If you have a question that isn’t answered below, please get in touch through our Contact page.
1 - My original photos
Unfortunately we can’t accept albums as we don’t have the time or resource to remove your photos from the albums or put them back in afterwards.
No. Your photos will returned to you along with the USB memory stick or DVD of your scanned photos. We’re not able to dispose of your photos for you, nor keep them on our premises once the scanning is complete. All photographs will be returned with your order whether you want them or not.
If you want us to bulk scan your photos then naturally we will see them. But please be assured that we don’t scrutinise photographs.
We’ll flick through them to check that nothing is stuck to them that’s going to damage our machine – and we’ll scroll through the digital images to check that they’re all the right way round. But the process is so quick that we don’t have time to study every photograph individually.
If there are photos that you don’t want us to see, please remove them from your collection before handing it over to us.
Please note that our owner and scanner, Stuart, is fully CRB checked and the document can be viewed on request. We know that back in the day it wasn’t seen as a problem to take pictures of babies in the bath – so we are happy to scan such images without taking offence. Similarly we don’t have a problem with images of people sunbathing topless on the beach, should you want us to scan those for you. However, if during the scanning process we see images that we consider to depict illegal activity then we will have no qualms about handing them over to the relevant authorities along with your name and address!
We completely understand how valuable your photographs are to you, and the main focus of our service is to ensure they stay safe and in a good condition while they are in our possession. We will take the greatest care when handling and scanning your photos.
If you’ve put them into envelopes, we’ll only open one packet at a time so that they don’t get mixed up. We’ll also only work on one order at a time so you can be sure we won’t mix your photographs up with anyone else’s, nor accidently put some of their pictures into your collection.
Our main reason for investing in a bulk scanner in the first place was so that we didn’t have to hand over our own photos to someone else – so we fully understand that you may have concerns doing this. However, we’d like to reassure you that we will treat your pictures as if they were our own. Our business works on word of mouth and local reputation so we’re keen to impress you with all aspects of our service, particularly our trustworthiness!
We can only scan loose photographs, so please remove them from albums and also try to make sure there’s nothing stuck to them. Glue, tape, photo corners, staples, paperclips, post-it notes etc will all cause a problem for our scanning machine so we need you to remove them from your pictures.
Put your photographs into envelopes and then if you have a lot of envelopes, put them in a cardboard box to stop them from being damaged. If you want your pictures scanning in a certain order, organise them into the order that you require them to be sorted in the file folder on your USB memory stick/DVD.
Write on the envelope what you would like that file folder to be called (eg. May 1989 – Holiday in Majorca)
Read our Preparing your photos page for detailed information about getting your pictures ready for us to scan.
The smallest photo size we can scan is 63.5mm x 50mm (2.5in x 2in). The largest photo size we can scan is 215mm x 863mm (8.5in x 34in).
Individual passport photos are usually too small to fit through our scanner.
Most photos in your collection are probably either 6x4s, 7x5s or polaroids. These will all be fine. Any larger photos up to A4 size are all OK too!
There are many reasons why we think it’s a great idea to have your entire collection of old photos scanned. Here are just a few….
Preservation – Photographs will fade over time and if they’re not kept dry and at room temperature your old photo albums could wither. They can also take up a lot of space and be rather heavy to carry about with you. Photos from the past have a lot of sentimental value and often can’t easily be replaced if they’re lost, stolen or damaged. Think about where you keep your photo albums at the moment – would they be safe if your house was flooded? Could you quickly grab them all if your house was on fire and the priority was keeping you and your family alive? Putting your entire collection of old photos on a USB memory stick doesn’t have to replace the original photos (indeed, it’s a good idea to keep the prints too!) – but it means if the worst was to happen to your house then you could just pick up your car keys knowing your entire childhood was attached to the keyring. We also strongly recommend having a backup of your digital images stored at a relative’s house just in case.
Sharing with family – Are you the keeper of the family photos? In our personal situation it was mum who had the 50-odd albums of pictures dating back through our lives. Mum and dad are divorced and the children have long-since moved out of home. Scanning the entire collection of 8,000 photos means we can all now have a digital copy to keep and look at whenever we like. Members of the extended family can also have copies if you want them to. It also means that photos don’t need to be divided up when someone dies – everyone can have a copy to preserve the family history for future generations of each section of the family.
