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Since they were first produced, hundreds of millions of photographs have been lost due to deterioration, natural disasters, wars, and many more factors. While sometimes it may simply not be possible to salvage photographs, you can definitely take preventative steps to ensure their longevity and survival of the elements. Whether you’re the current caretaker of your family photo collection, or a professional photographer, learning how to preserve and protect your valued images is important.

During the process of protecting and preserving your photos, we highly recommend using a photo scanning service, or even scanning them at home using a high quality photo scanner. This will ensure you have digital backups of all of your images in the event of a disaster or total loss of your photos.

Before you can begin to properly protect your photographs, you’ll need to know what you’re protecting them from. As you probably guessed, you’ll want to keep them away from direct sunlight, areas of high heat, and places that could potentially host rodents or insects. Other risks to photos come in the form of high humidity, which could promote mold growth, and sulfur compounds found in wood, which can deteriorate your photos over time. Experts advise against storing your photos in attics, garages or basements due to less than ideal insulation or temperature/humidity control. Storing them indoors, away from heat and moisture, and in archival rated boxes or materials is a great way to extend the life of your photos.

Preserving family photo albums can be a bit more tricky. The first step before protecting is to completely organize your albums. Check out loose-leaf albums, which are great for organizing. Take caution, however, as many store-bought photo albums and the old photo albums with black paper pages, could potentially be harmful to your photos, as they may have been made with unsafe chemicals. It’s also best to stay away from magnetic albums and vinyl photo albums.

When your album contains lots of photos of varying sizes, the images can be organized on archival paper pages and mounted with archival photo corners. Then you’d take your pages of photos and insert them into clear polyester or polypropylene pockets. These often already three-hole punched for 3-ring binders. Most large office supply stores like Office Depot or Office Max carry boxes of clear archival-grade page protectors.

After digitizing their VHS tapes, many people wonder what to do with them after transferring… Throw them away? Recycle them? Donate?

Aside from the multitude of arts and crafts you can create from your old media, there’s also a way to still gain some use out of your old video tapes by turning them into inconspicuous secret stashes which are perfect for storing small items such as keys, USB/flash drives and small documents. Once the tape has been altered to your liking, place the paper sleeve back on and shove it back on the shelf, and nobody would be the wiser!

As far as tools go, you won’t need much to get started, although a dremel tool is recommended for creating the perfect little nook inside the tape.

For full instructions, check out the guide on instructables.com: https://www.instructables.com/id/VHS-Tape-Secret-Compartment/?ALLSTEPS

A study from the Library of Congress reveals for the first time how many feature films produced by U.S. studios during the silent film era still exist, what condition they’re in and where they are located. As you may have guessed, the news isn’t great. According to the study, nearly 75 percent of American silent films are lost forever–and a majority of the remaining films aren’t exactly in great shape, either. Of the 11,000 films made before sound film came into the picture, there’s only roughly 3,300 left. Of those, 17 percent are incomplete, and some, like the only missing Greta Garbo feature, The Divine Woman, are down to a single remaining reel. What happened?

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington explains in the study’s foreword that, with the rise of sound, silent movies were seen as having little commercial value. As myopic as it comes across from a 21st-century vantage point, silent films were lost to “chemical decay, fire, lack of commercial value, cost of storage,” and most film producers were content with unsentimentally moving on toward the Next Big Thing. Billington called the report a model for the type of fact-based archival research that remains to be conducted on all genres of American film beyond the scope of silent-era feature films. He says the same level of scrutiny remains to be applied to all historically significant audiovisual media produced since the 19th century, including sound recordings and radio and TV broadcasts.

Under Billington’s leadership, the Library has worked diligently to win repatriation of missing silent films held in archives around the world. Examples include a “mother lode” of some 200 missing silent films that have been stored for more than 80 years by the Russian film archive Gosfilmofond. The Russian archive is thought to contain the largest cache of lost U.S. silent films outside the U.S.

From the study, here’s the breakdown of what we lost, and what we have left:

With a more complete view of what we’re missing, we might be able to better prevent losing more. Anticipating that, the Library has also released a searchable database filled with every silent feature still around.

