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old print photo albums

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mvkuilen

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I've been scanning the old family photo albums. Most are in various plastic pages with pockets for individual prints. some are like a thick saran wrap and are hard to extract the prints from. Others are thicker non-sticky pages that allow the prints to slide out without any issue.

And then there are those albums from the middle 1980's. There has to be a special place in photo hell for the designer of the cardboard sticky pages covered in a removable plastic film. Not only were they difficult to write captions on BUT now removing the prints is a struggle that threatens to tear the print. In as few cases the print de-laminated as it was removed. Need a blunt knife to dig behind each print to separate them from the album pages. Bah. I notice that there is no ownership label in the album - wise. Anyone have a good way to remove the prints?
 
Scan the whole page? Hopefully the plastic film won't throw things off.

Instead of scanning, you could use your camera to photograph, too. That way you could use a polarizer if there are disturbing reflections.

Finally, if the print is stuck to the page, why not cut up the page? Then you scan or photograph the individual print/page sandwich.

Lots of options.
 
mvkuilen said:
I've been scanning the old family photo albums. Most are in various plastic pages with pockets for individual prints. some are like a thick saran wrap and are hard to extract the prints from. Others are thicker non-sticky pages that allow the prints to slide out without any issue.

And then there are those albums from the middle 1980's. There has to be a special place in photo hell for the designer of the cardboard sticky pages covered in a removable plastic film. Not only were they difficult to write captions on BUT now removing the prints is a struggle that threatens to tear the print. In as few cases the print de-laminated as it was removed. Need a blunt knife to dig behind each print to separate them from the album pages. Bah. I notice that there is no ownership label in the album - wise. Anyone have a good way to remove the prints?
Click to expand...
I have no solution but maybe you can try putting them in a freezer to see if the cold temperature can make the sticky stuff less effective??
 
mvkuilen said:
I've been scanning the old family photo albums. Most are in various plastic pages with pockets for individual prints. some are like a thick saran wrap and are hard to extract the prints from. Others are thicker non-sticky pages that allow the prints to slide out without any issue.

And then there are those albums from the middle 1980's. There has to be a special place in photo hell for the designer of the cardboard sticky pages covered in a removable plastic film. Not only were they difficult to write captions on BUT now removing the prints is a struggle that threatens to tear the print. In as few cases the print de-laminated as it was removed. Need a blunt knife to dig behind each print to separate them from the album pages. Bah. I notice that there is no ownership label in the album - wise. Anyone have a good way to remove the prints?
Click to expand...
Is your scanner a CIS (Contact Image Scanner) or CCD scanner? Google your model number to find out.

Using a CCD scanner, it's possible to scan photos through the plastic film while leaving the photos on the album page with good focus, because CCD scanners have more depth of field.. I did that when I was doing photo slideshows professionally. CIS scanners OTOH, rely on the photo being in contact with the glass for best focus.

Maybe try to borrow a CCD scanner to see if it makes a difference for you.

Sky
 
Isn’t it interesting that what was once a solution to make sure your precious memories stayed in place and well protected, is now a terrible inconvenience due to available technology that they never saw coming?

We were supposed to be in flying cars and living on lunar colonies, not having access to pretty much all information ever on our phones along with every photograph we had ever taken.
 
(Unable to delete.)
 
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mvkuilen said:
I've been scanning the old family photo albums. Most are in various plastic pages with pockets for individual prints. some are like a thick saran wrap and are hard to extract the prints from. Others are thicker non-sticky pages that allow the prints to slide out without any issue.

And then there are those albums from the middle 1980's. There has to be a special place in photo hell for the designer of the cardboard sticky pages covered in a removable plastic film. Not only were they difficult to write captions on BUT now removing the prints is a struggle that threatens to tear the print. In as few cases the print de-laminated as it was removed. Need a blunt knife to dig behind each print to separate them from the album pages. Bah. I notice that there is no ownership label in the album - wise. Anyone have a good way to remove the prints?
Click to expand...
Don't blame the designer. The album protected the prints, as advertised. Your expectations are unrealistic.

