Tiny Back and White Old Snapshots

You can almost date photo snapshots by their size because they have been growing over the years. 4x6 photos are recent. In the 1980's, 3 1/2 x 5 prints were standard. In the 1970's most snapshots were 3 x 3 squares. In the 1960's the snapshots were smaller squares. 1950's snapshots were smaller. Many 1940's family snapshots are 1 1/2 squares or 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 rectangles -- truly tiny compared to today's monster prints.

These "tiny" snapshots should be copied before scrapbooking. I scan them at home, and two simple steps improve most photos. My scanner has a "restore color" option that works great even on black and white photos, and even ones that I do not think are faded. It's a check box, and so easy, so check your scanner. Most photo editing programs have a "convert to black and white" option that improves black and white photos too. I do these two steps on most photos.

For photos that are very damaged or faded, I use Photoshop Elements. My favorite book is Matt Kloskowski's "The P-S E Restoration and Retouching Book" that I bought at Barnes and Nobles. It is more useful for old photos than Barbara Brundage's "Photoshop Elements 5 The Missing Manual" that I also bought at B&N.

These little snapshots usually are not sharp enough to enlarge much at all. So it's easy to put several on a page. But what if there's only one for the event ? That leaves a lot of space to put a more recent photo of the same place / person, a vintage postcard, a photo from the internet, some remembrances or history, captions, and maybe all of it !