We can digitize photos from 2.5” x 3.5” up to 8” x 10” at our standard rates. However, photos that are smaller or larger, non-rectangular, bent, thick, delicate, require a high DPI scan or unable to be completely cleaned cannot be fed through our photo scanners and will have to be scanned on a flatbed at an additional cost. If there are some photos that cannot be safely removed from their containers, we can scan them, but that will also be an additional cost.
Enjoy Your Photos!
The most important element of your photo scanning services is that you enjoy having your photos in one place and are happy with the result. If you follow the tips above, you will make sure your photos are completely organized and ready to be scanned and digitized, and we will have all the tools we need to complete your scan successfully and at a lower cost to you!
Images by Ornello