Maybe you should blame your relative, or whoever used the album.

Why didn't they have psychic abilities to think, 40 years later, someone would want to remove the prints from the album to scan them for some unknown purpose.

There are other types of albums that existed at the time but they were more costly. So not only did the consumer fail to predict the future they were also a cheapskate.

I would give you, and them, some advice:

Before any project thindownstream. In the OP's case, why are you scanning them in the first place?

--Satan loves the shadows - and the highlights.
 
HRC2016 said:
Don't blame the designer. The album protected the prints, as advertised. Your expectations are unrealistic.

Maybe you should blame your relative, or whoever used the album.

Why didn't they have psychic abilities to think, 40 years later, someone would want to remove the prints from the album to scan them for some unknown purpose.

There are other types of albums that existed at the time but they were more costly. So not only did the consumer fail to predict the future they were also a cheapskate.

I would give you, and them, some advice:

Before any project thindownstream. In the OP's case, why are you scanning them in the first place?
Click to expand...
What's this need to blame others? Nothing is forever. Should I blame you for buying your camera since it will likely be useless when your great grandchild inherits it?
 
see if this video helps



BTW, it did sound like a good idea at the time because it allowed different size prints to be put on the same page, the other way was to use Photo Corners and that was not all that much fun to do.

BTW, another suggestion I have seen is to use dental floss , the very thin type, after briefly using a hairdryer on warm (not hot) over the print.
 
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Thanks for all the helpful hints.

My photo scanner is a Plustek z300 so the pages wont fit, they are too wide.

Since they are also double sided, cutting them up is not an option either.

Using a stiff thin bladed spatula, I was finally able to get the prints off the pages with only minor damage to some. Luckily, photo paper was pretty tough in those days.

The albums are way too bulky and the images can't easily be shared around the world hence the need to scan the prints. No idea what happened to the negatives but that seems to be an issue with all those old pictures.

While not every picture is worthy of archive grade treatment, an album that can damage a print can hardly be called very protective even if it is convenient to mix and match print sizes.
 
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JustUs7 said:
Isn’t it interesting that what was once a solution to make sure your precious memories stayed in place and well protected,
Click to expand...
yes and they work
JustUs7 said:
is now a terrible inconvenience due to available technology that they never saw coming?
Click to expand...
Completely irrelevant to the product of printed photo albums
JustUs7 said:
We were supposed to be in flying cars and living on lunar colonies, not having access to pretty much all information ever on our phones along with every photograph we had ever taken.
Click to expand...
 
You know the plastic covering the prints is to preserve them from the air and degradation, right? 🙄
 
I don't think the seal between the cover film and the cardboard page is air tight so I'm not sure how much protection there is. And what about the glue lines? Strong enough to damage some prints as as they were removed is hardly very protective. Well, perhaps protective in the sense of not letting go but that is something else. As was mentioned, being able to mix and match different sizes on one page was a big plus but what a cost? Even rearranging the pictures when tastes change or better ones become available would turnout to be difficult.
 
Some of those film type protecting covers had a thin glue layer on them so that you just placed your photos on the paper page and then sealed them with that plastic page. Those were more or less air tight.

The glue on those pages was somewhat similar to the one on Magic Tape and Stcky Notes so that those pages could be peeled open again.
 
I guess that is true if the albums are chronologically organized and one wishes to view the photos chronologically. I have 20K photos (probably 5K scanned from photo albums) and these are indexed with keywords so can they can be viewed selectively.

just my 0.02

Cheers,
Bert
 
Oh, that sounds like a different type of album than the ones I was was struggling with. Mine were cardboard pages with horizontal lines of glue on both sides. The plastic sheet was one piece that folded over to cover both sides with the fold on the outside edge of the page.

I've encountered Magic(tm) tape on some old pictures (someone thought it was a good way to attach pictures to paper pages, either instead of photo corners or as a small cylinder in the middle of the back of the picture) and while it didn't become yellow and brittle with age, it was not easy to remove.
 
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