Scanning 35mm Slides to Digital: Do It Yourself Vs Using a Scanning Service
Scanning 35mm slides isn’t often high on our list; however it is a must. Many of us have hundreds or even thousands of 35mm slides that are hidden in the attic, garage, or even in our closets. Slides were once an intelligent way of sharing photos and taking pictures. I can remember watching slideshows of family vacations in Yosemite as well as Grand Teton when I was a kid. Those huge displays and slides carousels were considered to be the first method of sharing photos.
For most of us, those slides sit in a state of disuse, collecting dust, becoming stale, and maybe even becoming to become moldy. The conditions they’re in can be very harmful in terms of humidity, heat, and light eventually affect them. As time passes, slides may get darker and acquire the blue hue or fade to develop red or pink. It’s not very appealing, and it’s only going to get worse. By scans of 35mm slide slides, negatives, and prints and negatives, you can give them a new life, keep them for ages, and make them available to share family photos with the next generation.
35mm Slide Scanning At Home
We know that we must have 35mm slide slides scanned if we are looking to preserve them but do we need to do it at home or rely on an online service? If you own even 500 slides and you want to get it done correctly, you’ll need the best equipment, which means you need to purchase a scanner. A good flatbed scanner will cost you around $200. A scanner of professional quality like the Nikon Coolscan 5000ED is going to cost around $1500. Ouch! And what happens if your slides already started to fade or changed color to blue or pink shades, or they’ve got scratches? It is necessary to correct the color on every slide with software like Photoshop. This means you must pay for additional photography software (Photoshop costs about 600 dollars) as well as be able to utilize it and the time, which is around 40 hours of monotonous work and the time and effort involved.
Benefits of Using a Slide Scanning Service
A more simple option to choose from and one that can reduce your costs and time of mind-numbing scanning, repairing, and scanning using slide scanners. Apart from scanning 35mm slides for digital, they can scan negatives as well as prints. The majority of companies print 35mm slides, 2.5 three inches, 127 and 130, and even 110 slides in small format and then put them in cases, carousels or sleeves. It is all you need to do is pack your slides and photographs and mail them to the company. The most significant part is that they will cleanse your slides and pictures free of dust and also remove scratches and minor blemishes. After they’ve converted the 35mm slides and photos to digital, they’ll even apply things such as cropping, red-eye elimination, and color corrections, making your photos exactly as close to their original as they can be. Imagine that those old photographs of your mom or grandmother wearing her pink poodle skirt will look fresh and full of sparkle!
Get Your Photos on DVD to Share
After that the scanning process of the 35mm slide has been done, your slides will then be delivered to you with the DVD(s) of the newly digitalized images. The fun will begin. In addition to the satisfaction of clearing out your garage or closet, you can quickly sort them and date them, mail DVDs of your images to friends and family, Create photo books or family histories, as well as upload your photos to photo-sharing websites.
The process of scanning 35mm slides into digital assures that they’ll be preserved for a long time, and you don’t need the worry about them becoming dirty, faded or damaged, or lost because of a flood, fire, or another calamity. Who wouldn’t want to think back on the days of poodle skirts and cut-offs for crews and Elvis?
Valerie Goettsch is the webmaster of Digital Photos 101, a resource for photographers with a review of cameras that use digital technology as well as the most recent photo software and services. Here is more information about scanning 35mm slides for digital.