Click here to download the Library of Congress Study on silent films

Depending on when you were born, you are probably familiar with the old gramophone record. Also known as a phonograph record, or simply record, is an analog-based sound storage and playback mechanism consisting of a flat disc with inscribed spiral grooves running along the inside of the record. The groove starts at the outer edge of the disc, which is also the beginning of track 1, and then spirals inward as the record turns on the turntable. Records were a very popular recording medium for most of the 20th century, later falling to the rise of digitized media.

Due to the unique sounds that a record in good shape can produce, people all over the world have still held onto their vinyl collections and still play them to this day. Many of these older, rare vinyls were never released on audio cassette or CD, so the only way to still listen to some old, obscure albums is to play them on a record player. The only way to listen to these old classics again is to digitally convert the LP records to CD or MP3. Here’s a quick guide that will help steer you in the right direction, if you plan to digitize your own collection of vinyl records to CD.

How to transfer your Vinyl LP to CD

First, you’ll need access to a turntable. If you own records, you might even already have one, but if not, we highly recommend the Numark USB turntable, which you can find more info on here. USB turntables work excellent for transferring LP records specifically, because of it’s easy ability to plug directly into your computer to capture the audio. If you’re using an older turntable with audio outputs, it’s still possible to transfer them to your computer, but you need a slightly different setup. Please see my other guide about how to transfer audio cassettes and follow the same steps to hook up your turn table to your computer.

If you opted to go with the USB turntable, you’ll also need to make sure you have a working computer with USB inputs, computer speakers, audio editing software, blank media, and of course the vinyl record you wish to transfer.

Before transferring anything, it’s best to first make sure that the album is clean and undamaged. If your record is in bad shape, the resulting audio won’t sound nearly as good as a clean, solid record, so it’s best to clean it up the best you can prior to transferring. Follow the spiral grooves and look for any dirt, dust or debris that may have been lodged inside the grooves. Also look for scratches, cracks and warping which can also adversely affect the sound quality. The easiest way to clear dust and debris from the grooves is to spray the record with some compressed air and wipe with a microfiber cloth. Always remember that a clean record will save you time and effort in the restoration process, as well as provide much better quality results.

Once your record has been cleaned up the best it can be, you’re ready to begin the transfer process. At this stage, make sure that your turntable is powered on and connected to your computer with the drivers installed. As far as software goes, for capturing your recording, we recommend downloading and installing Audacity, which is a free open-sourced audio editing suite for both Mac and PC. If using Audacity, make sure your recording settings are correct. With your USB Turntable, you should have installed the included drivers which will allow you to record from USB. To do this, navigate to the preferences menu in Audacity by pressing CTRL+P.

Make sure for recording device, you select the USB input. You can also choose which directory on your computer the audio file is saved. Do this by clicking the directories tab and browsing for the correct folder.

Now, place the record you want to transfer onto the turntable and gently place the stylus at the beginning groove. Now, click the Record button on Audacity and then press play on the turntable. If all of your settings are correct, the record should now be playing and recording to your computer at the same time. When the record has finished playing, press stop on Audacity and you’ll now be ready to export the audio. TO export, click file–>Export and save in whatever format you’d like.

Near the Orange County or Anaheim area? If so, did you know that a service for converting your photographs to digital images on DVD was right in your neighborhood? DVD Your Memories is the premier photo, slide and negative scanning service in Southern California and we also specialize in helping our customers transfer their precious memories recorded on film, video, audio to DVD, CD or as digital files on hard drives. We are experts in transferring these types of media and we use dedicated technicians for each type of order! While our office is located in the heart of Irvine, we serve customers from all over the county including Anaheim, Santa Ana, Laguna, San Clemente and more!

For additional pricing and additional information about our photo scanning process:
Photo Scanning Anaheim

Scanning your entire collection of photographs can be a stressful task, and it’s typically not something one thinks about on a regular basis. In most cases, the only time we think about our old photos is when we move them out of the way in the attic to make room for more storage space. This is unfortunate, as a box of photos stuffed at the top of the attic doesn’t get much viewing time these days due to the work and potential mess involved in simply bringing it down!

