What the Tech: Digitally preserving photos

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - All over the country, families will be getting together with relatives they haven’t seen in a while - maybe not since last Christmas.

And while they’re gathered together, it’s a good idea to not just tell old stories but to look through old photos. It’s easy to save someone’s photos by taking a picture of their picture with your phone. But the results are not perfect.

Scanning old photos is best, and the app Google photo scan makes it easy. It captures more accurate colors in the picture by snapping four photos and combining them to make one digital file. Use four dots to scan the photo, moving the camera to line them up. This tells the app where the edges are.

Once that’s done the app automatically crops out the background, leaving you with just the photo and not the table or background. It corrects the color and even removes any glare your camera may have captured coming off the photo. Save the photo to your camera roll, or better yet, save it to your Google account. Google has a terrific photo app, Google photos, that stores these pictures in the cloud, so you don’t have to use up the storage on your phone for pictures.

The photos are there for safekeeping and can be downloaded at any time on a computer or any phone or device.

It keeps getting better because Google photos will organize those photos into albums, and it will use facial recognition to tag anyone in them so you can search using just a name. Or search by place, what’s in the background. Want sunset pictures? Boom!

It’s a great way to spend family time and tell stories to the younger members of the family. And since the photos are scanned, it makes them easier to share.

The Google photo scan app is available for both iPhones and Android devices. Like all other google apps, it is free.

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