Sharing the with the world – “Here’s me opening my presents on Christmas morning 1984!”. Love it or hate it, Facebook is incredibly popular and many people use it as a way of sharing photos with friends and family. Instead of taking a picture today and giving it the vintage look via Instagram, why not post some actual pictures from the 70s that you’ve just had scanned?
Turning old photos in to presents – Once scanned, your pictures will be yours to do whatever you want with. So like with pictures taken on a digital camera these days, you could get old photos turned into T-shirts, mugs, mousemats, calendars, photo-books or whatever you like. Perfect for a milestone birthday or Christmas gift!
2 - My order
Yes. We would be happy to scan up to 5 photographs for you free of charge and send them to you by email or via filesharing website so that you can get an idea how your photographs will look when converted to digital.
We may be able to collect the photographs from you if we’re passing but this will depend on your location. Please get in touch to enquire about samples.
Depending on the size of your photo collection, we can usually scan your pictures and return them to you along with the digital images within a week. Often it can be quicker than this, especially if you have under 1,000 photos to scan.
If you need your photos back within a particular deadline (eg. family are visiting and you want to get them done so they can take them back with them) then let us know and we’ll do our best to meet your requirements.
Yes, our minimum order is £50, which will get you a bundle of 250 photographs scanned. If you have fewer than this, the cost will still be £50. The price covers up to 250 images so it’s worth finding some more or asking a friend if they have any they want done as part of your order as the price will be the same whether you have 150 or 250!
The easiest way of placing your order is to select and pay for one of our Buy It Now bundles. This entitles you to have photos scanned up to the number you’ve paid for in advance. You can select and pay for a Buy It Now bundle from this website using PayPal via the Prices page.
If you would prefer to pay by cash or BACS that’s not a problem. Send us a message with the number of photos you would like scanning along with your contact details and we will email back to confirm your order and tell you when we can collect your photos. Payment is due on collection on the photos from you.
When we scan your photographs, if there are more picture than you have paid for to be scanned we will contact you to let you know the final cost and highlight any additional payment required. You will be required to pay the balance in cash when we return your photographs to you. We reserve the right to retain possession of your photographs until the balance is settled in full.
Our service is only available locally in the Skipton, Ilkley and Keighley areas. We’re based in Silsden, on the West Yorkshire-North Yorkshire border and our free personal collection and return service is available within 15 miles of Silsden (BD20 0AL).
There’s a map of the area we cover on our About page. If you’re just outside the area shown, we may still be able to offer our service to you for a small extra charge. Please ask for details.
We don’t do posting or use couriers. This is mainly because we know how precious and important your photographs are and we want to ensure their safety at all times. So we’ll personally meet you to collect your photos and confirm your requirements. Then we’ll return your photos in person, along with a copy of the scanned digital images as jpeg files on a USB memory stick or DVD.
3 - Scanning
No – cuttings from newspapers are on paper that’s too thin and are likely to get damaged when they pass through our scanner. If you have documents on normal quality paper in amongst your photographs, we should be able to scan them at the same time, provided that they are within the range of sizes that we can scan.
No. Sorry, our service is just to scan actual photographs.
Yes – we can scan both sides of photographs but to do this we charge the back as an additional image. So if, for example, you have 250 photographs all with writing on the back the cost will be £60 instead of £30. The digital images will be created in pairs, so after each picture there will be an image of the back of the photo, ensuring you know which writing goes with which picture.
If some of your bundle of photographs have writing on the back – but not all of them – then please put the ones you want scanning double-sided into a separate envelope/packet and clearly write on that you would like both sides scanning.
Not forever. We will keep a copy of your digital images on our computer system for 30 days after we’ve given you your copy and returned your original photographs to you. This is so that if you have any immediate problems with the USB memory stick or DVD supplied, we can create another copy for you if required. After 30 days we will permanently delete your images from our systems and not keep any backups.
We will never use your photographs for any publicity purposes without your express permission in writing. And we will never pass on copies of your photographs to any third parties at any stage in the process.
