Last week there was a post about the new Vintage themed photo books from MyPublisher. If you’ve decided to take Grandma’s old photo album and make a new photo book, you’ll need to scan all those old pictures. Here’s some hints and suggestions to help ensure your success.

Be careful with the old album – The pages can be dry and brittle. You may not be able to pull out each picture either. Scan the whole page and crop out each photo you need.

Scan at 600 DPI or more – This will give you plenty of pixels for good image print quality. You’ll also be able to use smaller photos at larger sizes in the photo book.

Scan everything as Color – Yes, even the old B&W photos. You’ll capture more information in your scans, maintain the Sepia toned pictures, and you’ll get better results when doing major corrections in your photo editing software.

Write down Who, What, Where – Be sure to gather info about each photo. The people in the picture, when and where it was taken, and any other info. It will be useful later on. When you’re adding captions in your photo book you’ll need to reference all that data. You may need to solicit help from older family members.

Produce a nice photo book and it’s likely to become a treasured family heirloom.