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How do you keep photos?

(32 Posts)
JennyNotFromTheBlock Wed 02-Dec-20 08:48:37

How do you keep photo albums so that the photos in them wouldn't fade? I have a bunch of albums with some photos being pretty old, and recently I've noticed their fading that hadn't happened before. It is not crucial but I'm afraid it can become so. Can this fading happen due to the conditions? All of my albums are placed on the bookshelves and the air in the room is warm and relatively dry, but maybe there is something I should need about keeping the photos in a right way?

Elusivebutterfly Thu 03-Dec-20 12:55:11

Be careful when you scan the photos onto a laptop. I had masses copied from my phone on a laptop some years ago which got lost when the laptop died suddenly. This was before cloud accounts became popular.

Nancy03 Thu 03-Dec-20 11:09:55

Grandmabeach storeage boxes for photos where did u get them? We have been looking for ages

JennyNotFromTheBlock Thu 03-Dec-20 09:51:35

Thanks everyone! You've brought some really good suggestions!

ImStillGood Thu 03-Dec-20 06:05:56

Morning, Jenny. I'll second the ladies saying you can scan the photos and then they are forever. That's true, plus you can give them their colors back, the was an article on Family Tree about it- www.family-tree.co.uk/news/old-photos-dont-have-to-die-this-new-software-wont-let-them/ . If you still want to keep them in albums, then no plastic sleeves should be used. Aepgirl is right, you better cover them with tissue paper.

queenofsaanich69 Wed 02-Dec-20 17:10:04

There was a spell in the 70/80’s when a different kind of developer or fixer was used for about 3 years,all my albums are OK except for the ones from that period of time——— I love looking at my albums and have one for each grandchild from birth,with drawings,notes and pictures,the GC love to look at their own album—— I made albums for all my 4 children so when we die no fighting over photos.My husband and his sister still fight over photos and have for over 50 years.Ugh.

JaneRn Wed 02-Dec-20 17:00:11

I used a camera shop to have some very old photso printed and from what was a very indistinct blur you can now see all the details. I am very much into family history and you can identify from the fashions approximately in what era they had been taken. All I need now is to identify who the people are!

Aepgirl Wed 02-Dec-20 16:42:12

Photos should be covered in tissue paper between pages.

Newatthis Wed 02-Dec-20 14:25:23

There is a free app called ‘unfade’ which is free and easy to install. What it does is it uses your camera to take pictures of the photographs but it also lines them up correctly for you in seconds, much quicker than scanning them on your computer. Then you can store them on your phone and transfer them to your computer if you want to and reprint.

Vintagegirl Wed 02-Dec-20 12:48:30

Yes another hoarder of photos here. Apart from fading (?) the old albums were getting very tatty. I had idea suggested here of doing a photobook for my mother's 100th birthday. I have kept going since and working my way thru the albums with various themes. Then they wont seem so precious. In recent years I had dumped a lifetime of negative films. I use a simple printer to do scans direct (use bluetooth) onto tablet and then can access them for photobook setup. The quality of some of the original pics is not great so do not take to being enlarged/trimmed but still worth doing. I can always take the digital copy to a decent shop for reprints or even the online print company that does the photobooks.

Gwenisgreat1 Wed 02-Dec-20 12:17:36

Since Ive been digital, they are all online!!

schnackie Wed 02-Dec-20 11:32:25

Magrithea your husband is a diamond! I too, have been going through photo albums and finding old photos in odd places, but 97% of them have no writing on the back and it is making me so frustrated. I often figure out the approximate date by identifying things in the background, but how I wish I had written on them, or in the album at the time! My photos are stored on my phone and then 'magically or mysteriously' uploaded to my Amazon Prime account and also my Google account. And I cannot for the life of me figure out how to then access those photos for use in making a photo book. I gave up the project I had intended for my daughter's upcoming 40th birthday, but will find someone, a help line or however, to assist me in completing this project for the new year. Much swearing has taken place. blush

Bluedaisy Wed 02-Dec-20 11:30:56

One of my hobbies is memory albums. I buy acid and lignin free albums available online or in W h smiths and use acid & lignin free papers and embellishments to put the photographs onto. These will last for at least 100 years in albums. The old type of plastic sleeve album destroys photos over the years fading them yellow as well. The way I do it is so I can add a memory to the photos or crop them and at least add a name or date and then hopefully my albums can be passed down generations. My son and his family love looking through the albums I’ve created and friends and family love them as gifts too. When my parents passed away in recent years I discovered a huge box of all the old type of digital (sorry memory lapse ?) that my father used with his projector so I had them all put on disc as they were of us as children with our parents that I hadn’t seen in years. I got them printed out in big batches and made up albums for my siblings and nieces and nephews putting relevant information with quite a lot of the photos. They all loved them especially my brother’s family who live in the States and can’t remember much about their grandparents because they went when very young. They now have access to their ancestors.

