I've discovered a new skill: Making Digital Images from Slides

[Donald]

I recently bought an Epson v500 scanner. I'm amazed how easy and quick it is to scan those old slides that had been in boxes for years and never been looked at. I'm having great fun and I'm going to offer a service in our community.

In 1989 and 1990, I spent two summers working in the US (Thompson, Pennsylvania) and, afterwards, did some travelling. In September 1990, with my partner Sheila, we flew to the west coast and then travelled by train from San Francisco to Boston, stopping off at Salt Lake City, renting a car and taking off to Yellowstone National Park and Jackson, Wyoming. I loved the US and the people I met there. A wonderful, wonderful place. Great memories.

Anyway, long forgotten slides were dusted off and scanned. Lots of snapshot rubbish but a few decent images. Here are two. Taken with a dear old Canon AV1. Not too bad, yeh?

The Tetons and Jackson Lake (on the road from Yellowstone to Jackson). Thanks to Google Earth, I was, today, able to find out where this was and identify the location from which I took it.



Again, the Tetons (but I can't identify the location). If Chuck sees this thread maybe he can help.

[Dovrob]

Use to love working with slides and the quality of your shots demonstrate why, the colour redention is superb. Wish I had the money and time to gigitalise my collection.

[Geoff F]

What I found when scanning my old negatives, was that a lot of the rejects weren't actually that bad, mostly a problem with poor printing.

And particularly after a little editing, they became worthwhile images of 'byegone days'.

[Clactonian]

I started working through the hundreds of slides I have some time back and like you Donald enjoyed reliving some long forgotten memories. My only problem is that many had an infestation of 'black spot' despite being boxed, but probably due to the airless environment in various cupboards. The spotting job after scanning gets quite tedious.
I bought a Minolta Scan Dual IV dedicated slide scanner just before they went out of production some years back. It's a nice piece of kit.

[Donald]

My only problem is that many had an infestation of 'black spot' despite being boxed, but probably due to the airless environment in various cupboards. The spotting job after scanning gets quite tedious.

Indeed.

All these got a good blow with a blower brush and then a wipe with a lint-free cloth, but there was still quite a bit of black spot and a few scratches. I find the GIMP's Healing Tool does the job quickly and well, though, as you say, the fun of doing that does gets less interesting as the evening progresses!

[Ken Curtis]

Nice images, Donald. You were good back then too!

[jprzybyla]

Skill and technique only improves with time. You were good then, better now. Wonderful images, I look forward to seeing more. And I took note... in color.

[Brownbear]

Beautiful images, and wonderful to see some of your colour images... Is a slide a British term for a photo made out of film? If yes, you just scanned the slide? I have a bunch of photos from a film camera that I've thought of scanning one day, and to see this quality is nice. Of course my old photos were likely not created on a good camera so perhaps not.

I'm especially fond of the 2nd image...

[pnodrog]

Well Donald we all know what you will be doing during your winter hibernation. Make sure you add plenty of key words etc so you can find them again. Have fun finding those forgotten gems or the ones you can now PP into gems.

[Sunray]

Is a slide a British term for a photo made out of film?

It is not a "normal" negative film. A slide is a positive, transparent image that's normally put into small plastic frames after development that can be loaded in a projector. See more on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversal_film

[Donald]

Is a slide a British term for a photo made out of film?

Christina - My apologies. Again reminds us that the UK and North America are, as has been said and written, two areas separated by a common language! I usually remember to write things like "holiday/vacation", "lift/elevator", etc. But I never thought of being aware that 'slide' is not the term used for a transparency.

And yes, L Paul, I'm looking forward to the discoveries.

[jcuknz]

I think I recognise the second one which must have been taken a million times judging from the crowd of photographers as I drove by but I doubt if many will have a shot like yours, very nice.
Second time I drove past two years later, and stopped and took a photo merely to show how aweful the smoke from forest fires was spoiling a classic shot
So lucky you right spot right time. On the road south from Old Faithful moderately close to park entrance ???

Christina ...if you don't have a scanner the other way is to photograph the slide if your camera is capable of filling the frame with a 36x24mm subject ... first time using negative film I simply taped the couple of slides I wanted to copy to a window, later with digital this was my set-up and AWB takes care of that aspect.

The critcal aspect is being about able to get a tight enough framing. Here I was using my Nikon 5700, probably with a 2 dioptre CU lens, though the camera would do it without ... a unique camera the 5700 in this respect.

Slides ...to me transparencies is a very 'correct' term but slides used to be 3.25"x3.25" [or maybe 3x3] and projected by various means and the term I guess carried over to the 2"x2" versions
This is the Epidiascope/slide projector at my school back in 1952....

[jprzybyla]

Donald, you are correct that slide is the term used for a transparency. Photograph would be used for a print from a negative. By the way, you have me wondering what gems I might find in my file drawer of slides.

[chauncey]

those old slides that had been in boxes for years and never been looked at

Most of us old farts have those boxes of pictures/slides stored in shoeboxes that we move and store over and over again. Now we replace those memories in shoeboxes in closets with memory on hard drives. Aah...ponder the progress that we've made.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Donald, Rob and Photonut for the clarification. What I have are film negatives.

Photonut I think it is simply amazing how innovative you are... that said I think I will take my film negatives to a shop to do this simply because I know I couldn't do it well.

[DanK]

Donald,

Very interesting. I have been thinking about starting on my huge collection of slides, but I had not decided how to do it. How is the resolution of the scans at larger sizes, e.g., if you were going to print A4 or larger? It's hard to tell from an image on screen. I have been thinking about buying the Nikon gizmo that you can screw onto the front of a macro lens to photograph the slides, thinking it might give me better resolution.

BTW, "slide" is the standard term in the US. Films like Kodachrome were called "slide film." However, the issue seems to be re-emerging. Some wedding photographers seem to call full size digital positive image (jpegs) "digital negatives," by which they only mean "digital files not yet printed."

Thanks

Dan

[Donald]

How is the resolution of the scans at larger sizes, e.g., if you were going to print A4 or larger?

Dan

I'm scanning at a resolution of 2400 dpi (as recommended in something I read) and am getting a file size of just over 3000 pixels on the longer edge. I haven't printed yet, but should be good for at least A4.

Now, as I've written before, I am NOT a technically-minded person. Someone may tell me that I've not really answered the question ... in which case my apologies. But it seems to sort-of work for me.

[Mr Foreman]

Ive been re-inspired to dredge out some of my slides. Previous scanning attempts were not impressive but your images have turned out really well. Cheers for sharing.

[DanK]

Donald,

thanks very much.

Dan

[Wavelength]

So lovely