That box of old photographs has probably been waiting longer than you'd like to admit.
Maybe it's in the loft. Perhaps there are several albums in a cupboard, envelopes of prints in a drawer and another box inherited from your parents or grandparents. Every so often you think, I really need to get these scanned.
Then you see how many there are and put the job off again.
If you want to digitise photos at home, the good news is that a large family collection doesn't necessarily need to become a month-long project. With some preparation and the right equipment, you can scan thousands of photographs over a weekend while keeping every original safely in your possession.
At DIYPhotoScan, we provide the Epson FastFoto FF-680W for this exact reason. Rather than posting irreplaceable photographs to a scanning company, you can hire a high-speed photo scanner, have it delivered to your home and save the digital copies directly to your own computer.
The scanner can process suitable photographs at around one photo per second. That means the scanning itself is often the easy bit.
The secret to getting the job finished is having a plan.
Here's how to turn a box of old prints into an organised, backed-up digital photo collection between Friday evening and Sunday.
For some people, sending photographs to a professional scanning service is convenient. You pack everything up, somebody else scans it and the photographs are returned.
But family photographs aren't ordinary possessions.
There may only be one copy of your grandparents' wedding photograph. That faded print of your childhood home can't simply be replaced if something happens to it. And if you've inherited photographs from a parent or grandparent, you may not even know whether another copy exists.
Scanning your photos at home removes that worry.
Your photographs remain with you throughout the project. You decide which ones are scanned, how they're organised and where the digital files are stored.
You can also stop when you find something interesting.
Turn a photograph over and discover “Brighton 1974” written on the back? You can immediately put it into the right batch.
Find a photograph of somebody you don't recognise? Put it aside and ask a relative.
Digitising at home gives you complete control over the collection.
If there's one thing that will determine how much you get done, it's preparation.
A high-speed scanner can work through photographs extremely quickly. Sorting through forty years of family history takes longer.
So don't wait for the scanner to arrive before opening the boxes.
Spend an evening beforehand gathering everything together.
Check the loft, wardrobes, drawers, cupboards and old albums. Bring the collection into one place so you can see roughly how much you have.
This is where people can lose hours.
You find an old holiday photograph and start wondering:
Was this Spain in 1986 or Portugal in 1987?
Twenty minutes later you're asking family members and searching old calendars.
You don't need that level of detail yet.
Use broad groups such as:
That's enough to start.
Once everything has been safely digitised, you can spend as much time as you like refining dates, adding names and reorganising folders.
The priority for the weekend is getting the photographs scanned.
If you're planning to digitise old photos at home, think realistically about the size and condition of the collection.
DIYPhotoScan currently offers several rental periods:
| Rental period | Price |
|---|---|
| 3 days | £85.95 |
| 7 days | £95.95 |
| 14 days | £135.95 |
| 30 days | £165.95 |
Free UK delivery and return are included.
For an organised collection of loose prints, a focused three-day hire can be enough for a weekend scanning project.
However, the 7-day hire at £95.95 can be particularly useful if you have several thousand photographs, lots of albums or simply don't want to spend every available hour scanning.
The extra time also gives you the opportunity to show scans to family members and perhaps go back to photographs you want to rescan at a different setting.
You can check the latest photo scanner hire prices and rental options before deciding which period suits your collection.
Your scanner has arrived and it's tempting to immediately plug it in.
Give yourself an hour or two first.
Friday evening should be about turning a random collection into sensible scanning batches.
Start with normal loose photographs that are in good condition.
These will probably make up the majority of your collection and are the easiest to process quickly.
Where possible, keep similar sizes together rather than mixing very small photographs, postcards and standard 6 × 4 prints in the same stack.
Make sure there are no staples, paper clips, sticky notes or anything else attached that could interfere with feeding.
Old doesn't automatically mean fragile, but some photographs need extra care.
Set aside prints that are:
DIYPhotoScan includes a scanner sleeve for fragile, small or damaged photographs, so these can be handled separately rather than being placed into a normal batch.
If a photograph looks as though it might be damaged by feeding, don't risk it simply to save a few seconds.
Digitising your collection doesn't necessarily mean scanning every photograph in the box.
You probably don't need all nine nearly identical pictures of the same birthday cake.
Nor do you necessarily need blurry photographs, accidental shots or duplicates where one clearly better version exists.
A little decluttering before scanning means a cleaner digital collection afterwards.
You'll spend less time scanning, use less storage and make the photographs you actually care about easier to find.
Now it's time to start scanning.
DIYPhotoScan supplies an Epson FastFoto FF-680W, a high-speed automatic-feed photo scanner designed for digitising large collections of printed photographs.
