Photo collection specialists
Organise & digitise your whole photo collection
Boxes, albums, loose prints, slides, the film reels nobody can play anymore. We sort it, scan it, and hand it back as a library you can actually search.
Drop-off in Caulfield South & St Kilda · We come to you for larger collections · Interstate clients by secure courier
Where you're starting from
Do you have boxes of photos, albums, films and slides?
- Decades of prints in shoeboxes, drawers and the back of cupboards
- Albums falling apart, with prints slipping out
- Slides, negatives and old film reels you can't view anymore
- A collection you've inherited and don't know where to start with
- You'd love to find a particular photo - and you simply can't
Already digital?
If your photos live on phones, drives and clouds rather than in boxes, our Digital Photo Reset service is the one you're after. Get in touch and we'll make sure you're in the right place.
What you get back
Not just scans. An organised archive.
Plenty of places will scan a stack of photos. The hard part - the part most people never get around to - is making sense of it all. That's the part we do.
We digitise photos and video of every format and era on museum-quality equipment, the same kind used in professional archives, so your files come back sharp, high-resolution and future-proof. Then we organise them: chronological order, descriptive filenames built from dates and subjects, using whatever clues your album covers, spines and photo envelopes hold.
The result is a digital collection you can search, share and pass on - and your originals always come back to you. If you'd like, we'll reorganise them to match, filed chronologically in beautifully labelled, archival-safe boxes - so your physical collection is as ordered as your digital one.
The process
From boxes in the cupboard to memories you can share
Assessment
You bring the collection in, or we come to you. We sort through it, identify every media type, estimate quantities, and give you a written report with clear options and costs - so you decide with full information before anything starts.
Digitise
Prints, album pages, slides, negatives, framed photos, video tapes and film reels - all scanned at archival quality. Nothing is too fragile, too old or too odd-sized.
Organise
Everything is put in chronological order with searchable, descriptive filenames. A pile becomes a timeline you can navigate.
Deliver
Your finished collection is quality-checked and handed back on a drive, ready to view, share or load onto a digital frame. Originals always returned to you - reorganised chronologically into labelled archival boxes if you'd like.
A recent project
A century of family history, in boxes no one could face
An only child came to us while clearing her late parents' estate. Several boxes, no real idea how many photos were inside - loose prints, framed photos, magnetic and paper albums, slides, negatives and old 8mm film reels. The earliest images dated back to 1897.
She didn't want it scanned and forgotten. She wanted it accessible - a record of the family story she could keep and share.
We worked through all of it: every print, album page, slide and reel digitised, put in chronological order, named and made searchable, then archivally stored. The finished collection went onto a digital photo frame, exactly as she'd hoped - more than a hundred years of family, finally in one place she could see.
Before
After
Why trust us with your collection
Fifth generation of a Melbourne family business since 1916
I'm Carly Michael, founder of PhotoGenie and fifth generation of the family behind michaels. My family has been in business in Melbourne since 1916 - starting as a gunsmith and pawnbroker, becoming a pharmacy in the 1920s, then moving into photography in th 50s, and by the 2000's it grew into the largest camera store in the southern hemisphere.
I ran the photo lab and education departments at michaels - years spent processing, teaching and caring for other people's images, with 24 years of hands-on experience behind me. So when you hand over your collection, it's in the care of someone who has spent a lifetime around photographs, and who treats every one of yours as if it were our own family's.
In our clients' words
Families who trusted us with a lifetime of photos
"For all the photos my grandmother had collected in her long life, we had a huge job on our hands. Carly and her team processed, packaged and presented the files and photos immaculately, and with such pride and care. Thank you from all of the kids, grand kids and great-grand kids!"
Renee
"Thanks so much Carly for helping me organise and then digitise 5 generations worth of photos and documents into a library which can be easily accessed and shared online, as well as presenting all the originals in new albums to match. I'm extremely confident I've now given my family the most valuable gift ever, to be cherished for generations to come!"
