Years ago, 35mm film cameras were the “latest and greatest,” and many people archived their favorite photographs on 35mm slides. This may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but viewing and storing these slides usually turned out to be more effort than expected. The problem many people ended up with was having hundreds, and possibly thousands, of slides and a broken slide projector. Even with a working projector, setting up a slide projector for a slide show can take a lot of time.

With today’s digital image technology, you can scan 35mm slides and conveniently store them on CD’s and DVD’s. There’s no slide projector to drag out of the closet and no slide carousels to fill with slides. Once you scan your 35mm slides and transfer the images to a CD or DVD, all you need is a computer or DVD player to view your pictures.

When you decide to scan 35mm slides, your first step should be determining which slides you want to preserve. Pick out the best shots to scan. It may be tempting to scan every slide you own, but this will probably result in your spending more time and money on the project than you intended. Eliminating near-duplicate slides and slides you don’t need to keep in your collection will save you time and money later on.

If you have a large number of slides to scan, you’ll want a dependable slide scanner. A high quality scanner can run in the thousands of dollars. There are some less expensive models, but remember that “you get what you pay for.” Lower end scanners only allow you to view the scanned images. You will not be able to make prints with these scanners. There are professional photography services that scan 35mm slides, and this may be your best option. Their work is guaranteed, and you won’t need to worry about what you’re going to do with an expensive slide scanner once your project is completed. Professional 35mm scanning services are able to remove dust, scratches, and other blemishes from the slides, giving you enhanced images.

Make sure your scanner’s software is user-friendly and can handle what you want it to do. Good scanner software will allow you to make color adjustments to your images before you scan your 35mm slides. A common customer complaint is that the scanner software is difficult to set up and even more difficult to use. If you’re unable to use the scanner software, you can use Adobe Photoshop, but your images will not be as clear.

If your goal is to preserve your 35mm slide photographs as professional-grade images with minimal time and effort, look for a professional photography service that will scan 35mm slides. The digital images from your scanned slides will have a higher resolution, or sharpness, than images scanned from a home scanner. These services can also remove scratches and other marks from the images, giving you a high-quality image to view and print.

There are several ways to scan slides to turn them into digital photos. Many people remember the small square cardboard cut-outs containing negatives that would be popped into a tray at family gatherings, and with some light and a projector screen (or blank wall) people could reminisce over photos that were larger than life. Today, slide screens have given way to large screen televisions and computer screens. The slide has been rendered all but obsolete, but how do people save the pictures on the slides and keep them viewable? The answer is simple-scan them. These are some of the different ways to turn slides into great, state-of-the-art digital pictures.

Scanning Slides: The Scanner

One of the easiest ways to scan slides is to use a scanner with a special attachment. The attachment is like a mirror box, which diverts light around to the back of the slide so that the scanner picks up transmitted light instead of reflected light. However, this method does not produce the best results; scanned pictures can look soft, unrefined, too dark, and often appear with white spots all over them, which is actually just dust that is being lit up. Some scanner models have special transparency adapters that can be bought to scan images from negatives and slides. These can be very pricy, though, averaging about $1800.00 for a decent one.

Many people claim that the image results using the adapter are no better than the scanner that uses the mirror box attachment. One advantage of the transparency adapter, however, is that an entire large image can be scanned all at once, making it easier to restore old photos than it would be to piece several scans together and then start the restoring process.

Scanning Slides: The Digital Camera

It makes sense to use a camera to get a picture of a picture. However, although this can be a simple way to get results, it often proves to turn out some pretty disappointing photos. Missing hues, colors, highlights, effects, and downright blurry, fuzzy images are very common. Devices exist that can link your camera and a slide projector so that when a projector changes display images, the camera is set up to snap a picture of it. These can be frustrating, and the obvious downfall is that you must have a working slide projector to use the method. Other devices are on the market that attach right to the camera and hold a slide to it; however, you can only insert and deal with one slide at a time, and the devices are usually specific to a certain make and model of camera.

Scanning Slides: The Professional

By far the most hassle-free, low-effort, cost-effective way to scan slides is to take the slides to a professional. Someone at a camera shop or photography shop will be able to work the gizmos, gadgets, equipment, and devices needed to safely turn your slides into perfect pictures. Prices vary depending on the amount of slides to be transferred, but many people find it is an invaluable service to have when they need to scan slides to have digital pictures.

