Turn Your Negatives and Slides into Digital Images

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In the last few years, digital technology took photography by storm. Most every lab today processes digital photographs from CDs, DVDs, flash cards, etc. Only a few years back most of us only had one choice of getting prints of our photographs: Negatives, and Slides. Things changed quite a bit today. Most non-professional photographers today shoot digitally, because of many advantages digital photography offers. However, most of us still have a legacy left from the days of film. I am referring to the many thousands of strips or developed negative and slide film. It is time to get them available digitally.

Whenever I talk to people about this subject, the first thing I hear is the question: Why? Well, there are several reasons. I am going to break down this part of the article by individual reasons.

Advancing Technology

Because technology is getting better we should take advantage of it, whenever we can. Photography is a good example of improving technology. Some of the higher-end digital cameras today are producing photographs better in detail, contrast, and sharpness than does film. The whole world is moving in the direction of digital because of several advantages, which it has established over film. Remember those times when you were looking for just one frame of that special photograph which you wanted to duplicate for your relatives and friends, and how difficult it was for you sort through all your not so well organized strips of developed film? We all do. This must have been the most frustrating thing to do. No more, if you are shooting digitally. Now, we can organize our digital images by date, name, description, category, and a myriad other criteria. We no longer have to spend hours looking over dozens of strips of film trying to figure out which one we actually need. If we could only do the same with our film.

Long-term Storage

Lucky for us, film is amazing in terms of storage. Images captured on film will last a lifetime, or longer. However, optical technology is giving way to digital, and who knows, twenty years down the road getting our film printed may be much more difficult, and perhaps more expensive than it is today. Technology changes with people, and with the demand which we as consumers generate. We are certainly adopting digital photography very quickly, and as such film is becoming more restricted to semi-professional and professional photographers. This trend will no doubt affect the many labs, both professional and consumer-driven, such as the thousands of convenience and 1-hour labs at supermakets, and specialized photography stores. A great example of this is relative difficulty of getting medium format film, or slides developed. Only about 20 or so years ago this format was as common as 35mm is today.

What to Do With All That Film

Ok, it is clear that we are entering the digital age, and it is time to make the move with our old film. What now? This article is meant for a typical consumer, and as such it assumes that a typical consumer will not have access to a quality, high-end film scanner at home. Not everybody has a scanner at home. Some have digital cameras, and no computer at all. Most typical consumer scanners today do not produce a quality enough scan of 35mm film to be worth it. Most consumers will find that it is most economical, and easiest to obtain services of a dedicated lab, which will gladly scan all your film for you, and will store it on a CD, DVD, or other media. Today, more and more such services are becoming available to address the obviously increasing need. I would recommend staying away from mail order service, which will be much more difficult to deal with, in the case you are not satisfied with the quality of results. Look for services which scan in bulk, and offer discounts on large amounts of film to be scanned. Inquire ahead of time about the final size of the digital image. Make sure that each scan is large enough to produce a quality 13x19 print. This is another reason for using a local versus mail order services. Take your time, and ask all the important questions. If the answers you are receiving are uncertain, and the tech is not willing to take his time with you, consider a different service. Most urban areas today have several options for you to consider. Always shop around. You may find that a cheaper service offers more options, like index prints of scanned film, than does a more expensive service. Consider sorting your film, and ask to have it scanned in the sorted order, which will allow for more logical organization on digital media. Once you have your film digitized, you will be able to transfer and share images with others, as well as get them printed simply by using one of the more popular online services, such as SnapFish, Kodak Gallery, Mpix, etc. Make a copy of the media which you receive from the scanning service, and store it away safely.

Converting 35mm Negatives to Digital Images

If you looking to convert negative slides and films in particular 35mm format to digital images you will probably want to get a negative scanner, a dedicated film scanner that is specifically designed for the job working in a similar way to a traditional scanner but with the ability to transfer negatives to digital images with little fuss.

If time isn't a problem then buying a negative scanner and using it to transfer your 35mm negatives to digital may be the best solution not only from a cost point of view.  Many amateur and professional photographers use the same process to transfer negatives produced by older digital SLR's to digital format.

If you really want the best quality in terms of digital files you will need to get a dedicated film scanner specifically designed to do the job rather than using a traditional flatbed scanner as you will not get the desired results.

Negative scanners used to be pretty expensive and whilst some professional version may cost more than £1000 you can pick up a perfectly reasonable budget version for les than £80.  Be aware though as with many things digital including cameras, the newer the negative scanner, the better the technology and in turn the scanner, modern versions have such features as Digital ICE whereby scans are automatically retouched to remove dust particles and such like.  If your not a perfectionist then you may not see the imperfections but many like to get the optimum results by spending a little extra time on each scan and achieve a better overall result.

Whatever negative scanner you decide to buy you may want to invest in an alternative piece of scanning software to get the most out of your scanner and there are some decent pieces of software available for very little money (some free) which we will cover with a future article.

Converting 35mm Slides to Digital Images

Converting 35mm slides to digital images is the first step in the preservation and the restoration of your memories. The options are almost unlimited when it comes to converting 35mm slides to digital images.

The most important thing is to do the conversion and do it yesterday. Once your 35mm slides have been converted to digital images, you have stopped the deterioration in it's tracks. From that point on, there is no rush to do anything. It is recommended that you save the images to CD in case you have any issues with your hard drive.

When you look at your slides you will be able to see if there is dust or finger prints on them. If they look clean I suggest you leave them alone and scan them as is. If there are particles that you could not see, the scanner's software should have a function that will fix minor scratches or dust. If you see a lot of dust, use an anti-static cloth to clean them up before you scan them.

Once you have finished converting 35mm slides to digital images, use the scanners software to enhance colors, remove scratches and or red-eye before you save the digital images. Now you have a solid base from which to work. You can take the slides into photo shop and do more detail work if you need to, depending on how much each slide needs.

Once you have finished converting your 35mm slides to digital images, you can then go to the next phase and decide how you want to view them. If your only desire is to view them on your computer, then a CD data disc is all that you have to make so that you can view them on other computers and protect them from a major computer malfunction.

If you want to take it to the next step after you are finished converting your 35mm slides to digital images, you can create your own, custom slide show on DVD. The opportunities are limitless. You can enhance your images by using slow moves, blowups, and transitions between shots. Titles are another option that will enhance your slide show while clearing up names, locations and time lines.

Adding music to your slide show is another option that personalizes your slide show while making it much more enjoyable to watch. If you can get the music off the internet, or a CD, you can easily put it into your slide show. These are just a few of the options available to you when you decide to present your slides as a slide show, but first you have to begin by converting 35mm slides to digital images.