Ruth
"Carly and her team helped preserve our family's extensive photos and memories with such care and professionalism. The quality of the digitised images exceeded our expectations, and Carly kept us informed throughout. We'd highly recommend her to anyone looking to preserve their family history."
Noam
"I had many photos of my beloved mother as a child that had started to completely fade - irreplaceable, as were documents and photos of my sister who is sadly deceased. The time and effort Carly put into saving these is immeasurable. She has a beautiful manner and does outstanding work."
Georgia
"Carly did an amazing job of not only digitising my many, many photos but also sorted them into chronological order. A pleasure to do business with, and she took all my stress away trying to sort out my photos."
Evelyn
"We chose to sort and organise our photos, both printed and digital. Carly helped us get started with a terrific system, and through weekly chats we really feel we're getting the job done."
B & A
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We send regular updates as your project moves through each stage of our workflow, so you always know where things are at.
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Both. Scanning without organisation just moves the problem. For every project we use all available information - album covers, photo envelopes, handwritten notes - and our unique approach turns that into a collection organised chronologically (or thematically, where that's better suited). Working from available information alone, some batches may end up unlabelled - so if you'd like a complete result, we offer a more comprehensive option where we fill in the blanks entirely, leaving you with a collection that's fully identified and organised.
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For every project we ask for a family tree and a timeline of key events. We also offer the option of a recorded family interview, where we sit down with you to build a full picture of the people, places and stories in your collection. You receive a copy of the video and a transcript - it's a record in its own right.
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Not at all - we can do all of that work for you. Some clients like to label and date batches of photos themselves before the project begins, which is a great option if you want to be hands-on. But it's entirely your choice.
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However suits you best - USB, external hard drive, or a download link.
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Your originals are always returned to you. If you'd like, we can also transform your collection into a beautiful, properly preserved physical archive - rehoused in archival-safe boxes and binders, arranged in the same chronological order as your digital collection.
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Book an assessment. We'll review your collection, give you a full inventory, walk you through your options, and you can decide from there.
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It's a full-service project where we handle your entire physical photo collection end to end - prints, albums, slides, negatives, home movies and more. We assess everything, digitise it using museum-quality scanning equipment, organise it so you can actually find things, and deliver it back in a format your whole family can use and keep forever.
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We work with all photo, video and audio media. If you're not sure whether something is in scope, just ask.
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If you bring your collection to us, you simply drop it off. If we come to you, we spend a few hours with you and your collection. Either way, we then provide a detailed report and an accompanying video walking you through your inventory and options - easy to share with everyone in the family, so decisions can be made together. Once you can see exactly what you've got, you're in a position to make informed decisions - including the fact that you don't necessarily need to digitise everything.
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$330 if you bring your collection to us, or $550 if we come to you - and $330 is credited toward your project cost either way.
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Assessment results are typically ready within one to two weeks.
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Every collection is different, so we provide a tailored quote after the assessment. As a guide, a full collection project is typically an investment of several thousand dollars rather than a few hundred - reflecting the scale of the work and the level of care involved. The assessment is where we map out the options and show you the full scope of what's possible, so you're in complete control of the outcome.
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Most projects take three to six months from assessment to delivery, depending on the size and complexity of your collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best next step
Start with an assessment
The only way to quote a whole collection accurately is to see it. Bring your photos in, or we'll come to you, and we'll work out exactly what you've got and what it'll take.
Interstate? Ship your collection to us by secure courier - we recommend an overnight, tracked service - and we'll assess it on arrival, then send your options and costs before anything begins. Your photos are handled with the same care from the moment they leave your hands.
Drop-off locations in Caulfield South & St Kilda
Your assessment includes
- A full report of your media types and estimated quantities
- A range of costed options, so you can choose your scope
- An estimated timeline for the project
- Everything you need to decide before we begin
Prefer to talk it through first? Call us on 1300 312 724 and we'll walk you through how it works.