How to Digitize Old Photos: A Complete Guide [2025]

Old photographs are an irreplaceable part of our family and cultural memories. Unfortunately, paper fades, cracks, and loses quality over time. Digitization is therefore the best way to preserve valuable pictures forever. In this article, we’ll look at how to easily convert old photos into digital form — and what to do to make them last for future generations.

Why digitize old photos

Digitization isn’t just about “having a backup.” It’s a way to revive family history, share it with others, and protect photos from irreversible damage.

Advantages:

• 💚 Preserves memories from destruction or loss.
• 💚 Allows sharing with family and friends.
• 💚 Easy searching and organization of photos.

Disadvantages:

• ❌ Time-consuming when handling large quantities.
• ❌ Requires a quality scanner or service.

Preparing photos before scanning

Before you start scanning, take a moment to prepare properly.

Recommendations:

• 🧤 Use cotton gloves to avoid smudging the photos.
• 🧽 Clean photos from dust (with a soft brush or air).
• 📏 Sort photos by year, event, or album – it will make later organization easier.

📱 Mobile apps

For quick digitization of a smaller number of photos, these apps are ideal:

• Google PhotoScan – free, automatically removes glare.
• Photomyne – can scan multiple photos at once.
• Adobe Scan – also suitable for documents.

Advantages:

• 💚 Fast and accessible solution.
• 💚 Automatic correction of perspective and colors.

Disadvantages:

• ❌ More suitable for everyday use, not archiving.
• ❌ Lower resolution compared to a scanner.

🖨 Desktop scanner

A quality scanner provides higher resolution and more accurate colors.

Tips:

• Set resolution to at least 600 DPI.
• Save in TIFF (lossless) or PNG format.
• Avoid automatic “enhancements” that can alter the photo’s appearance.

Recommended models (2025):

• Epson Perfection V600
• Canon CanoScan LiDE 400
• Plustek ePhoto Z300

🧰 Professional services

If you have hundreds of photos, negatives, or slides, it’s worth using a professional service.

Advantages:

• 💚 High quality and color accuracy.
• 💚 Scanning of film and negatives included.

Disadvantages:

• ❌ Higher cost.
• ❌ Longer processing time.

How to edit digitized photos

After scanning, you can fine-tune the photos using basic tools:

• ✂️ Cropping and straightening the horizon.
• 🌈 Adjusting colors and contrast.
• 🧽 Removing dust and scratches (e.g. in Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, Luminar Neo).

For historical photos, it’s recommended to keep the original unedited version as well.

Storing and backing up digitized photos

After digitization, it’s essential to store your photos safely.

Recommendations:

• Create copies in multiple locations (external drive, cloud).
• Use TIFF or PNG format for long-term preservation.
• Avoid renaming original files – instead, add metadata (date, description, location).

Organizing and sharing digitized photos: How Infiry helps

Digitizing is the first step, but keeping thousands of images organized is a challenge. That’s where Infiry comes in – a web application for managing and organizing photos.

What Infiry can do:

• 📂 Upload hundreds of digitized photos at once.
• 🔎 Search by description, author, capture date, or dominant color.
• ✍️ Add your own captions and keywords – or let AI do it for you.
• 👥 Share albums with family, archives, or institutions with one click.
• ☁️ Rest assured your digitized memories are safely stored and accessible from anywhere.

👉 Try Infiry for free and turn your old photos into a well-organized digital archive that will last another 100 years.