You have your entire family's LIFE in photos. SOMEWHERE.

Now let's get them all organized in just

One Place.

Join us, and I'll show you how to get all of your fading prints, slides, and negatives into your computer and then combine them with your newer digital camera photographs to make one perfect collection you'll be proud to hand down.

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Scan Like a Pro

From Home

Our online video training course will teach even the most technologically-challenged person the basic steps for scanning their photos and documents. Gain the confidence to make all the right scanning choices.

Featured In

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  • Welcome to Scan Your Entire Life.
     
    I'm Curtis Bisel — the overly serious-looking guy in the photo.
     
    Since August 8th of 2001, I've been working on perfecting a workflow to scan and organize my family's 10,000+ analog photo collection made up of prints, slides, and various negatives.
     
    From this website and my email list, which I encourage you to sign up for, I release insights, tips, and best practices for doing the same with your own photo collection.

Topics Covered Here

Organizing Originals

Bringing all of your original photos together in one place. And if desired, creating a suitable order for them before being scanned.

Scanning Photos

Scanning your original prints, slides and film negatives with a photo scanner and scanning software suited to your own goals.

Storing Originals

Best methods how and where to store your original prints, slides, and film negatives, so they are archival safe.

Organizing Digitals

Learning how to label and organize your digital masters either manually in organized folders, or using the best photo managing software for your needs.

Restoring Digitals

Learning the easiest ways to bring your images back to life by correcting shifted and faded colors, scratches, and dust using your photo editing software of choice.

Backup Digitals

Learning how to have a backup process in place to ensure all of your scanned photos will live on forever.

Latest Blog Posts

  • Mylio Photos Review

    If your photos are scattered across devices and cloud accounts, and you’re still dreaming of an easy way to gather all of them into one convenient place, Mylio Photos might be just what you’ve been waiting for. Mylio is primarily a photo-organizing app, but it goes beyond that by also helping you manage videos, documents,…

  • The Importance of Descriptive Filenames for Scanned Photos

    Discover why a simple filename can make all the difference in preserving your family’s photographs. In this article, we explore ten powerful reasons why descriptive filenames for your scanned photos are more important than ever. Learn how this small detail can keep your photo collection organized and meaningful for future generations.

We don't care how good you are with computers, just how much you care about your photo collection.

What People Are Saying About…

What you are contributing to the photography community with your membership is unique. I hope you feel good about that and are energized, knowing you are helping people achieve goals. God bless!

E. Miller
Crossville, Tennessee
Member

I lost my photos in iPhoto and I was so sad as my sons just left for college and I thought the photos were lost or gone for good. Then I followed your advice step-by-step and fortunately recovered my photos in just a few key strokes.

Honestly, your directions were very easy to follow and it worked! Thank You!

I am so relieved because the photos bring me so much joy. Thank You Again.

Nancy C

I found your website and after a few days of reading the various articles. I signed up for your newsletter and took out the boxes of unnamed and unsorted family photos.

Armed with your naming convention and dpi setting recommendations, I jumped in with both feet and the old family photos are finally getting organized and scanned.

I now know the joy and satisfaction of actually being able to replace an ‘x' with a numeral! Thank you so much!!

Rishawbre Rice

Thank you for a very informative detour while I was browsing for a solution to posting comments in Facebook.

Your URL name was interesting so I came by and your content was so nicely laid out I stayed for awhile. You made me think about our family photo collections and their preservation and gave such practical tips!

Thing is, I am wondering why you have not monetized your site more. I mean, it is refreshingly clear of ads and such. Perhaps the email subscription list provides the financial support or you are simply an altruistic expert? If so, thank you for that! But, if you should choose, I do think your stuff is great and you could do more to monetize (even asking for paypal donations) if/when you need to.

I really liked your content and style.

Thanks for making me think about the importance of doing this all. Who knows? Maybe I will even return some day to start a project. I have enjoyed sharing your passion for a bit and I definitely learned something about scanning and some apps!

