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Here at The Babbling Brook, we’ve already noticed a few flurries in the air. We think you’ll agree that October has ushered in some unseasonably cold days and nights. So when the weather drives you indoors, and you’re looking for something productive to do, we humbly present the perfect project: digitizing your hard copy photos and slides! Don’t let the word “digitize” scare you—you can digitize a photo or slide with minimal equipment, plus, you have a secret weapon—Christina, Willow Brook’s social media coordinator! Christina has created a step-by-step tutorial (some might say hack) to turn your photos into digital files that you can store electronically, e-mail, and even print. Ready to give it a shot? Read on!
Yes, you read that correctly. Whether you have photo slides or printed photos that you would like to digitize you can do it by taking a photo of a photo. You may be wondering, but how would the image in the photo slide show up? Well, that’s where this simple set of directions comes into play:
If you have access to a printer with a scanner you can scan your paper photos with a basic scanner. Unfortunately, basic scanners do not work well for photo slides or negatives as those require a source of backlight to reveal the image. Some hesitate to use scanners, as the images may not come out as clear or defined as you might wish.
Unfortunately, in the digital age that we live in it is increasingly hard to find places that still develop film. Thankfully, we have two options near our Delaware Willow Brook campuses. CVS on W. Central Ave. and CVS on S. Sandusky St. both have photo departments that still develop film! Be prepared that it may take longer than a week to get your photos developed as they send it out of the store to a photo lab.
It’s rather amazing what technology can do! If you are a bit more tech-savvy and have some money left over in your budget, you could purchase a digital image convertor. This technology scans the photo slide or photo negative by backlighting the image as it is scanning it. Amazon has a few option for this, but we recommend the following brand as it appears to be user-friendly and works well with digitizing slides, in particular: ClearClick Film and Slide Scanner
In the end, it comes down to what resources you have available and what time you have to spend. We hope this was beneficial and not too overwhelming. Remember, take it one step at a time, play around with it, and have fun making memories while saving memories!
1. Unsure how to crop an image? Here are few additional directions for cropping on a smart device. (Hover over the images below to see which directions they correspond with and then click the image to see the full photo.)