Peter H
10-07-2013, 10:46am
Hi,
As this is my first post, it is my first step back into photography in about 40 years! Although I have a digital camera that I use for snapshots I have not been serious since I toted around a Cannon F1 back in the early '70s or borrowed my uncles Leica or Rolleiflex. I used to get the film developed in Sydney or by my uncle. Anyway, I will have to get into the whole digital SLR thing. In the meantime, I am also in possession of the family photos which date back to pre 1900 and there are also a number of different format negative strips and some positive negatives from the late 30's. I am digitising the photos using a flatbed scanner and doing some fairly basic enhancements using a trial copy of photoshop CS5 which is about to run out. I think there is about 400-500 photos going up to 1960 with some about 60 photos of the western front from 1926 -1927 (war memorials, graves etc) which were taken by my family who fought and lost family in flanders (where they are from). Many of the sites that appear in the photos and some of the family homes were subsequently lost in WWII as were some of the people in the pictures.
As my Mum is 94 and her cousin in Flanders 84, I am really trying to get the pictures digitised and annotated as quickly as possible so that we do not lose this unique record. To this end can anyone recommend an adequate piece of software that is not as complicated or expensive as photoshop and a good scanning/digitising solution that can deal with multiple photos at once, negatives and positive negatives eg slides of different sizes and materials. Thanks for any assistance you can provide. I will also be buying a digital SLR when I can afford it!
As this is my first post, it is my first step back into photography in about 40 years! Although I have a digital camera that I use for snapshots I have not been serious since I toted around a Cannon F1 back in the early '70s or borrowed my uncles Leica or Rolleiflex. I used to get the film developed in Sydney or by my uncle. Anyway, I will have to get into the whole digital SLR thing. In the meantime, I am also in possession of the family photos which date back to pre 1900 and there are also a number of different format negative strips and some positive negatives from the late 30's. I am digitising the photos using a flatbed scanner and doing some fairly basic enhancements using a trial copy of photoshop CS5 which is about to run out. I think there is about 400-500 photos going up to 1960 with some about 60 photos of the western front from 1926 -1927 (war memorials, graves etc) which were taken by my family who fought and lost family in flanders (where they are from). Many of the sites that appear in the photos and some of the family homes were subsequently lost in WWII as were some of the people in the pictures.
As my Mum is 94 and her cousin in Flanders 84, I am really trying to get the pictures digitised and annotated as quickly as possible so that we do not lose this unique record. To this end can anyone recommend an adequate piece of software that is not as complicated or expensive as photoshop and a good scanning/digitising solution that can deal with multiple photos at once, negatives and positive negatives eg slides of different sizes and materials. Thanks for any assistance you can provide. I will also be buying a digital SLR when I can afford it!