35mm slide conversion process.
Transferring old 35mm slides to digital format not only will preserve the originals but offers ways to enhance them as well. It can be a time consuming operation, although with practice and the right equipment, the time per slide can be reduced to less than 30 seconds. Editing and improving the appearance may take longer. Converting slides to digital images does not require an expensive scanner; equipment under $100 will do the job. However, for the highest quality end result, more costly dedicated film scanners are needed. In either case, good photo editing software is a must to clean up the scanned results.
Instructions
1. Remove any protective sheet from the glass cover of the scanner if there is one to expose the film guide.
2. Remove or tilt out the film guide from the cover for access and open the film holder on the guide.
3. Insert the slides into the film guide. If there are not sufficient slides to fill the guide, block the uncovered parts with a shield to prevent extra light from spoiling the scan. Then replace the film guide in the scanner cover. It may take some experimentation to ensure the image will be scanned with the correct orientation.
4. Open the photo editing software on the computer and choose color or black and white and negative or positive film depending on the type of slide. Identify the number of slides being scanned; adjust any desired settings for output resolution and size. Start the scanning process.
5. Save the images in TIFF or JPEG format to the computer. TIFF format is best for archival storage since it preserves all the data, while JPEG compresses data resulting in some possible degradation of the image if it is reused and saved often.
Tags: film guide, editing software, photo editing, photo editing software, slides digital