Your rental includes the equipment you need to get started, including the power supply, USB cable, USB-C adapter and scanner sleeve.
The scanner is compatible with Windows and Mac computers.
Download the Epson FastFoto software, connect the scanner and follow the setup instructions.
There's also a DIYPhotoScan product support page if you need help getting everything running.
Although the FastFoto offers Wi-Fi connectivity, using the supplied USB connection is a sensible option when you're planning to scan large batches.
Before feeding in hundreds of photographs, scan two or three ordinary prints.
Open the files on your computer and check them.
Are they the quality you expected?
Are they the right way up?
Are they being saved in the folder you intended?
This takes a couple of minutes and can prevent you discovering a problem after you've already scanned hundreds of photographs.
The Epson FastFoto FF-680W supports 300 and 600 dpi scanning.
For many family photo collections, 300 dpi provides a good balance between image quality, scanning speed and manageable file sizes. It's suitable for preserving, viewing and sharing everyday family photographs.
For particularly important photographs, or pictures you may want to enlarge or edit later, 600 dpi captures additional detail.
You don't necessarily have to use one setting for the entire collection.
You might scan the bulk of everyday prints at 300 dpi and use 600 dpi for your most treasured photographs.
The important thing is deciding before you start a large batch rather than changing settings constantly.
This is where the difference between an ordinary flatbed scanner and a high-speed photo scanner becomes obvious.
With a traditional flatbed, scanning 2,000 photographs means placing and removing photographs manually again and again.
The Epson FastFoto uses an automatic feeder.
Load a suitable stack, start the scan and the photographs are fed through individually.
Under suitable conditions, the scanner can work at around one photograph per second.
That's why it's possible to scan thousands of old photos at home without turning the project into weeks of work.
Once you get into a rhythm, it's surprisingly satisfying.
Load a batch.
Scan.
Move the completed photographs to your "done" area.
Load the next batch.
The enormous pile you started with gradually disappears.
One of the easiest ways to create unnecessary work for yourself is to scan everything into one enormous folder.
Instead, use the rough categories you prepared earlier.
You might scan:
Batch 1 – Grandparents
Batch 2 – Mum & Dad
Batch 3 – 1980s Holidays
Batch 4 – School Photos
Batch 5 – Weddings
Batch 6 – Unknown Dates
Save each group into an appropriately named folder.
You don't need to name every individual photograph yet. The aim is simply to make sure that when you return to the collection later, you aren't facing several thousand completely unorganised JPEGs.
Before you scan an old photograph, turn it over.
You might find nothing.
Or you might find the information that gives the photograph its meaning.
Perhaps somebody wrote:
“Mum & Dad – Cyprus 1966”
or
“Grandad outside his first shop”
or simply a person's name.
That handwriting may be the only surviving record of who's actually in the photograph.
The Epson FastFoto offers double-sided scanning, allowing information on the reverse of suitable photographs to be captured too.
For inherited collections in particular, this can be incredibly useful.
The photograph is important, but so is the story attached to it.
By Saturday afternoon, you should have found your rhythm.
This is your main scanning session.
Put on some music, a podcast or something you can listen to without becoming distracted and start working through the prepared batches.
Keep the unscanned photographs on one side of your workspace and completed batches on the other so there's no risk of mixing them up.
Check the occasional scan as you go.
Old photographs can carry plenty of dust after decades in boxes and albums, so keep an eye on your scans and use the supplied lens wipes when needed.
And take breaks.
You're trying to preserve years of family memories, not set a scanning world record.
Once the straightforward photographs are finished, return to the prints you separated on Friday.
Use the supplied scanner sleeve where appropriate for fragile, small or damaged photographs.
The Epson FastFoto supports suitable material from approximately 51 × 51 mm up to 216 × 910 mm, with a maximum thickness of 1.24 mm.
However, not everything in a family photo collection belongs in an automatic-feed scanner.
Mounted slides and photographic negatives, for example, require different equipment.
Don't force unusual items through the scanner just because you want everything finished that weekend.
Set anything unsuitable aside and deal with it separately.
Preserving the original is always more important than completing another scan.
By Sunday, the physical scanning should be largely complete.
Now you need to turn the files into something useful.
Because having 4,000 digital photographs called IMG001, IMG002 and IMG003 isn't much better than having 4,000 prints in a box.
Keep the filing system simple.
For example:
Family Photos
│
├── 1960s
├── 1970s
├── 1980s
├── 1990s
├── Mum and Dad
├── Grandparents
├── Weddings
├── Holidays
└── Unknown Dates
You might prefer folders based on family members rather than decades.
That's fine.
