FotoBridge | Digitizing Photos Blog

Don’t let that pile of pictures in your closet stop you from photo scanning and then getting those photos organized. Here at FotoBridge, we understand that piles of pictures can be daunting to organize but there is a way to do it. Don’t get discouraged by a large collection of pictures. Some of our customers have archives of more than 10,000 pictures!

So you’ve finally decided to convert home movies to DVD format? Great! This is a wonderful way to make sure your old videos can be shared with everyone. Old MiniDV tapes and even VHS tapes are difficult to easily play since the standard video format is now DVD. But, to get the best quality DVD, it’s important to properly pack your home movies when sending to a professional service so they can be easily converted. If you’re sending other materials as well, that’s no problem - just add them to the box! It’s simple to convert home movies to DVD.

This past Memorial Day, you probably enjoyed an extra day off from work and maybe headed to the beach or attended a BBQ. The freedom to enjoy that time in whatever manner made you happy was made possible by the millions of men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice while fighting for the United States Armed Forces.

Photographs are essential to keeping family memories alive and well. When they’re stuck in a box or on a bookshelf, it’s hard to show a new friend how precisely the moment was captured. But, when you convert photos to digital, it’s much easier to show off all of your important moments.

Now that you’ve already taken the important step of converting slides to digital images, how do you safely store the slides? Pulling the projector out and scrolling through photos on a big screen is still a great family activity. Properly storing slides will ensure they have a longer than average lifespan. Once you’re finished converting slides to digital, take the time to place them in the best possible environment. The next time you need to show a child who may have never seen a slide before, the quality will be spectacular!

There’s a reason so many people enjoy summer - kids are at home and it’s finally time for some much needed rest and relaxation. Perhaps you spent time during the spring converting photos to digital for different holidays and events. Your mother can’t stop raving over her new collection of digital photographs she received for Mother's Day but what are you supposed to do with all the originals? Many times, photo collections will be ripe with double images. After protecting one set of originals, get crafty with the duplicate pictures! We’ve searched through Pinterest to find some DIY projects to keep you busy this summer.

Many families have years of photos hiding in the basement, along with different formats of negative strips and slides. Getting your archives converted is an important step when looking to preserve images, but to get the best quality scan from a negative or slide, you need to take the time to identify what kind of negative or slide it is. We took an opportunity to detail 110 and 126 analog formats. Once you understand a few key features of the 110 and 126 formats, they’ll be easy to recognize!

The point and shoot digital camera you carry in your pocket has a long history of ancestors. When photography was first developed, image information was conveyed through analog processes. During image capture, it’s transferred onto film, but there are several different film formats available. One of those is medium format film. Medium format images are available as slides as well as negative strips. Take this opportunity to learn a little more about your medium format film before you convert it. 

As daunting a task as digitizing photos may be, it’s only the beginning of your digital odyssey. Prior to digitization, it’s ideal to gather pictures into logical groups, like months or years, depending on your preference. When scanned, put the images in folders or create a naming scheme to organize into those logical groups. This will be make the organization process marginally easier than just looking at a long list of file names or thumbnail images.

For 74 years, Kodachrome set the standard for color accuracy and for longevity among slide films. Memorialized in song, thanks to rhymin’ Paul Simon, Kodachrome has a special place in the hearts of talented photographers everywhere.