Scanning Photos With an iPhone or DSLR Camera? Try These DIY Hacks For Shake-Free Scans.
Do you want to scan old photos but don’t have a good scanner, or find it too slow and tedious? Use a smartphone or DSLR camera instead. If holding the camera steady is difficult for you, make these DIY rigs for hands-free, shake-free scanning. These will also help you avoid shadows and reflections:
1) Locker Shelf Rig:
Such metal or wire racks are inexpensive and sold in office goods stores. Use for scanning with iPhone or iPad. Place the device such that the camera isn’t obstructed by the metal grid. If the camera is too far from the photos, place books under the photos. Either use a Bluetooth remote , or connect the iPhone or iPad’s headphone cable and use the volume up/down buttons to operate the camera shutter.
2) Cardboard Rig:
You can rig this up quickly, using cardboard and a box cutter. Cut notches 1 cm apart on the inside of the four legs so that the the distance between the cardboard base (on which the photos are placed) and the camera can be adjusted. Use with Bluetooth remote or headphone cable as in (1) above.
3) Selfie-stick Rig:
This rig using a camera tripod and a selfie stick is pretty self-explanatory, and can be set up in minutes. With the locker shelf and cardboard rig you have to be careful not to cast shadows from the metal or cardboard legs. This slimline rig makes it easier to avoid shadows.
4) Copy Stand Rig:
Camera scanning can be used for photo prints as well as film negatives and Kodachrome slides with excellent results. This rig is suitable only if you plan to scan a lot, because it involves buying a copy stand. For scanning negatives you’ll also need film holders and a back lighting source.
Bonus Tip For Speedier Scanning
Scanning 2–3 photos together (as shown in the locker shelf and cardboard rig photos above) is much faster than scanning one photo at a time. However, you don’t want to crop all those scans manually.
For iPhone and iPad, Pic Scanner Gold app can scan and automatically crop multiple photos per click. It also includes good editing tools. It’s easy to use and inexpensive — requires no recurring subscription or in-app purchases.
For camera scanning, save the scans on your computer. Then use any of the following programs for automatic cropping:
Photoshop (Windows PC, Mac): Open a scan in Photoshop. In the top menu, click File > Automate > Crop and straighten photos. This will split the scan into individual photos. Photoshop crops one scan at a time, but you could write a script for sequentially cropping the entire batch.
SnipTag and Snip (Mac): Import the entire batch of multi-photo scans into either one of these apps. They will all be cropped and saved as individual photos. The batch-cropping function in both the apps is similar — the only difference is that SnipTag also includes an image metadata editor.
Irfanview (Windows PC): Not the prettiest of interfaces, and takes a bit of learning, but free. Go to batch conversion, import all the scans, click Advanced and check Auto crop borders. Photos will be cropped and saved individually.
