frizzylee
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 170 
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by frizzylee on May 17, 2020 3:43:49 GMT
Since the title of this section is "This n That" it might be appropriate to post my question here.
I have had a big project on my mind for years. In fact, I have put in many, many hours doing preliminary work on it in past years. The corona virus pandemic presented me with a golden opportunity to really try to get it done. After the past month I am beginning to wonder if I am out of my mind. What I want to do is take all my photos from the very beginning until now (and I am 75 years old, for goodness sake), cull through them, scan ones I think I need to consider seriously, and put them in albums. For many years I have done albums for other people. All have been well received and a friend told me I ought to do one for myself. Given the volume of photos (thousands. . . . . and I'm not kidding) it seemed impossible. Being cooped up and with the gift of Time being handed to me, I decided to give it a go.
Well, I clearly need to be in touch with someone who knows something about this sort of project. I have devised a system of not one but five photo books. The topics I chose seem to be easy to work with as everything fits into one or the other category: Travel, People, Events, Places and Pets. Today I did the first two pages of the Travel album. I have traveled all my life and there are thousands of photos, most on slides or in photo albums. I have scanned 'til I am blue in the face but have looked at the whole shebang where those photos are concerned. I am devising a plan to keep the album from getting too big, my biggest goal at this point.
But, despite all the organizing, I am feeling overwhelmed.
If anyone has some advice to pass along, I am open. I need it. Up to now I kept telling myself, "How does one eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time." That has been enough to keep me going, but it's kind of wearing thin. I have questions: should I keep scanning more than I know I will use so that I have material to pick from and more importantly I will be more apt to get just the right photo. After all, I have to pick carefully to do it well. That's just one question. There are more that I don't even know enough to ask yet.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. GREATLY.
Pat
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Post by ritage on May 17, 2020 16:09:03 GMT
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frizzylee
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 170
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by frizzylee on May 17, 2020 16:59:34 GMT
Rita Thanks for a good laugh. Not only should I be concerned with how old I will be when finished with this whole project, my REAL concern is will I die before finisihing any of it!! Or, more to the point, how far can I get before the pandemic is totally over?  It was interesting that a number of people mentioned Adorama's new printing arm, Printique. I did one book with Adorama and my last book a few months back was with Printique. I am thrilled with the results. It gave me the final push to do my current project. So now it is another day, I will march back into my computer room and get busy. I have set a goal of one or two pages a day. It would be a miracle if I could keep up that pace but I think it a worthy goal. I need to feel I am making progress. Actually, when I read some folks are shooting nearly a 1,000 photos a day I don't feel so bad. Have a good day, everyone!! Pat |
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Post by BuckSkin on May 22, 2020 23:02:13 GMT
I am not there looking at your particular situation and everyone's situation is different.
That being said, I will say this: I believe the most important thing to accomplish first is to get EVERYTHING scanned, meaningfully organized, and identified FIRST --- EVERYTHING.
Once you get it ALL turned into digital files, then you can proceed with the album making.
I would not worry about picking and choosing for a single album of a particular subject; there is no reason why you can't have Volume 1 thru 37.
Once everything is digital, you can also share entire folders with friends/family.
I know from experience that scanning can turn into drudgery; get more scanners and you can be loading one while a couple more are going through the motions.
A DSLR camera is a heck of a lot faster than a scanner and done right does the better job.
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frizzylee
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 170
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by frizzylee on May 28, 2020 14:33:16 GMT
BuckSkin,
Thank you for posting your thoughts about this topic.
What you write regarding the scanning and organization reinforces what I have thought. I certainly have done the work ahead for that. I also gave a lot of thought and put in work about the presentation of these 5 planned photo books. For me, that part was pure fun. I enjoyed it immensely. It is turning out to a bigger help than I anticipated. Now that I am at the actual photo placement part I don't have to stop to think about how to make it (hopefully) interesting and attractive.
I have completed most all the scanning. I've been at the scanning part for several years, on and off. It occurred to me that I might be doing more work than needed so I decided to do one photo book. Sure enough it is turning out that I am using a fraction of the scans. The good part is that I know I have been through all the photos for that topic. Some things I had forgotten and I liked reviewing those to decide whether to include them.
Who knows if I am wasting my time, but it seems to me if person enjoys what they are doing, that's reward enough.
Pat
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Post by kdcintx on May 28, 2020 20:32:13 GMT
Frizzylee - I've been through a similar process of scanning many, many family photos. Now they are on my computer and backed-up on two external hard drives. In case of fire or other catastrophe, I simply grab an external hard drive which is quicker and easier than boxes of photos. Also, I've found that I enjoy looking at them more frequently because they are easily accessible on my computer instead of boxes in the top of a closet. I have also used the photos to make 2 family history books(mom's side of family & dad's side of family) going back multiple generations. Family members have been very appreciative of my efforts and have copies of the books. So, it's not a waste of time IMHO!! Keep up the good work. Who knows what the fruits of your labor will be in the years to come.
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Post by BuckSkin on May 30, 2020 10:07:35 GMT
While you are getting things digital, install the FREE program, FastStone (I would not be without it); and, use it to write detailed embedded jpeg comments for every image file; who it is; where it is; when it was; it is the digital replacement for writing on the back of photos.
There are other metadata methods for writing captions and comments; however, although most of them will allow you to write a ton of information, all you will ever be able to read are the first few words.
FastStone embedded jpeg comments, on the other hand, will display every last word that is typed in; and, it is immediately accessible in FastStone while the photo is on the screen = mouse over to the right edge and the comment flies out into view; move away the mouse and the comment disappears.
The only glitch I have found with embedded jpeg comments is that editing and saving a file in an Adobe program will wipe all the comments, in which case, one must copy/paste from the original to the new version.
XnView will allow batch-writing comments that are compatible with FastStone comments; but, XnView is a bit more clunky and does not have the ability to view the comment while the image is on full screen.
I have both, FastStone and XnView, and use the strong suits of both.
Also, FastStone has the best scanning feature that I have ever used; I do all my scanning via FastStone.
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Post by BuckSkin on May 30, 2020 10:15:27 GMT
In case of fire or other catastrophe, I simply grab an external hard drive which is quicker and easier than boxes of photos. I have been meaning to fix a fire-proof, insulated, heated, humidity-controlled box in an outbuilding with a bank of hard-drive enclosures, Ethernet-connected to the computers in the house. I have read that Ethernet cables with USB ends have no limitation as to distance; whereas, regular USB cables are limited in length; I need to investigate this further. |
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