If you are thinking about those boxes of slides stuffed in the basement from your 1973 trip to see the worlds largest coconut and want to turn them into digital pictures, do yourself a great favor and take them to a professional who can scan slides for you. You will be glad that you did when Aunt Ferns portrait isnt restricted to appearing on a slide screen anymore and has gone digital for all the world to see.

If you have boxes of slides stacked on closet shelves in your home, you’re not alone. Preserving photographs on slides was very popular at one time. With a slide projector and a screen or blank wall, you were all set to entertain family and friends for hours with pictures of your latest family excursions or events. Over time, your collection of slides grew, and you may have inherited even more slides from other family members. If you know where your slide projector is, there is a good chance that it’s broken or that you just can’t find the time to bring it out and set up the slide carousel for an hour or two of reminiscing. If you don’t want to lose the treasured memories contained in your slides but find keeping your slides and projector a nuisance, consider scanning your slides. Here are some of the reasons you might find this to be the perfect solution for you.

Scanning slides is easy. You can buy your own slide scanner and complete this project in your spare time. Others in your family can help, too, which will make the scanning process more fun and less time consuming. Slide scanners are available in stores and online in a wide range of prices.

You can choose to have a professional photography service scan your slides. This is a good option for those with a limited amount of spare time or those that don’t want to invest in a slide scanner. Professional photography services can usually return your slides within a week or two, and they guarantee their work. You might want to scan some of the slides yourself and send some of them to a photography service.

You can easily carry your photographs with you. When you scan your slides, they can be transferred to CD’s or DVD’s. You’ll be able to carry hundreds of pictures on a few thin, lightweight disks. If you want to take them to view somewhere else, it won’t be a problem.

You can keep your pictures organized any way you like. Your slides might be grouped together according to the year they were taken, the locations, the people in the photographs, or some other categorization. If you own a large collection of slides, you know how easy it is to misplace a slide or drop a box of them, leading to a jumbled mess. When you scan your slides, you can choose which photographs go on each CD or DVD. You can label the disks, making it easy for you to locate favorite shots.

You can improve the quality of your photographs. Slides tend to collect dust and other particles, and they can be accidently scratched. The color on slides will fade over time. Scanning slides enables you to enhance the quality of the photograph by adding color to the photographs and covering up any scratches or other marks on the slides. You can also crop the photographs to focus more on the subjects in the pictures and exclude unnecessary background areas.

35mm Slide Scanner

If you are in the art industry at all, you are completely aware of just how important a good 35mm slide scanner can be for business. Whether you are an art student looking to get credit for work or a photographer wanting to get noticed, slides are an integral part of the art experience. With having said that, there’s no good photographer can be without some type of 35mm slide scanner to work with.

Who knows? You may be one of those artists who are completely anti-technology. You like to have your camera in your hand and anything past a cell phone is too much technology for you. Does that ring a bell with you? If so, it is OK that you loathe to deal much with technology. What’s not O.K is not okay is your refusal to get with the times. If you are expecting to have a website or sell your stuff online or be ready to work with your film and slides on the PC at all, the responsibility is on you to select a good 35mm slide scanner.

How Much is Too Much for Photo Negative Scanners?

As far as price is you get what you pay for with a 35mm slide scanner. You can get one for $75, but you can also get one for $3,000. They get higher, too. There are slide scanners out there that are worth $6,000 and more! Naturally, if you barely use the pieces of PC hardware that you have now, a 35mm slide scanner that is worth $6,000 is perhaps not that necessary, or at least not to you.

The more costly pieces of 35mm slide scanner hardware out there are in use by studios and photography faculties, so depending on what you do and how you use technology, the cheaper 35mm slide scanner could be a better concept for your use.

What to search for in a Scanne to scan 35mm slides.

The purpose of slide scanning is to scan slides. This suggests that clearness is a massive issue to take under consideration when selecting 35mm slide scanners. There’s nothing else maddening than not having your personal computer versions of the slides that you made come out as lovely as the first slides or the pieces of art themselves. Selecting a quality 35mm slide scanner can forestall that disappointment from going down to you.

You can get a slide scanner from many places, but some people choose to get them from the Net. The Net is a great resource for all things related to technology, and if you want quality you may have to put in a good search. EBay is a superb source for people who are on the lookout for hp slide scanners and other popular brands, but if you aren’t a good ebayer, you can look at other online shops or marketplaces as well.

Ask help from a technologically-savvy friend if you aren’t too sure what you are doing in your endeavors for purchasing good 35mm slide scanners. A slide scanner with a good return policy is also a great idea, if you can find one.

