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I will be using Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 for this article, as I believe it still has many of the useful features that newer versions boast these days. You should still be able to follow this guide if you have an older or newer version of the software, as the principles are still the same. In this article I will be explaining how to quickly fix a photo in easy steps.

I am presuming you already know how to take your pictures from your camera and place them onto your computer. If you need help with this, your camera instructions will help you. This guide tells you what to do next.

Open Photoshop Elements and select Quickly Fix Photos from the options that appear while the program is loading. Now you should be presented with a blank screen in which to work in. At the top left of the screen, click where it says File, then click Open. This will bring up a box asking you to find your picture you wish to edit. If you know where the photo is, navigate to it, then click OK. Your photo should now be displayed in front of you. So now we need to adjust it, and if you look at the right side of the screen, there are a list of options for you to alter your photo.

The first box deals with red eye, when the photo of someone is spoilt by one person having devilish red eyes. This option fixes this. If you hit Auto in the Red Eye options box, as with all the options, the computer will try to do it for you, but not always with the best results. Try it first, but if you don’t get the desired results, hit Reset above your photo, as this will restore the picture to what it was originally. There is also a slide bar which you can adjust manually by clicking and holding the mouse button over the small grey ball on the bar in the options box, then moving left or right. If you are happy with the result, let go of the mouse button, then click the Green Tick on the top of the Red Eye options box. This will save your changes.

Next, if you wish, alter the Lighting Levels or Contrast by either clicking the Auto button, or sliding the slide bars manually. Remember, you can always cancel your changes by clicking the Red Circle next to the Green Tick at the top of the options box. If you are happy with your changes, click the Green Tick, this will save your changes. Alternatively, you can always click the Undo option in the Edit menu at the top left of the screen if you don’t like the changes you have made.

If you are looking to digitize your old memories by transferring all your old photographs on the computer, and maybe playing with them in Photoshop, you need to invest in a good scanner. While the conventional scanners you see on computer desks everywhere (i.e., flatbed scanner) are great if you have just a dozen or so photographs to scan, it you are serious about digitizing and preserving all your old memories handed down through generations (which can amount to literally 10,000s of photographs), you would want to invest in a photo slide scanner.

Photo slide scanners can set you back by anything from $300 to $5000. You might’ve seen the more expensive variety at your workplace or in your school/college. These usually have multiple attachments to help scan hundreds of photos or documents at a time and can be a huge time saver in large settings. For the purpose of scanning old family photographs, however, an entry level photo slide scanner would do.

Where photo slide scanners really shine is in their image scan quality. While regular flatbed scanners will give you a grainy, blurry scan (not to mention that it’ll take ages to scan a photograph), these scanners will give you a much higher quality, almost as if the photo was taken directly through a digital camera.

A very important tip to keep in mind when you go to purchase your photo slide scanner is to make sure that whatever model you choose supports the slide size that you will be scanning. If the scanner cannot accommodate your photographs, it wouldn’t make any sense to buy it, for obvious reasons. Most scanners will have a list of what they support, and while you can still go ahead and scan an unsupported slide, you will get much lower quality, making the entire investment useless.

If you are serious about preserving your memories and have a huge library of pictures to scan, investing in a photo slide scanner is the smartest way to go about it. You’ll save tons of time while getting fabulous scan quality.

What do I do with all these family photos?

Old enough to remember the halcyon days of film? Have a shoebox full of aging family photos that are beginning to fade and yellow? It might be time to look at acquiring a photo scanner and start preserving your family memories.

Photo scanners have been around for several years and have been used to turn film images into digital files for storage on computers and CD or DVD. Scanning also allows you to restore and reprint photos that are damaged or beginning to fade from age and improper storage.

Here are some things to consider and look for in a photo scanner.

What type of film do you have? If you have slide film or transparencies you’ll want a scanner designed to scan from slides or transparencies.

If you have typical 4×5 inch prints originally printed at the local drug store, a flat bed scanner will most likely work just fine.

What are you planning on doing with the scanned files? Are you scanning them to store them in digital format. If you primarily going to view and share them online with your family and friends a scanner capable of producing 4800 dpi will be more than adequate.

Are you planning on creating new prints for archival purposes? You may need a scanner capable of 6400 or higher resolution depending on your final print size.

A 4800 dpi resolution scanner will allow you to print up to approximately 13×19 inches, while a 6400 dpi scanner can produce prints up to 17×22 inches. Most scanners utilize 48-bit color depth resulting in vivid color scans.

Most of today’s scanner utilize LED technology eliminating the need to warm up as older scanners required.

You’ll also want to consider the volume of images that you’ll be scanning. If you’re scanning hundreds of slides you’ll want a scanner that allows you to scan multiple slides at a time. Many of todays scanners come with adapters that allow you to scan 12 or more frames of 35mm. The same adapter used for mounted 35mm slides may only hold 4 slides because mounted slides take up more room than an unmounted piece of 35mm film.

Today a quality scanner can be purchased for as little as $100 that will address most users needs. For a few hundred dollars more, a scanner can be purchased that is capable of higher volume and faster scanning.

