Managing Scans

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Hi all, i am in the process of scanning a load of old family photos. THese are vast variety of sizes and ages.

I was wondering how people who have performed a similar project managed the storage of the soft and hard copy of the scans.

For my digital pictures it is easy, have folders grouped by date taken, grouped by year. But im not so sure how best to manage the folders / metadata for scans, and alos how to store the physical copies to allow easy retrieval of either the hard or soft copy?
 
Has anybody done a lot of scanning and worked out a system of storage?
 
Rapscallion said:
Has anybody done a lot of scanning and worked out a system of storage?
Click to expand...

No, but it depends on the requirements for your prints. We have scanned lots of prints but we give the originals back to the family - the digital files are held with the rest of our digital files.

If we were archiving the prints, there are lots of archive folder systems to use, and I'd probably file them in the same groups as the digital files (labelled if necessary)
 
Phil V said:
No, but it depends on the requirements for your prints. We have scanned lots of prints but we give the originals back to the family - the digital files are held with the rest of our digital files.

If we were archiving the prints, there are lots of archive folder systems to use, and I'd probably file them in the same groups as the digital files (labelled if necessary)
Click to expand...

Hi Phil, do you know any dealers or brands to search for. Googling only shows standard photo albums. A folder system with the ability to mount pictures from 1" square to a4 is what im after.
 
There used to be adverts in magazines all the time for them. I'm sure someone will be able to provide more detail.
 
Cheers Phil. Just one of those things where i my google-fu fails me..
 
IIRC, the company that used to advertise a lot was called Arrow.

While I no longer scan much, when I did, I was a bit anal about cross reference etc and if the prints were mine, I would label them with their file number and store them in order of that file number. I've always kept old photos in either boxes or albums and in date order and always tried to do the scanning in chronological order too to keep file numbers in order.
Once I had done a batch of scanning, I would make a copy of the folder on a CD and print a "contact sheet". These are now stored in a loose leaf binder. The contact sheets have the file number under each thumbnail.

On the (rare) occasions I need to find a scan, I can generally remember roughly when the photo was taken so can flip through the folder to find the thumbnail and hence the file name. I suppose I could keyword them all but for me, it's simply not worth the effort!

Whole films also got scanned, copied to CD and stored in folders along with the sleeved negs/slides and a contact sheet.
 
Nod said:
IIRC, the company that used to advertise a lot was called Arrow.

While I no longer scan much, when I did, I was a bit anal about cross reference etc and if the prints were mine, I would label them with their file number and store them in order of that file number. I've always kept old photos in either boxes or albums and in date order and always tried to do the scanning in chronological order too to keep file numbers in order.
Once I had done a batch of scanning, I would make a copy of the folder on a CD and print a "contact sheet". These are now stored in a loose leaf binder. The contact sheets have the file number under each thumbnail.

On the (rare) occasions I need to find a scan, I can generally remember roughly when the photo was taken so can flip through the folder to find the thumbnail and hence the file name. I suppose I could keyword them all but for me, it's simply not worth the effort!

Whole films also got scanned, copied to CD and stored in folders along with the sleeved negs/slides and a contact sheet.
Click to expand...

Exactly what i was looking for. Cheers Nod.

Ive found
http://www.arrowfile.com/

Which i guess is the company you are referring to.

One question, how did you file scans that were not scanned in chronological order. ie You've already scanned all the 1960's pictures, but sometime later you come across some more pictures from the 1960's.
 
Rapscallion said:
Exactly what i was looking for. Cheers Nod.

Ive found
http://www.arrowfile.com/

Which i guess is the company you are referring to.

One question, how did you file scans that were not scanned in chronological order. ie You've already scanned all the 1960's pictures, but sometime later you come across some more pictures from the 1960's.
Click to expand...

They're ring bound so you can always insert more :thumbs:
 
I'd use the colour coded inserts with the tabs, or just add the little sticky out labels.
 
Fortunately that's not a problem I'm likely to have now - I've got all the scans I want/need! However, if the problem did come up, I would drop a note into the relevant folder to the effect that there were more photos in <insert new folder name>.

Arrowfile is indeed the company I was thinking of. IIRC, they do all sorts of different inserts for loose leaf binders and are archival quality (non acidic so shouldn't cause problems with negs, slides, prints, CDs etc).
 
Cheers Nod and Phil. Ill be giving Arrowfile a call after the bank holiday for their advice.
 
What do you guys usually fill in the date taken EXIF data with?
 
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