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Post by anniefb on Feb 15, 2015 8:22:27 GMT
I am fast running out of storage space for albums. I have a lot of photos (roughly 1800) from the 5 years I spent living in the UK in the early '90s. Currently they're all in regular photo albums (supposedly acid free), the kind where you slot in photos and write a description. All pre-digital and I'm not sure what I did with the negatives.
I've been wondering if I can free up the space for some more recent PL albums by scanning the photos and ditching the old albums. I can't think when I looked at them last. Don't think I can face dealing with all the photos, but I guess another option is to do a highlights album (layouts/PL spreads) with a selection of photos. Any other ideas or suggestions? What would you do?
TIA.
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Post by cupcakepeddler on Feb 15, 2015 11:05:07 GMT
I don't think I will be much help to you as I am a huge believer in keeping old photo albums, I still have all my old photo albums and yes I too have not looked at them in years but after loosing a whole heap of photos from an old computer I am more protective of my photos. I always got photos from film cameras printed in doubles so I could scrapbook the good ones and keep the others in my photo albums. A few years ago I went through the albums and took out all the photos that I didn't like/need/out of focus and I cut the albums down by a lot.
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Post by streetscrapper on Feb 15, 2015 13:54:45 GMT
When my mother passed away 4 years ago I took a box full of photo albums. As I flipped through them I realized that I didn't even know half of the people in the pictures, and often even when I did, they didn't mean anything to me. But the ones that did, I scanned them so I have them. When I was finished, I passed the box of albums along to my sister who did exactly the same thing. When she was done, she threw them away. Bit of a different situation than yours, but I would probably do something similar - sort through them and have all of the ones I want to keep scanned. That way you still have the photos, just not the clutter. Probably a time consuming task, but you don't have to do it overnight. One album at a time!
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Post by carolynhasacat on Feb 15, 2015 15:36:41 GMT
How many albums do you have? I think I would start by just paring it down to favorite photos. 1,800 sounds like a lot.
I love the idea of a highlights PL album. That will be more meaningful, if you have the time and supplies to complete it.
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Post by 950nancy on Feb 15, 2015 17:39:58 GMT
I have over 50 albums displayed. I still have 2000-2009 to finish. I bought two ladder shelves that don't take up much room and hold a ton of books. I can't imagine getting rid of books. I would put them in some type of storage before I got rid of them.
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Post by anniefb on Feb 15, 2015 18:38:39 GMT
Thanks everyone! There are 7 albums taking up a foot of space carolynhasacat. Just thought I could use it for newer albums I'd actually go back and view. I think I will scan photos so at least I have a digital copy and then look to do a PL album with memory highlights. I can see myself going back and looking at and enjoying that kind of album. |
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Post by myboysnme on Feb 17, 2015 1:49:31 GMT
I would pare down the photos I want to keep and fill in the slots in the albums you have when you pull out pics you don't want. Then I would leave them alone until I felt like scrapping them, if I ever did.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Feb 17, 2015 14:53:16 GMT
I have a hard time getting rid of old photos, but I wouldn't have too much trouble getting rid of any that were really blurry, duplicates, really dark, etc. After that, if you wanted to reclaim the space but don't really want to scan all of the photos you have left, you could look into using a photo scanning service. There used to be a lady in our area who was a rep with Heritage Makers who had one of those scanners with a document feeder, and if you could find someone with one of those it would probably save you a ton of time.
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Post by myboysnme on Feb 17, 2015 22:45:36 GMT
Would you be wanting to scan so you can get rid of the photos? I would not want to get rid of photos that I would eventually want to reprint. It's easy enough to store them in a box.
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tduby1
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,979 
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Post by tduby1 on Feb 20, 2015 23:53:26 GMT
I am fast running out of storage space for albums. I have a lot of photos (roughly 1800) from the 5 years I spent living in the UK in the early '90s. Currently they're all in regular photo albums (supposedly acid free), the kind where you slot in photos and write a description. All pre-digital and I'm not sure what I did with the negatives. I've been wondering if I can free up the space for some more recent PL albums by scanning the photos and ditching the old albums. I can't think when I looked at them last. Don't think I can face dealing with all the photos, but I guess another option is to do a highlights album (layouts/PL spreads) with a selection of photos. Any other ideas or suggestions? What would you do? TIA. In took mine out of albums and filed them in photoboxes. My albums were organized chronologically, so that is how they are filed in the boxes, year--> month --> event. And pertinent info about the event (date, place, participants) that was noted in albums is now noted on the dividers between events. I went from 10-12 albums and two shelves to being able to stack the three boxes in the space of one album. I went digital in 2000 and my digital photos are files in the same manner on my computer, backed up to a hard drive. |
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tduby1
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,979
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Post by tduby1 on Feb 20, 2015 23:57:46 GMT
Is have photos from my jr high years forward. I am 43. As I file through my photos, as I occasionally do, memories flood back, memories that would otherwise be lost. The older I get, the harder it is to remember back that long ago without prompting. For that reason I keep them.
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Post by birukitty on Feb 21, 2015 21:54:42 GMT
Personally I would keep the photo albums. Scanning photos is popular, but there is are good reasons for keeping the photos. What if something happens to the hard drive or computer file and you lose the scanned photos? What will happen in 20 years when advances are made in technology and those files can no longer be read? Scanning isn't forever. Those files aren't permanent, a number of things can happen to them. Obviously the best plan is to have BOTH scanned and physical photos. You say you already have the photos organized in albums. Do you have descriptions written in those spaces you mentioned? If so, I would certainly try my best to keep them in there. As far as preservation goes photos do best living in the spaces we live in. That means no attics or unheated/cooled storage spaces, or that will increase their fading. For me my photos are among my most prized possessions. I'd see if I could move around/get rid of other unwanted things to free up some more space or maybe find a better storage option (Ikea makes great bookcases like a version of Billy that is now wider and will hold photo and scrapbooks) that will hold both your photo albums and your scrapbooks. Hope that helps. Debbie in MD. PS. I have 35 archival shoeboxes full of print photos back from my film days  |
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