How to Copy 35MM Slides
Slide projector
Projector screen
Digital camera with adjustable white balance and manual aperture and shutter settings
Remote camera release
Tripod
Slide scanner (optional)
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Things You'll Need
- In the past, many photographers took slides instead of print film. Slides produce more intense color saturation and usually last longer than prints. However, with the advent of digital photography, slide projectors are becoming harder and harder to find. If you have a slide projector, projector bulbs are also becoming difficult to buy. There are many ways to copy slides. For the highest quality, use a slide scanner. However, using a slide projector, screen and a digital camera, you can achieve acceptable results when copying family photographs that were taken using slides.
Instructions
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Set up your slide projector and screen as you would for normal viewing. The darker the room, the better.
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Place your digital camera on a tripod and place it as close to the slide projector as possible. Although it won't cure the problem entirely, placing the camera as close to the projector as possible will help prevent angular distortion called paralax.
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Project a slide on the screen.
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Set the white balance on your digital camera to daylight. Most slide film is daylight balanced, and this will help keep the colors in the digital copy as close as possible to the original.
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Zoom in until the slide image fills the viewfinder or LCD on your digital camera.
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Set your camera on manual aperture and shutter speed and take a test photograph.
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If the image is too dark, lower the shutter speed or open the aperture. Often you will need to do both. If the image is too light with indistinct blown highlights, increase the shutter speed or close the aperture to reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor.
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Photograph the slide once the digital image is to your liking. If all of the slides you are copying are well exposed, you should be able to photograph them all using the same settings on the digital camera. However, for those that are not the correct exposure, you may need to adjust the digital camera to suit the particular slide.
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For large numbers of slides or slides for which you want the highest quality images, consider using a slide scanner and a computer or having the slides professionally scanned.
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Tips & Warnings
It is better to underexpose your photographs slightly with digital cameras than to overexpose. Be careful not to underexpose too much.
Plan on spending a little time to get the settings right on your particular camera.
Make sure that the highlights have detail on the digital copies. Blown highlights, or areas where the image is too bright, are impossible to reconstruct digitally.
