How to Make Pictures From Old Projector Slides

Old slides from a slide projector turn into digital pictures with a negative scanner.

You can turn those old-fashioned vacation slides into digital or printed pictures. Use your pictures to make a DVD slide show of Grandpa's vacation or as an intro to a wedding video. Turning old slides into pictures is one way to preserve them for future generations.

Things You'll Need

• Flatbed scanner with negative scanning insert or Ion Sllides2PC tool
• Static cloth

Instructions

1. Clean the old slides thoroughly with a vacuum blowing nozzle for electronics, a static duster like the Kinetronics static cloth or a solution made for dusting slides, available at photography stores. Dust builds up over the years, even when the slides are stored in a covered and protected slide projector case, because the cardboard frames that Kodak made deteriorate over time. Moisture, temperature and other factors also play a part and can create a film of gunk on the surface of each slide.

2. Install a slide scanner, such as the Ion slide/film scanner, onto your PC. Some flatbed scanners and all-in-one scanners/printers come with a film scanning attachment. The insert can hold one or more slides. These usually accommodate slides or negatives. Slides are made from a different kind of film than negatives, but thanks to software that processes the colors differently, it's usually just a few clicks to turn your slides or negatives into pictures.

3. Place the old slide into the scanner or the scanning tool. Newer products have an auto-detect feature that will immediately bring up a preview of your image. You can generally crop and zoom from here, before selecting the final image to scan.

4. Save the image to your computer when you've finished scanning. You can choose to give it an original name or rename it later. After it's been saved as a jpg file (for web use, printing and most applications) you can print it at home or upload it to a local film processor. Major drug or retail stores allow users to upload the pictures from your old projector slides and pick up the prints at a later time.

Tips & Warnings

• Digitize your old slides and make a scrapbook as a 50th wedding anniversary gift or a slide show to play at a family reunion.

• Never use chemicals to clean slides, unless they are recommended by Kodak.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Kinetronics static wisk digital scanner cleaning kit
• Kinetronics anti-static tiger cloth
• Ion 35mm photo negative and slide converter to PC (SLIDES2PC)