How to scan old photos at home with a phone or scanner, before you restore them

Why scanning comes first

Every restoration, colorization or moving portrait starts from the scan, and no AI can add detail the scan didn't capture. A careful scan also protects the family: prints get lost, damaged by water or split between relatives, and a good digital copy means nobody has to choose who keeps the only picture of great-grandma.

You don't need special equipment. A basic flatbed scanner or a recent phone, a clean table and a window give results that restore beautifully.

Scanning with a flatbed scanner

• Resolution: 600 dpi for normal prints, 1200 dpi for small wallet photos and contact prints.
• Color mode: color, even for black-and-white prints; it captures the tone of the paper and gives restoration more to work with.
• Format: JPG at the highest quality, or TIFF if you have the space for an archive.
• Turn off the scanner's own dust removal and auto-enhance; it often smears detail.
• Clean the glass with a microfiber cloth before every session.
• Scan several prints at once if your software splits them, leaving a finger's width between them.

Scanning with your phone

1. Step 1

   Find soft, even light

   A bright room near a window, out of direct sun. Turn off overhead lights that cause reflections.

2. Step 2

   Lay the print flat

   On a dark, matte surface. Curled prints can be held flat at the edges with a sheet of glass from a frame, angled to avoid glare.

3. Step 3

   Hold the phone straight above

   Parallel to the photo so it isn't skewed. Use the 1× lens, not ultra-wide, and tap to focus.

4. Step 4

   No flash

   Flash creates a bright spot that no restoration can recover.

5. Step 5

   Crop and straighten

   Use the phone's editor, keeping the white border; you can trim it later.

Albums, frames and fragile prints

Old “magnetic” albums with sticky pages damage photos over time, but forcing prints off can tear them. If a photo won't lift easily, slide dental floss gently behind it, or scan it in place through the plastic with the phone at a slight angle to avoid reflections. Take photos out of frames to scan; the glass adds glare and the backing hides writing.

Slides and negatives need a little more care. A flatbed with a film holder, or a phone held over a lightbox or a bright white screen, both work; scan negatives in color and invert them afterwards. Slides and negatives often hold far more detail than the prints made from them, so they are worth the extra effort.

Scan the backs too. Names, dates and notes in a grandparent's handwriting are often as precious as the picture, and they tell you who you're looking at.

Naming, sorting and backing up

• Name files by year, place and people: 1962-wedding-rosa-and-luis.jpg is findable in thirty years; IMG_4821.jpg isn't.
• Sort into folders by decade or by branch of the family.
• Keep the untouched scans in an “originals” folder and restorations in another.
• Back up in two places, such as a cloud drive and an external drive.
• Share the folder with relatives so the archive isn't in one person's hands.

Then: restore, colorize, bring to life

With good scans, the rest is quick. Restore old photos removes scratches, creases and fading in about a minute per photo; colorize old photos adds natural color to black and white; and bring old photos to life turns a restored portrait into a gentle moving clip. New accounts get 140 free credits with no card.

Our step-by-step restoration guide explains how to check that faces stay true, and the photo gift for grandparents guide has ideas for what to do with the results.