What photos do you keep?
ARE PRINT PHOTOS STILL RELEVANT TODAY? (PART 1)
With all the focus on digital photos these days, what do we do with all those printed photos, both those we’ve created ourselves and those that we’ve inherited. These treasures capture the history of our family before the digital age. They preserve the past and the lives of our ancestors. We are custodians of these photos and need to preserve them for future generations.
How do we do that? In Part 1 of this series, we are going to look at the first step- going through your photos and working out what you want to keep.
WHAT PHOTOS DO YOU KEEP?
You may have thousands of photos! You can’t go through all your photos in one go. You need to break down this job into manageable groups.
Start with one group of photos. You can then repeat this process with other photos as and when you have more time.
Pick a group of people or a period of time to start with - Grandparents and beyond, parents, children, other.
OR pick a box, tub, drawer, packet, decrepit photo album
1. Cull your Photos
What will these images mean to future generations? Prioritise those older photos.
Focus on photos of specific people and places.
If you have multiple versions of the same scene, pick the best one: the one with the most people looking at the camera, the least blurry, and so on.
Get rid of duplicates. All you need is one original and a high-resolution scan. You can offer extra copies to interested family members.
As you work, remove pictures from unsafe environments- poor quality albums, old original photos from photo frames, poor storage areas.
2. Label your photos
The best thing you can do for your images is put names on them. These will increase others’ interest in saving them, as well as provide clues as to when, where and of whom they were taken. Write on the back of photos using a Photo Labelling Pencil.
A few extra tips:
If removing the photos from an old album may presents a significant damage risk, photograph/scan album pages in their entirety.
Despite your best efforts, your photos can still be afflicted by rips, tears, water damage, colour shift and even mould. The most immediate step for damaged or disintegrating photos is digitising them. This provides a stable version of the image. An editing program can then help you enhance them. You’ll want to leave more-technical repairs to professionals.
It’s safe to touch even old photos without gloves, provided your hands are clean and dry. Hold them by the edge only and avoid eating, drinking or smoking around photos.