Scanning the old paper photographs
Turn a box of paper photographs into pictures on your phone, using nothing you do not already own.
There is usually a box, or a drawer, or a suitcase on top of a wardrobe. The photographs in it exist once each, and paper does not improve with time.
You do not need a scanner, and you do not need to send them away to a company. A phone held over a photograph beside a window produces a copy that is good enough to print, good enough to send, and good enough to survive.
Key points
- Copy a paper photograph with the phone you already own
- Get it out of the frame and out of the plastic sleeve first
- Work beside a window with the flash off and the phone held flat above
- Write what is on the back into the caption, so it can be searched for
What to remember
- Out of the frame, light from the side, flash off, phone flat above it.
- The copy is worth something. The copy with a name and a year attached to it is worth a great deal more.
Try this
Copy five old photographs this evening. Only five. Then look at them on the phone with somebody else in the room — that conversation is usually the reason people carry on and do the rest.
Practice: Scanning the old paper photographs. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.