BUT WAIT!

What if there was an extremely easy way to enjoy all of your photos, without taking up a lot of room? Our Anaheim photo scanning services can transform your box of loose or in-album photos into a DVD containing all of your images in a digital format. We can scan your still photos at resolutions of up to 600 DPI, and even provide image enhancement and restoration services to your photos to make them look as good as new. Once your photos have been scanned on our premium flatbed scanners, you even have the option to throw them into a digital slideshow that you can set to music and share with your friends online!

When you bring your precious photos, slides and negatives to DVD Your Memories, we take the utmost care in handling your precious media. Your pictures never leave our office! All orders are scanned by hand using high quality flatbed scanners, right in our Irvine office.

Some of the advantages of DVD Your Memories photo scanning services include:

-All photos transferred to 100 year archival DVDs, or onto your personal hard drive.
-All photos are scanned on premium flat-bed scanners. We never use document scanners which can leave streaks in the final images.
-All scanning is done in house, locally in our Irvine office.
-Your images will all be properly rotated and cropped.
-We can divide your photos up into custom folder and file naming structures.
-Custom on-disc labeling
-Large format photo scanning, photo album scanning and scrapbook scanning also available.

To book an appointment, contact us today!

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A common type of request we receive at DVD Your Memories is to convert old audio cassettes to CD or MP3. At our local offices, we perform many types of audio transfers in addition to audio cassettes to CD such as reel to reel audio conversions and vinyl LP to CD. What many people don’t know is how easy it is to perform these same transfers from your home! The requirements for the job are not much, and affordable as well. Many of us had an old cassette player that we used back in the 90’s and if you still have that plus a computer, you’re in business!

The first step is to get an audio cassette player, which can be a standlone deck, a walkman, or really anything is fine as long as it plays audio cassettes and has either a 3.5mm headphone jack or red & white RCA audio outputs. For optimum quality on your audio cassette transfers, we recommend a high-end player from a reputable manufacturer such as Sony or Panasonic.

Next, you’ll need access to a computer (Mac or PC) with a line-in jack. Most modern computers come with one of these inputs built into the motherboard, and are usually color coded so you know which one it is. The line-in is usually colored blue, just like in the image below.

Now, once you’ve set up your audio cassette deck or player and have it plugged in and turned on, try a test audio tape to make sure it’s still in working order and the sound quality is to your satisfaction. Also, be sure to inspect your player to find out what audio jack it’s supporting, whether that be a 3.5mm headphone jack or RCA cables. If your tape player only supports RCA cables, you’ll need to get a converter so that they can be plugged into the back of the computer. They are available for pretty cheap online, and you can find them easily by searching for “RCA to 3.5mm cable”. If you do notice that your player has a 3.5mm jack already built in, then all you need to get is a 3.5mm audio cable (the same one you’d use to hook your ipod up to external speakers or to your car’s stereo). Once the audio input is determined, plug one end of the 3.5mm cable into the headphone jack of your player, and the other end into the “Line-in” input in the back of your computer.

Now, all the hardware should be ready to go. The next step is to get the appropriate recording software. We highly recommend using Audacity, which is an open-source audio recording and editing program available for both Mac and PC here. Once installed, you’ll need to make sure your recording settings for both Windows and Audacity are set properly. If using Windows, navigate to control panel –> Hardware and Sound –> Sound then click on the “Recording” tab at the top of the window. Make sure that the Line-In is selected as your input source.

Before recording, also check to make sure Audacity is recording from the correct source by clicking Edit–> Preferences at the top menu and selecting Microsoft Sound Mapper (Input) as the recording source .

Make sure the tape you want to record is cued to the starting point and ready to be played. The last step is to now play the tape, then immediately press the record button on Audacity, which should now start recording your tape which is being fed through your computer’s line-in jack. When the tape has finished playing, or you decide that you’ve transferred enough, press STOP on Audacity and save the recording in the audio format that you wish.