How to preserve old family photos
Nearly every family has a box of old photos nobody dares open, because the job looks endless. Here is how to get through it in a few evenings, with no professional equipment.
Step 1: sort before you scan
Scanning 2,000 photos is a project that gets abandoned. Scanning the 200 that matter is a project that gets finished.
Make three piles: unique and irreplaceable (people, major events), nice but secondary, duplicates and anonymous scenery. Throw nothing away, but only scan the first pile to begin.
Step 2: scan properly
A flatbed scanner gives the best result: 600 dpi for paper prints, 1,200 dpi or more for slides and negatives. Save as high-quality JPEG, or TIFF for exceptional items.
A phone works well if you have no scanner: indirect daylight, camera parallel to the print, no flash, no shadow from your body. A decent phone copy beats a scan you never make.
Step 3: identify while you still can
An unnamed photo loses half its value with every generation. This is the urgent step, because it depends on living people.
Record at minimum: who, when, where. Do it with the oldest person in the family, looking at the photos together — it doubles as a very good conversation.
- Write names in the filename or a caption, never in pen on the print.
- An approximate date beats no date: “around 1962” is information.
- Record uncertainty too: “probably uncle Marcel”.
Step 4: keep the originals and the copies
Store prints flat, out of light, in a room that is neither damp nor overheated — never a basement or an attic. Avoid old self-adhesive albums, whose glue yellows and eats the paper.
For files: two copies in two places, one of them outside the house. And tell someone else where they are.
Frequently asked questions
Should I restore damaged photos?
Scan the original as-is first, then work on a copy. A restoration can be redone; a scan lost along with the original cannot.
What resolution should I use?
600 dpi covers almost all paper prints and allows reasonable enlargement. Go to 1,200 dpi only for slides, negatives and very small formats.
What about photos where nobody recognises the faces?
Keep them separately, low priority, marked “unidentified”. A distant cousin or later genealogy work may still name them.
Solexi does not replace a legal will, a notary or a lawyer. Solexi helps you gather, organize and pass on your information.