110 PCWorld OCTOBER 2019HERE’S HOW SCAN YOUR PHOTOS DIGITALLY
them together and mark the
edges of the photograph. The
photo stitching also works to
eliminate glare from your
phone’s flash, though a well-lit
photo using natural light delivers
the best results.
To be fair, a native digital
image will present the clearest,
sharpest results. And if you have
a dedicated scanner, or a
multifunction printer with a scanner attached
to it, that option should definitely be
explored. But scanners cost money, as do
the rights to digital images—the local
photography service charged me $17!
Instead, explore what your phone’s own
camera can do before ponying up for that
Instagram post.
(Just be sure and understand what rights
you have to share those images, and if the
photographer asserts any rights to the
photos in question. If you yourself have taken
the photos in question, you should be fine.)HOW TO SCAN A PHOTO
WITH PHOTOSCAN IN 3
EASY STEPS
First, download Google PhotoScan for
Android (go.pcworld.com/pscn) or PhotoScan
for iOS (go.pcworld.com/phsn). Google
doesn’t place any restrictions on what devices
you can use with PhotoScan, though you’ll
need Android 5.0 (Lollipop) or higher. Ofcourse, you’ll obviously need a photo, glossy
or not. Google doesn’t seemingly place any
restrictions on size, though I’ve only used
smaller 3x5 and 4x6 prints.
Second, begin scanning. When you
launch the app, PhotoScan shows you what
to do: Shoot the entire print inside the frame
of your camera. PhotoScan will then
superimpose four smaller circles over the
image of the print, and ask you to move
PhotoScan’s “targeting” reticle over each.
(Again, the short tutorial clarifies this nicely).
Don’t worry if you don’t precisely align
the targeting reticle over each of the targets,
as it didn’t seem to make any difference in
the clarity of the finished image. The circles
tended to jump a bit as I aligned them, too.
PhotoScan also allows you to define the
corners of the image after the image is
captured. This came into play only if I used
PhotoScan with a print set against a light
background, which made it harder to
distinguish the edges.To scan the entire photo, you’ll need to match up the center
targeting circle with the various target circles for a second or two.