We would strongly suggest that you create at least one backup of your digital images for your own peace of mind and security. Hard drives, computers and USB memory sticks can and do fail so it is in your own interest, having spent money having your photos scanned, to ensure you don’t fall foul of a computer virus or error.
If you’ve got a scanner at home, it’s likely to be a ‘flatbed’ type (where you lift up the lid, put your pictures in and scan what’s on the flatbed the repeat the process).
Our professional bulk scanner feeds images through the device and they’re scanned as they pass across the sensors. It’s designed specifically for photographs so they don’t get damaged as they pass through the scanner.
If you’re interested to see the type of scanner we have, click here.
We scan all orders at 600 DPI as standard. Many other services offer 300 DPI as their standard, and charge extra for 600 DPI. Read about image quality here.
We can also scan at 1200 DPI if you would like us to, but an extra charge will be payable. Please get in touch to find out more.
4 - My digital images
The USB memory stick or disc that we supply will work in any PC or Mac computer. Note that if your computer does not have a CD/DVD drive, please make it clear in your communications with us that you only want a USB memory stick.
PCs have a built-in image viewer in Windows Explorer, which you can use to display your images individually or as a slideshow. Apple Macs have a Quick Look option built-in to Finder as well as a free application called Preview which will display your images.
Once you have your digital JPEGs you are free to do whatever you like with them – for example, import them into Picasa, iPhoto or any other photo management software that you use. You can also email them to friends and family or upload them to Facebook and other photo sharing websites. They’re your pictures so it’s up to you to choose what you do with them!
You may also be able to view your images on your television. Many modern TVs have a USB input and the memory stick we supply should be recognised without any problems. If we supply you with a disc, you may be able to put it into your DVD player to view the images on your TV in this way. Check the user guide for your TV or DVD player for more details.
Each standard size photograph will create a jpeg file that’s around 6 MB. So 1,000 photos will take up around 6GB. Depending on the size of your order we will supply the files on a USB memory stick or CD-Rom/DVD-Rom. We have USB memory sticks ranging in capacity from 1GB to 64GB so can accommodate most photo collections.
If we supply your images on a DVD or CD, the files will be Read-Only because optical discs don’t let you save things onto them once they’ve been ‘burned’. So you will need to copy the images onto your computer’s hard drive first. The files’ Read-Only properties are likely to be copied too, so once the files are on your hard drive, you’ll need to enable editing as follows:
Windows operating system: In Windows Explorer, drag to select all the folders/files (or press CTRL+A). Then right-click and select Properties. In the ‘Attributes’ for the files, uncheck the Read Only box.
Mac OS: In Finder, select all the files/folders by dragging (or press cmd+A). Then right-click and select Get Info (or press cmd+I). In the Sharing and Permissions section, change the Priviledge from Read Only to Read & Write.
100% yes. We’d strongly recommend that the first thing you do when you get your digital images is to copy them to at least one, if not two, other hard drives or memory sticks. We cannot guarantee that your USB memory stick will not fail or corrupt, and we will only keep a copy of your images for 30 days after completion of the order. If it’s a large photo collection with a lifetime of memories, we’d suggest having at least two backups – and keeping one of them somewhere other than your own house so that in the event you’re burgled or there’s a fire you have another copy.
You can copy the contents of your USB memory stick to your PC/Mac or directly to an external hard drive or another USB memory stick. Simply drag and drop from one place to another in Windows Explorer (PC) or Finder (Mac).
If you want us to supply a second copy of all your images on another USB memory stick or DVD we can do this, although there is an extra charge payable. See our Prices page (scroll to the bottom) for details.
Different models of television behave in different ways. We have a Samsung Smart TV which will play pretty much anything you throw at it! Please refer to the user guide for your TV or DVD player if you are having trouble getting the images to display from your your USB memory stick or disc.
If we’ve given you a DVD, it will be a DVD-Rom with files on, not a video DVD. Some newer DVD players have a slideshow feature and will display your images, but some might not even read the disc. Many DVD players also limit the number of images they will load to a few hundred – so if you have a DVD filled with up to 4,500 images then your player may not like it!