Just as important as the scanner itself is the built-in software that comes with the scanner. Digital ICE? is a technology that combines the scanner hardware and software that will correct image defects as the image is scanned in eliminating or at least minimizing the need for expensive photo restoration. Digital ICE equipped scanners use infrared sensors to detect dust, scratches and tears and remove them from the scanned image.

Even if your primary reason for purchasing a photo scanner is to preserve your family film images, photos aren’t the only thing that these scanners are able to scan. Once you get done with your photos you’ll also find the scanners useful for scanning and preserving documents, even “photo scanning” objects such as toys or leaves and flowers. Look for a scanner that has a lid capable of being removed allowing thick objects to be scanned.

It’s easier than ever to preserve your fading or damaged photos. Save your families history, you’ll be glad you did.

One reason that anyone should consider slide scanning services is that these images are fading fast into history. It is never apparent when the slide has been newly made, but the color will be subject to change even if you believe it is stored properly and away from any damaging light. Unfortunately, color shifts and a yellow tinge-like haze might appear on slides that you have stored for years and only realize their deteriorating condition once you pull them out to take a walk down memory lane.

Digitizing Can Help

Digitizing any image, especially color slides, can help to preserve a crisp and clean colorful image for quite some time. However scanning your slides may not be a surefire cure to preserve these images if they have already started fading or have developed a yellow light cast. Furthermore, if your slides have not been protected carefully throughout time they may have developed handling or just scratches that will affect the viewing image. Using slide scanning services on images that have not deteriorated or been scratched is an important step toward keeping them safe for generations to come. But, there are several steps you can take in order to try to extend the life of your color slides before you get around to digitizing your memories.

Cool Temperature is, Well, Cool

Most institutions that have large libraries of color slide images keep these under refrigerated conditions. Published research data from photography leaders such as Kodak, indicate that any color slide that is stored in the dark at temperatures lower than 39 degrees along with relative low humidity will have a better chance at an extended life. A good rule to follow is that if the image is older it needs to be colder.

High and Dry

Keeping your color slides in a relatively low humidity is also important to create extended life. To gain the maximum amount of low humidity possible, you should place your color slides in an airtight container and place it in a freezer.

Air Conditioned at Least

If storing your colored slides in an airtight container in the freezer is not possible, the next best thing to do is to make sure they are placed in an air-conditioned environment. Make sure, however, to avoid placing your stored color slides in either the attic or the basement because both of these environments experience high levels of humidity sometime during the year.

Factors to Consider

It’s an easy bet that your old slides taken just a few decades ago hold precious images you would like to retain. Although there is a cost factor that you need to consider when trying to preserve your family images, you also need to consider what will be the cost to your family if you allow these images to fade into nothingness. Through utilizing reliable and professional slide scanning services you’ll discover the opportunity to create an ongoing plan to digitize the entire library of colored slides that you possess.

So, don’t wait too long to drag out those cartons or pages of slides you have stored back in the dark deep recesses of the closet to become digitized. Because if you wait too long, they may have just faded into history.

There are numerous photo slide scanners available on today’s market from which to choose and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. This article is going to examine some of these devices in order to provide you with a bit of comprehension of how they operate. Photo slide scanners were developed to save memories all in a single location. The device makes it very easy to share the images with friends and family from near and far, since you can just email copies whenever you like.

Advantages

How many shoeboxes or storage containers stuffed with pictures are strewn throughout your house? Many of us would need to claw through closets or rummage through attics in order to locate a particular, special photograph. If you had a photo slide scanner, you would have access to the exact photo you want in no time at all. With a device such as this you can save all your photographs to your computer’s hard drive.

Use of a photo slide scanner is an easy thing to do and you will note that old photos may be revived. Don’t you have old childhood photographs whose negatives were lost years ago? All that is necessary is to scan the photo into your computer and not only is any need for a negative gone, but you have gained the ability to alter the image with a software program such as Photoshop. The benefits of a photo slide scanner are numerous, and this article is too short to describe each one. If you really want to grasp the advantages of this machine, you should check out one in person. Having some technical explanation is good, but watching it transforming your photos is genuinely astounding.

Disadvantages

As is true with all other things, photo slide scanners have a few negative aspects to them. The strongest issue consumers have is that it is possible, obviously, to lose your image files in the event of a hardware failure. It is a fact that computers can, and sometimes do, crash and if you have experienced this you know that you could may lose all of your data. In order to keep this from happening, you should always keep a copy of your data on a portable hard drive or other digital storage device. If you take this precaution and your system fails, it is an easy task to restore your data.

Another concern is the price of these products. The majority of the brands available at present will cost from $300 to $5,000 per device. For the average consumer, the cost will be at the lower end of the range as the more expensive units are used in professional environments. So if you are using the machine to load personal and family photographs, you can expect a price somewhere toward the lower end of the range.

With that said, it remains significant that you do your research on the various photo slide scanners being offered. Your research should provide you with a notion of the kinds of scanners on the market, and which ones will work for you. The research will pay off when you locate the perfect device for you at a price you can afford. In any event, isn’t saving cherished memories worth any cost?