ScanSpeeder batch scan photos directly from a photo album; even old printed photos that are under a plastic cover.  ScanSpeeder auto-detects most photos.  Sometimes though the color of the photo album's background hinders the automatic detection.  The photo album page I scanned below is a great example of this.  The background of my photo album in this case is almost black.  In this instance the photos were not automatically found.  There is a quick fix for this.... 

Scan Speeder's eye-dropper tool fixes this in seconds and will let you detect your photos even when the photo album has a dark background.  Let me show you how...

How to Scan Photos from a Photo Album with a Dark Background

To scan photos directly from a photo album (click here to see basic photo scanning) that has a dark background, use ScanSpeeder's eye-dropper tool.  This feature is essential when scanning those old printed photos from a photo album that has a dark background.  To begin, try scanning the photos directly from the photo album, as you normally would with ScanSpeeder, as I did above.  Most backgrounds don't need any more steps, but as in the case of my dark background above, I need to use the eye-dropper tool and re-scan.  

1 - Select Eye-Dropper Tool to Sample the Dark Background

Click the gear icon in ScanSpeeder's Step 1 to open the "Auto Detection Settings".  

Click the "eye-dropper tool" as shown below and DRAG in onto the photo album's background.

Then increase the "Radius" of the background color.  Default radius setting is 20, so I increased it to 40.  Simply put, the "radius" is the variance in the background's color.  My album is 20 years old so its black background has faded which has added a great amount variance in the background's color.  So by increasing the "radius" value, I greatly increase the auto-detection of my printed photos on the background.  

2 - Scan Photos by clicking the "Detect" Button 

Now just click the "Detect" button as seen below.

Scanned photos are now auto-detected, as seen below, and ready to be auto-straightened and split into separate files.  

3 - Scanned Photos are now ready to be Automatically Straightened and Split 

Click the "Extract Photos" button in ScanSpeeder's Step 3 - Extract Photos and Preview Area.

My photos were automatically straightened and automatically split into separate files.  I changed the photo's orientation of a couple for better viewing (click here to see how).  I also added captions to each photo to truly digitize the photo.  The captions are embedded in the photo and tag the photo letting me easily find it later.  To see how to add a caption and thereby tag your scanned photo, see this article.