How to Convert Slides to Digital Pics

Preserving 35 mm slides in a digital format has become increasingly easier. It is now possible to convert family slides to a digital medium. Film technology has become expensive to maintain and may eventually become obsolete. Having slides scanned at the local photo lab is expensive and may soon be a service that will be outsourced. Transferring analog medium, slides and film to a digital format is a smart way to preserve history and irreplaceable photos.

Things You'll Need

• Scanner with slide/transparency option
• Scanning software
• Image manipulation software

Instructions

1. Clean your slides with a microfiber cloth to keep from damaging them. Digitized images magnify imperfections, and dust or scratches that may not be visible to the naked eye will appear large on a scanned image. Do not put any liquid on the slides.

2. Place your slide in the scanner's slide tray/holder. Slides are positive film images, not negatives like other film formats. Orientate your slide in the holder properly to prevent your image from appearing backward. Look for orientation indicators along the sides of the holder.

3. Scan your image. Your first scan should be done under the default settings. Slide images were once used for billboards and magazine photos, so you can enlarge these images to unbelievable sizes. Verify that your image is not scanned backward. Your intended use for your image determines your final product output size. Web images can be small, while images for publication should be large.

4. Save your image as a JPG or TIFF. A JPG is a compressed image file that can be used right away in most cases. A TIFF image has less compression and is normally edited further before being converted to a JPG.

5. Edit your digital file. Utilizing your image manipulation software, resize your image or perform color correction. You can even add your image to a slide show. Your image manipulation software will have several options.

Tips & Warnings

• Several image manipulation programs are available. Professional photographers tend to use Adobe Photoshop, but your computer may include several programs already. Check your computer before purchasing an advanced program. Your scanner may also include a trial version of some software.

• It is not recommended to scan more than one image at the largest size. Scanning at large file sizes requires a lot of computer cycles or memory. If you are going to max out the image size, it is best to do this one at a time.

References

• HP: Scan 35 mm Photo Slides and Negatives