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What is a digitized photo?

As human beings, one of the most important things to us is our memories. We like to remember old times with much more fondness than the present. And one of the most common ways to commemorate the good old days is through photos. But the problem with printed photos is that they get damaged over time. This is where digitized photos come in.

But what is a digitized photo? Digitized photos are photos that have a physical body but have been turned into a digital format. As physical photos are turned into digitized ones, they can be shared among more and more people, can be protected from damage, and can be stored for a long time.

Let’s take a deeper look at what digitized photos are and how you can make one.

What do you mean by a digitized photo?

When you were very young, you must have taken some photos that were printed and safely stored. But over the years, these photos have faded, damaged, and are on the verge of being unrecognizable. As they are the only physical proof of your childhood or some other fond memories, you are now at risk of losing every trace of those events.

Again, imagine you had taken the aforementioned photos with some of your loved ones using your camera. Since you owned the camera, chances are you are the one who printed them and kept them to yourself. Now all of the people who were in the photos are demanding a copy of them, which is pretty problematic since there is only one copy.

So what should you do to protect your precious memories and share them with your loved ones? The best way to go about it is to digitize your photos. Digitized photos are physical photos that have been turned into electronic files via scanning.

If you digitize a photo, the physical body of the photo and its limitations will not pose any problems. They will be turned into a digitized format and can be replicated, edited, enhanced, and safely stored for a long, long time.

How do you digitize a photo?

Digitizing a photo is extremely easy, irrespective of how many you are processing. With the right means and equipment, you can swiftly turn your old photos into digital ones.

There are 3 main ways to digitize a photo. They are:

1. Using a smartphone

This is the most common and cheapest way to digitize a photo. It also provides the lowest-quality photos. But if you just want to scan them, store and share them among friends without any particular need for a high-quality photo, this might be the best option.

All you need to do is to put the photo on a flat, white background and use an app to scan it. Then you have to crop it and apply any minor editing to the photos as you see fit. Then the photos are ready to be shared.

There are plenty of apps to digitize a photo. They are:

Google photoscan
Microsoft lens
Adobe scan
Filmbox etc.

These apps are all available on both iOS and android. Some of them are completely free while some other apps are paid. Usually, the paid apps provide better service than the free ones and have a wide array of options. But remember, no matter what app you use, you have to spend a lot of time scanning your photos, especially if you have a lot of them to scan.

2. Using a scanner

The next best alternative to using a smartphone is to use a scanner to scan your photos. There are many scanners out there with different price levels and specifications that will allow you to scan your photos perfectly and digitize them. Some scanners, often the expensive ones, provide much better output and can process multiple photos at a time.

Flatbed scanners are the best options to scan your photos since your photos need to be as flat as possible for them to be scanned perfectly. Some of the best scanners for scanning old photos are:

Canon CanoScan LiDE 400
Canon CanoScan LiDE 300
Epson FastFoto FF-680W
Epson Perfection V39 etc

The prices of the scanners vary depending on the specs and their brand. But on average you have to pay $100 to buy a decent scanner to scan your old photos. This process is faster than the previous one, but still consumes a lot of time.

3. Using a digitization service

This is by far the best and most efficient way to digitize photos, especially if you have a large number of photos to process. These services specialize in dealing with older photos in a large number and have the necessary skills to process photos that are fragile.

The digitization services are also very fast in processing your photos, no matter how many photos you want. They come in especially handy if you want photos on a commercial scale as the other two methods aren’t suitable for large-scale processing. They can also scan photos from negatives, which is a big plus point.

The cost of digitizing photos varies according to the quality of the photo, the number of photos that have to be processed, and how fast you need the photos. Usually, the photos come in three different qualities: 300, 600, and 1200 DPI. The higher the quality of the photo, the higher will be the price per photo.

If the number of photos is high, the photo digitizing services lower the price for digitizing photos. The higher number of photos you need, the lower will be the price per photo. Also, if you need your photos earlier than the service’s original delivery date, you have to pay a higher fee.

Why should you digitize your old photos?

There are plenty of reasons you need to digitize your photos. The benefits of digitizing photos are as follows:

Protect the photos
Save a lot of space
Sharing among an unlimited number of people
Editing and enhancing photos according to your needs.

Final Words

In this day and age of fast-moving life, it is only natural for people to cling to memories of the good old days. And one of the most efficient ways to preserve your memories is to digitize the photos. But if you are new to this, it is only natural to ask “ what is a digitized photo?” which we’ve tried to answer here.

Let’s not waste any more time and get those photos out of the shoeboxes and into a memory stick.

FAQ

1. How do I digitize photos at home?

There are two ways to digitize photos at home. The first way is to use a photo scanner app on your smartphone. This process is mostly free and the easiest to do. Another way to digitize a photo is to use a flatbed scanner. This is faster and more expensive than photo scanner apps and provides better results.

2. How much does it cost to digitize photos?

The price of digitizing photos depends on the size, quality, number, and delivery time of the photos. Also, the older and more fragile the photos are, the higher one has to pay for digitizing them. The cost of digitizing a photo may cost anywhere between £0.14 to £7.34.

3. Should you scan or photograph your old photos?

There are two ways to preserve an old photo. You can either scan them or you can photograph them. Between the two of them, it’s better to scan a photo than to take a photo of the original photo. Scanning provides better results and better qualities than a photograph of the photo.