How To Digitize Camera Slides

A couple months ago, nosotros had a family friend who got a concord of some really old family photos. She came over and asked me if at that place was any way that I could convert her old slides to digital images. Since I exercise non ain a slide scanner, I was about to tell her that there was nothing I could do, that was until I came up with a plan B.

I was holding one of her slides upward to a light to see the image, when I came upwards with an thought.

I knew that I needed to backlight the slide to see the paradigm, and I also knew that if I could go in close enough, I could capture a digital image of the slide. In lodge to get a good solid backlight, Here is what I came up with

I turned on my desktop computer and launched Microsoft Word. I and then opened a blank certificate so that I would take a large white low-cal backside my slides.

I tried shooting some images of an old slide and quickly realized that I needed a better way to proceed everything in focus.

I set upwardly i of my Joby Gorilla Pods and a Manfrotto clamp to hold the slides.

I and so mounted my Canon 5D Mark IV camera with the Canon 100mm macro lens on my Gitzo tripod. I moved the camera so that information technology was right up to the slide and then manually focused the lens to get a good sharp paradigm. I set the photographic camera to a ii 2d timer fashion (so that I would not milkshake the camera at all), and fired a shot of each slide. (Note: you do not need an expensive tripod or camera to do this, only a decent macro lens sure helps.)

One by one, I would accept a photograph and then replace the slide with another one. This worked so well that I concluded upward going deep into my closet and finding old slides that my father had taken dorsum in the 1950s and 1960s. I wanted to convert all these too!

Here are a couple of things I learned in the process.

Do not put the slide too close to your monitor, equally the pixels will bear witness up behind the slide prototype.
It is best to take a prune or something to concord the slides in exactly the same position. this saves yous having to reposition the lens before capturing each photo.
It is fix the camera to capture all the slide in the sideways position. If the paradigm was in portrait manner, information technology was easier to capture information technology sideways (instead of rotating the photographic camera each time) and so rotate it later in Photo Mechanic or Photoshop.

So…what did slides did I convert? See for yourself. And yes, that is niggling ole me in the photos beneath.

(Find that even then I must accept been into photography, equally I am property a box from a scroll of Kodak film.)

Old Slide Restoration

Oh – and don't forget the other advantage to scanning old slides. You tin can make clean them upwards and correct them.

For instance, here is a slide that I found of my begetter and brother when Dave was a newborn.

Every bit y'all can see, the white residuum is way off and there are lots of scratches and clay on the slide. I adjusted the white balance in Adobe Camera Raw to warm it upward. I know for sure that my dad did not have blue skin.

Then I straightened the image and cropped the border out.

But I yet had a really dirty paradigm to make clean upwardly.

I used the healing brush to remove all the larger marks on my father face and background. I so created a separate layer and ran the "Dust & Scratches" filter in Photoshop to remove a lot of the dirt from his shirt and the wall paper in the groundwork. Ta da! I accept a dainty prototype for myself and my family to remember my male parent by.

And just for the fun of it, I decided to do a piffling more retouching. I removed the harsh shadow to the left of my father, fixed his tie, and removed the chimney sticking out of the top of his head. I know, I know…I but inverse history, but even though this is non what I would share with others, information technology was fun to do anyways.

I hope that this inspires all of you to get that former box of slides out of the closet and start converting them to digital images for you and your family.

About the Author

Jeff Cable is a earth renowned, v-time Olympic lensman having covered Beijing, Vancouver, London, Sochi and Rio. He is one of the well-nigh sought afterwards presenters and educators in the photography infinite. Y'all can detect out more about Jeff on his website, follow his adventures on his blog, or accomplish out to him through Facebook. This article was as well published hither and shared with permission

Source: https://www.diyphotography.net/old-slides-want-scan-cheap-easy-way-home/

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