Displaying printed photos in a photo album was very popular. To digitize these old photos, you need to scan them. The problem we all have is that the scanning software that comes with your scanner won't detect the individual photos from a photo album; it will just scan them as one big blob. Most scanning software programs currently on the market will also NOT let you scan directly from the photo album; they make you remove the photos and place separately on a flatbed. The problem with removing photos from an album is two-fold: it took me extra time removing the photos and having to put them back. I also permanently damaged some because the sticky background of the album had glued itself to the photos. The only scanning software I have found that WILL let you scan photos DIRECTLY from the photo album and will detect each individual photo is ScanSpeeder.
ScanSpeeder works with all photo albums - any color background too - even black ones. Even photo albums that have plastic covers on every page.
My advice... if someone asks you to remove photos from a photo album - don't! There is no need to take the risk of photo damage. Let me show you...
Scan Photos DIRECTLY from your Photo Album
At this stage, I will assume you have a copy of ScanSpeeder's photo scanning software. Need a copy? Click here.
Step 1 - Lay Photo Album page DIRECTLY on the Scanner
The scan will work well even with the plastic cover on. In the screen shot below, I placed the photo album page directly on the scanner with the plastic cover still on. This is better for photos in a photo album so you don't take the risk of ripping the photo paper.
If you have a dark or black background in the photo album like the screen shot below, please refer to this article.
If you have photos with borders around them, like the screen show below, please refer to this article. It will show you how to scan both the image and the border together.
Step 2 - Click the "Scan" button
After the scan is complete, you should see the full scanned image containing your photos on the left side. ScanSpeeder automatically detects all 6 photos on the album page which are highlighted green around the edges of the image.
Step 3 - Automatically Split Photos into Separate Files
Click the "Extract Photos" button in ScanSpeeder's Step 2. You will see your old printed photos now digitized in the Preview Area.
Each photo was automatically separated and automatically straightened.
If you need to correct orientation of an image, see this article. If you just need to finely rotate the image, see this article.
4 - Tag Scanned Photos - Capture Context & Easily Find them Later
Tag your scanned photos. Why? Adding a digital tag is truly digitizing that old printed photo.
Digital photos taken with your phone and digital camera automatically have tags; scanned photos do not. Scanned photos have no information; it's just the image. So adding tags are very important. Trust me - you will be thankful when you can easily find your scanned photos later. The tag also lets you digitally embed the context of the photo so future generations will know the "who, what, when, and where" of the photo. These tags are added in the Caption Field and are embedded in the photo and saved as the photo's title in Windows Explorer. The photo's title is both searchable and sortable.
See this article to see how to add a tag to your scanned photo.
5 - Save Scanned Photos
Select a "Save to Folder" in the Step 3 of ScanSpeeder. I recommend you create a folder that adds meaning to the batch of photos you are scanning. Such as for the photos scanned above, they are being saved in a folder called, "1977 Family Vacation".
Then, select an "Album Name" for your image files. A 3-digit serial number will be added to the prefix to make the file name.
Save simultaneously as BOTH TIFF and JPEG. Why? TIFF files are archival quality. TIFF files are lossless and are needed for photo enhancement or printing. JPEG is a compressed format and looses data. It is smaller which makes it good for posting on social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc), emailing, and putting in a slideshow.
Your TIFF files will be found within a separate folder (in the folder you selected above) and labelled "FullSize".
To recap: Scan photos with ScanSpeeder photo scanning software to make your photo scanning easier. You can batch scan multiple photos directly from the photo album or not, automatically straighten, automatically split into separate files, tag scanned photos, and save in both JPEG and TIFF simultaneously.