GreyKnitter Wed 02-Dec-20 11:28:52

When my mum passed away a few years ago I inherited boxes of photos! I spent ages sorting through them and eventually scrapbooked them with annotation - to pass on to my daughter one day. I also have them stored digitally. Hope that helps.

Lesley60 Wed 02-Dec-20 11:00:57

Oh gosh I’m afraid I have thousands of photos in large suitcases, Sadly the majority of them will probably be thrown after my days as there are far to many.

Trip Wed 02-Dec-20 11:00:03

CamPAnn - please could you tell me what brand scanner you bought? We haven’t had much luck using our cheap printer to scan ours and as I have about half a closet filled with random photos, it might be worth investing in a useable separate scanner.

JennyNotFromTheBlock Wed 02-Dec-20 10:58:53

Magrithea

My DH has always used scrapbooks to keep photos in, that way he can write about each photo. I appear about halfway through the 1st one! It's a fantastic record of our and our children's lives!

Wow that's really a wise move. Scrapbooking is a great way to keep memories.

JennyNotFromTheBlock Wed 02-Dec-20 10:58:01

Toadinthehole

I’ve got about 15 albums, and family home videos ?

Almost same with me smile

JennyNotFromTheBlock Wed 02-Dec-20 10:57:34

crazygranny

If there are particular photos that are special to you why not get reprints done by either One vision imaging or Loxley Colour? They produce top quality images which really last and do not fade. They can scan your original if you don't have a negative.

I'll have to think about it, thanks for the idea!

Magrithea Wed 02-Dec-20 10:45:15

My DH has always used scrapbooks to keep photos in, that way he can write about each photo. I appear about halfway through the 1st one! It's a fantastic record of our and our children's lives!

CamPAnn Wed 02-Dec-20 10:40:46

I scanned all of our photos 8 years ago. I had just had bunion surgery on both feet so was confined to the bed for a couple of weeks. Best thing I ever did, they are now stored on the computer in folders in date order, it’s so lovely to be able to access them easily. We bought a scanner as we had hundreds of slides from the 70’s, no more using a slide viewer or showing them on the wall! The scanner now does the rounds in our village, well worth the outlay.

HunnyBunny Wed 02-Dec-20 10:37:48

I photographed all my old photos. I kept the ones of the AC’s and bundle them up to give to them and shredded and binned the rest.
My phone is backed up to my laptop so if my phone gets lost I still have them.
The picture quality is quite good on my phone.
?

Toadinthehole Wed 02-Dec-20 10:32:13

I’ve got about 15 albums, and family home videos ?

Grandmabeach Wed 02-Dec-20 10:29:59

Many of our photos from the late 70's/early 80's were fading. DH has taken self-isolating as an opportunity to scan all our photos, and MIL's photos which we inherited when she died, onto a hard drive. He still can not bring himself to throw away photos which have family members on them so has stored them in neat storage boxes which hold 700 photos. All the Albums have gone, the boxes take up far less space and it has freed up much needed space in cupboards.

Scottiebear Wed 02-Dec-20 10:20:55

I've started to make a yearly photobook. Have done it on line for the past three years. Its like a photo diary of the year. As well as the usual type of photo, I include a page of photos of my garden during that year and a Christmas decoration page. If we've been to a concert or a play I either include photos if possible or, if not, a couple of advertising pictures/posters from the Internet. I add comments and some dates. Its lovely and its fun making it. Then they sit on a bookshelf without taking up the room that albums do. We do a separate one every couple of years for the holidays. I'm going to be doing the 2020 yearbook soon.

crazygranny Wed 02-Dec-20 10:15:52

If there are particular photos that are special to you why not get reprints done by either One vision imaging or Loxley Colour? They produce top quality images which really last and do not fade. They can scan your original if you don't have a negative.