Google is aiming to get more of your photos online with a new PhotoScan app that uses your phone’s camera to digitize old prints.
Avaiable for both Android and iOS, Google’s free PhotoScan app claims to work in seconds. Open the app and your screen turns into a viewfinder.
Hold your phone over the print you want to scan, and compose it so that your print fits within the frame.
Press the shutter button, and white dots will emerge in the corners of your photo. Simply move your phone over each dot, and they will turn blue in the process.
When all are blue, the print is scanned and the new digital version is saved and can be added to your Google Photos library.
What’s more, the PhotoScan app claims to correct imperfections in your prints as well, such as colour and exposure, and removes glare. You can also fine tune the image settings within the app.
Watch the video above for a demonstration on how it works. Essentially what this new Google photo app is doing is taking four images of your print and focus stacking them, making some quick edits and creating a sharp digital copy.
READ MORE
Google’s Pixel smartphone is DxOMark’s highest-rated camera phone ever
10 digital camera tips, tricks and truths you may not have known