Brett
Oak Park, IL

“Thank you so much for taking the time to share your photo management experiences online.

I'm just starting a family photo digitizing project and the info here has been really helpful to me.

I know how much effort it takes to put this all down in a sharable form and I'm very grateful to you!”

Chris N.

I am 74, a former Air Force (AF) pilot, and only recently got my first camera, so I never captured most of my life on film.

Consequently, I have begun seeking photos from my past to digitize and I have managed to solicit some images by email from AF friends that document our careers in the Air Force. I recently visited my sister and convinced her to relinquish most of her print albums and loose prints and negatives.

Curtis, I read nearly all your posts at least twice if not three times. I learn more each time I read them. You are doing ground breaking work never done before. Maybe one day there will be a standardized naming convention called the ‘Bisel Standard'.

You give us all the incentive to overcome that inertia that prevents us from ever tackling a complicated task such as this. I'm better for having discovered your web site. Thank you again.

Will Rudd
Shalimar, FL

I am sure I would have been completely overwhelmed and returned my Epson Scanner had I not seen/read your Membership Training Course's step by step instructions on use prior to my purchasing it. You should get a commission from Epson!

Susan M.
Manchester, Massachusetts
Member

Thank you again! You are so much more pleasant, good natured, and knowledgable than ANY tech support I've ever used! 🙂

Tracie

Dear Curtis, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I thought I had lost all my photos – but with your help, it was really simple to get them back into my iPhoto! Thanks again!

Marie-Louise

You are the most genuinely humble person I have come across in a very long time… your website is a blessed OASIS to those of us who are panic stricken as we face 1000s of family photos that need archiving.

I am amazed by your benevolent spirit and the gift of the time you take to give us precise details as you empower us to tackle these overwhelming photo collections with a wonderful master plan!

You are a very, very generous man… I don't think you realize the impact you have on so many of us who want to properly honor our family legacies. Thank you. [icon name=icon_heart]

Elizabeth Mayhall Simoneaux

Your site is GENIUS. Your approaches are the most thorough I have seen. Thank you for this invaluable information.

Huma
Wadood, TX

Firstly and foremost – brilliant work Curtis. A well prepared site, bristling with information!

I had actually just started scanning the hundreds (thousands) of prints we have when I came across your website.

Your information is so clear and valuable that I have actually started over. Scanning prints, no worries now thanks to you.

Nik Frame
Sydney, Australia

I'm afraid I haven't worked up the courage to get started yet! The job still looks overwhelming to me. But I read your advice, and imagine I will begin one day.

Thanks for your great website. You are the only reason I'm even considering scanning my ton of photos.

George Sumner

I would like to compliment you on your website. It provides a lot of useful information all in one place. Great Job!

Greg Pierce
Sanford, North Carolina

YOU ARE A SAINT. You just saved me from a total mental breakdown! Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of this.

Harriet

I have been wanting to scan all the family photos for my kids but just didn’t have a system. I know I’ve got to categorize or have an archival system before doing the tedious work.

Thanks so much for your useful 3 part [file naming] series, really enjoyed it. Most helpful too!

Winston

Curtis, Love your site! What really sets yours apart from other sites that cover scanning, is that you always weigh the effort and future proofing of things.

Ronald McCarty

I was at the Apple Store meeting with the Mac Genius and he told me how to create a new [iPhoto] library but not how to look and see the old one! I panicked when I couldn't find it. Luckily people like you have the answers on line.

Your presentation was professional, educational and precise. Thank you so much!

Mikki

I want to let you know that your lessons are great. I thought I knew how to use my scanner, and I had a good process down, but I was wrong. There is a ton of great useful information in the lessons. The instructions are clear. The lessons are interesting and even funny. Thanks for the great information!

P. Jackson
Portland, Oregon
Founding Member

“Thank you so much for taking the time to share your photo management experiences online.

I'm just starting a family photo digitizing project and the info here has been really helpful to me.

I know how much effort it takes to put this all down in a sharable form and I'm very grateful to you!”

Chris N.
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