How to scan old photos

Phone or scanner?

If you only have a phone, use the phone. A careful phone copy restores beautifully. If you have a scanner and a small photo you want printed at 8x10, use the scanner.

Scanning with a phone, step by step

1. Find soft daylight. A table near a window, out of direct sun, is ideal. Overcast days are perfect. Avoid overhead lamps, which cast your shadow and the phone's shadow onto the photo.
2. Turn off the flash. Flash causes a bright hot spot and flattens the image.
3. Lay the photo flat on a plain, dark surface. Dark paper or fabric makes the edges easy to see and stops light bouncing back.
4. Hold the phone directly above, parallel to the photo. If the copy looks like a trapezoid, wider at the top or bottom, the phone is tilted. Most phones show a level guide in the camera app when you point straight down.
5. Fill the screen with the photo, leaving a small margin around it. Do not use digital zoom heavily; move the phone closer instead, as long as it still focuses.
6. Tap to focus on a face, then take a few shots. Choose the sharpest.
7. Check for glare. Zoom in on the copy. If there is a shiny patch, move the photo or yourself slightly and try again.
8. Do not edit or filter. Upload the original camera file. Filters and auto enhance can remove the faint detail that restoration relies on.

Photos behind glass in a frame or in a plastic album sleeve can be copied as they are, but reflections are harder to avoid. Angle the photo slightly away from the window, or hang a dark cloth behind you so it does not reflect.

Scanning with a flatbed scanner

• Clean the glass with a soft cloth. Dust on the glass shows up on every scan.
• Scan in color, even for black and white photos. Color scans keep the subtle warm tones of old prints and give restoration more to work with.
• Turn off automatic corrections, such as dust removal, sharpening and color restore, if your software has them.
• Save as a high quality JPEG or PNG for uploading. Keep a TIFF for your own archive if you like, but upload a JPG or PNG. Avoid heavy compression.
• Do not press down on curled, cracked or flaking prints. Leave the lid up and cover the scanner with a dark cloth if needed.

What resolution do you need?

A good print needs about 300 pixels for every inch of paper. So the question is how many pixels the copy needs across the print you want.

To get there with a scanner, divide the pixels you need by the size of the original. A 3.5 x 5 in snapshot printed at 8x10 needs about 2400 pixels across its short side, so 2400 divided by 3.5 gives roughly 700 dpi; scan it at 800 dpi to be safe. A 2.5 x 3.5 in photo printed at 8x10 needs closer to 1000 to 1200 dpi. For a same size or smaller print, 600 dpi is plenty.

Recent phones capture around 12 megapixels or more, roughly 3000 x 4000 pixels, but the photo only fills part of the frame. That is usually plenty for 5x7 and often enough for 8x10 when the photo fills most of the screen. When you upload, the order page only offers the sizes your copy can support.

Special cases

Torn photos: lay the pieces edge to edge on a dark background. Our torn photos guide explains how.

Cracked or flaking photos: use soft, even, frontal light so cracks do not cast shadows. See the cracked photos guide.

Tintypes and cased photos: copy them in their case or sleeve, and watch for glare on the varnish. The tintype guide has details.

Photos stuck to glass: do not peel them off. Copy them through the glass.

Keep the files safe

Once you have scanned a box of photos, name the files with what you know (names, place, year), and keep copies in at least two places, such as a computer and a cloud backup. The originals can then go back into safe, dark storage.

Updated October 8, 2026