Archiving old photos and documents?

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions/experience with capturing photos or scans of old prints and documents. My mom passed away last week and she as a college basketball coach for 42 years. As such, she had a lot of memorabilia of her career/teams. Lots of print photos of various sizes as well as other documents and sports page newspaper articles. Wondering about the best way to digitize that sort of information. I did a little searching and there are scanning apps for phones by Adobe and others. I do have a home HP printer/scanner.

Anyone have any insights into things that might make this process easier?

Would like to be able to store it on SSD and possibly on the cloud for access for former players/students.

I can’t help with your archiving question, Duckster, but I want to express my condolences for your loss. It’s not easy losing one’s mother.

Thank you.

I would suggest getting a good flatbed scanner. Look on Craigslist or if you have a used computer store near you. People often purchase them for a project then they become orphaned. Depending on the scope of the project and your available time you might also consider one of the conversion services. Legacy box is one that advertises frequently cable channels that appeals to boomers. No recommendation but it might be a starting point

Thank you. Specific brand of flatbed scanners I should be on the lookout for?

I personally would try to use my camera gear. Much better control over expose, contrast, etc. There are some tripods that allow a camera to be mounted below the tripod down towards the ground, and with a flip out lcd and even lighting around the scanning “bed”, the results should very good.

Your HP scanner might be suitable for digitizing the documents. Scanning black and white originals like newspaper clippings will be relatively easy. The same can't be said for scanning continuous tone originals. Way back in the early days, I had this idea that one might be able to do archival scans with known black and white points and gamma so that all reflective properties of the original were recorded. But this does not seem to be possible. At least it isn't easy. What I ended up doing is scanning to make nice images, not necessarily exact dupes.

Digital copies have their place, but where will they be in 10 or 20 years? Consider compiling the documents into a photo book and printing a run. Hard copy gets attention.

I have thought about that. What is the best way to light for that type of shot? I know ceiling lights tend to glare on photos and white documents

Archibald wrote in post #19477372
Your HP scanner might be suitable for digitizing the documents. Scanning black and white originals like newspaper clippings will be relatively easy. The same can't be said for scanning continuous tone originals. Way back in the early days, I had this idea that one might be able to do archival scans with known black and white points and gamma so that all reflective properties of the original were recorded. But this does not seem to be possible. At least it isn't easy. What I ended up doing is scanning to make nice images, not necessarily exact dupes.

Digital copies have their place, but where will they be in 10 or 20 years? Consider compiling the documents into a photo book and printing a run. Hard copy gets attention.

I am going to try to hard copy archive what I can. I was wanting to do a digital version so that former players can access it if they would wish to. Probably have to do something on the cloud.

duckster wrote in post #19477134
I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions/experience with capturing photos or scans of old prints and documents. My mom passed away last week and she as a college basketball coach for 42 years. As such, she had a lot of memorabilia of her career/teams. Lots of print photos of various sizes as well as other documents and sports page newspaper articles. Wondering about the best way to digitize that sort of information. I did a little searching and there are scanning apps for phones by Adobe and others. I do have a home HP printer/scanner.

Anyone have any insights into things that might make this process easier?

Would like to be able to store it on SSD and possibly on the cloud for access for former players/students.

If you're going to just save them in digital form and not going to make large prints of things then that narrows it down. You could use your HP scanner or purchase a stand alone scanner. I did this with hundreds of old photos and memorabilia with an inexpensive Epson scanner. What made the difference was using Lightroom, Topaz software and a little Photoshop.

I have what is basically video lights and I would set them opposite each other to wash the work space. Use any such type of lights or lamps, but use a custom white balance first before starting.

duckster wrote in post #19477345
Thank you. Specific brand of flatbed scanners I should be on the lookout for?

really any brand will work. Just double check that there is !n available driver for the operating system you are using, especially if you are buying used. Microsoft has a bad habit of bricking peripherals when they upgrade windows.

Interesting thought, if you are in the market for a laser printer, there are some good deals on all-in-one units that scan and print. They work great for this as well, ours has a flat bed and a feeder scanner.

Thank you.

That's a really cool mission to take on, preserving all those precious moments. For scanning those prints and documents, I would suggest using a flatbed scanner with a good quality resolution. You can also consider using OCR software like Smart Engines OCR SDK to convert the scanned images into searchable text. That way, you can easily access the information in the future without having to flip through stacks of prints.
For storing the files, an SSD is a great option for fast access, and uploading to the cloud would be a smart move too. That way, you can give access to the former players and students, making it easy for them to revisit the memories they shared with your mom.