There's no "correct" way to organise family photographs.
The best system is one where you can think, Where's that picture of Nan at the seaside? and have a reasonable chance of finding it.
Don't skip this part.
You've just spent a weekend turning irreplaceable physical photographs into digital files.
Now protect those files.
Keeping the only copy on your laptop isn't enough.
Computers fail. Hard drives fail. Devices are lost, stolen or damaged.
Ideally, keep several copies of your photo collection.
For example:
Copy 1: Your computer.
Copy 2: An external hard drive.
Copy 3: Secure cloud storage.
You don't necessarily need to follow that exact arrangement. The important thing is ensuring that no single device failure can wipe out the entire digital collection.
Do the backup while you're still working on the project.
"I'll do that next week" has a habit of becoming next month and then never.
This is where all the effort starts feeling worthwhile.
Once you've digitised your photographs, you can actually use them again.
Send a childhood photograph to your brother or sister.
Share an album with your parents.
Put favourites onto a digital photo frame.
Create a photo book.
Make copies for different family members.
You may also find that sharing helps you identify photographs.
An old picture you've labelled "Unknown – probably 1970s" might immediately be recognised by an older relative.
Suddenly you have names, a location and a story to add to the digital file.
That's one of the biggest advantages when you digitise photos at home: you're not simply creating image files.
You're rebuilding a family archive.
One of the biggest mistakes is trying to organise everything perfectly before you begin.
Don't.
Broad categories are enough. Scan first and refine later.
Another is scanning every duplicate. If you have ten nearly identical photographs, choose the best versions before they reach the scanner.
Always do a few test scans too. Two minutes checking your settings at the beginning can prevent you discovering a problem after photograph number 900.
Be particularly careful with fragile prints. Don't treat a delicate 70-year-old photograph the same way you'd treat a modern 6 × 4 print.
And finally, don't finish the project without making a backup.
Scanning protects the memories contained in the physical photographs.
Backing up protects the scans.
You need both.
Potentially, thousands.
The Epson FastFoto can scan suitable photographs at around one photograph per second, so the scanner itself usually isn't the limiting factor.
The average DIYPhotoScan customer digitises 3,500+ photographs during a rental.
What determines your progress is normally how organised the collection is.
If 3,000 photographs are already removed from albums, sorted into sensible piles and ready to feed, you can work through them remarkably quickly.
If you spend the first two days trying to identify people and work out dates, you'll naturally need longer.
That's why a few hours of preparation before your rental can be more valuable than an extra day of scanning.
For a large collection of printed photographs, a high-speed automatic-feed photo scanner is one of the quickest options. Hiring an Epson FastFoto lets you scan large batches at home without purchasing a scanner that you may only need for one project.
Sort your photographs into broad batches first, then use an automatic-feed photo scanner rather than scanning each photograph individually on a flatbed. The Epson FastFoto FF-680W can scan at around one photograph per second under suitable conditions, making collections of several thousand prints much more manageable.
For general family archiving and sharing, 300 dpi provides a good balance of quality, speed and file size. For particularly important photographs or pictures you may want to enlarge, 600 dpi can capture additional detail.
Yes. Photo scanner hire allows you to digitise photos at home while keeping the originals in your possession. The scanner is delivered to you and the digital files are saved directly to your own computer.
The actual scanning can be surprisingly quick with an automatic-feed scanner, but you'll also need time for sorting, loading, checking and organising the files. If your photographs are prepared beforehand, a collection of several thousand suitable prints can potentially be tackled over a weekend.
If you have hundreds or thousands of photographs but don't expect to scan large collections regularly, hiring can be more economical than buying a specialist high-speed scanner. DIYPhotoScan rentals currently start from £85.95 for three days, with free UK delivery and return included.
Those photographs sitting in the loft aren't just old pieces of paper.
They're holidays you haven't thought about for years. Birthdays. Weddings. Childhood homes. Grandparents when they were young. People and places your children may never have seen.
And there's a good chance nobody is enjoying them while they're sitting inside a box.
With DIYPhotoScan, you can hire an Epson FastFoto FF-680W and digitise your photographs privately at home.
There's no need to send your family collection to a third-party scanning service. The scanner comes to you, your photographs stay with you and the digital files are saved directly to your own computer.
Rental periods currently start from £85.95 for 3 days, with 7 days at £95.95, 14 days at £135.95 and 30 days at £165.95. Free UK delivery and return are included.
Choose the photo scanner hire period that suits your collection, get your photographs sorted beforehand and give yourself a weekend to finally tackle the job.
By Sunday evening, years of family memories could be safely digitised, organised, backed up and ready to share.