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Scanners are great tools for converting images from prints, negatives, and slides into a digital form for the purposes of storage, editing, and sharing via the internet or to produce actual prints. The quality of the images from a scanner depends in large part upon resolution. Some scanners offer significantly higher resolution than others but most allow the user to adjust the resolution used for any given scan.

Because higher resolution means more detailed and higher quality images why would a user ever select to lower resolution? There are actually a couple of reasons why someone might decide to adjust the resolution downward when scanning.

One reason that the choice to use lower resolution would be considered is that higher resolution images contain more information. The downside of more information is that file sizes are much larger, requiring much more storage space. When storage space is limited, higher resolution images can be a drawback. Users must experiment to determine what level of quality they are willing to accept in order to preserve memory.

In addition to the increased storage needs, the larger file size of high resolution images creates a second drawback. Such images are slower to scan, manipulate, and download. A user may not wish to spend exorbitant amounts of time dealing with larger file sizes and those receiving or waiting for a web page to open that contains such files may become impatient with the process as well. Again, the user has to determine how much image quality they are willing to sacrifice to get smaller files that save time.

Determining what resolution to use when scanning can depend on a number of things: the type of material being scanned, the quality of the image, and how the resulting file will be used.

Slides and negatives require a higher resolution than a print. Because they start off quite small, they will likely be enlarged for viewing purposes. When any image is enlarged, greater resolution is needed to maintain acceptable image quality. The number of pixels or bits of image information needed for the enlarged image to be of reasonable quality may need to be 2,000 or more.

If an image being scanned is a text document less information will be needed to create a clear image and, indeed, a resolution of only 100 should be sufficient. If the image scanned is a picture that will be shared only via computer, then a resolution of 100 or so may still be quite acceptable as the resolution at which a computer screen is able to display is generally limited. However, if that same image will be printed, resolution will need to be greater; perhaps 300 to obtain an acceptable image. Just as explained when scanning slides however, if a user chooses to enlarge that same image, greater resolution will be required to maintain quality. For instance, if a 4×6 print will be scanned and enlarged to a 10×15 print, then a resolution of at least 600 would be wise.

Clearly, scanning images at the highest resolution can create optimum image quality but when speed of scanning and downloading are important or storage space is limited, users are wise to consider adjusting resolution downward in situations where acceptable image quality is possible with lower settings. Some experimentation will be required to find the level of image quality that is acceptable to an individual user.

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation when you have to scan paper prints, negatives or slides and store them as digital photos on your computer. Although the reason for doing that can vary there are some common considerations to scanning paper prints. In this article we will go over some of them and try to make your scanning experience easier.

There are three types of prints that you might be scanning:

Paper prints: the most common, usually at sizes like 4X6 and 5X7.

Negatives: also known simply as film. This is the processed film usually 35mm from which paper prints are made.

Slides: very similar to negatives used for projecting photos on a large screen.

Scanning paper photos prints.

Photo paper prints are easy to scan. You can choose to scan them yourself at home (purchasing a scanner that can do the job is usually cheap and costs less than a $100). You can also choose to mail them (or hand them) to a professional scanning service that will scan them for you and mail you back the originals and a DVD with the digital scans (such services include www.digmypics.com, www.digitalpickle.com, www.britepix.com and many more)

There are pros and cons to both scanning at home and using a professional service. If you have a small number of photos scanning at home is easier. If you have plenty of photos using a service might be easier but you can end up spending more money.

When scanning at home consider the following:

Resolution: the resolution of a scan is measured by the number of dots per inch that the scanner can produce. Most scanners can scan at 1200 DPI or more. Usually the scanner can be set to scan at different resolutions. The higher the resolution the slower the scan and the bigger the photo file size will be. For most paper prints scanning at 300 to 600 DPI is enough but you can experiment scanning at higher resolutions if you feel it provides better results.

Speed: If you have a small number of photos speed is not an issue. If you have hundreds or more of photos scanning speed becomes important. To get fast scans you would have to scan at the lowest resolution possible that results in good enough scans – for most paper prints 300 to 600 DPI is enough.. Also if you’re going to buy a scanner check the scanning speed (usually measured in the number of scans per minute make sure that you check the speed at the DPI you’re going to use).

Photo feeding: if you only have a small number of photos this is not an issue. If you have many photos make sure that the scanner you buy allows fast and easy loading of photos. Some higher-end scanners will let you load a stack of photos and will automatically feed and scan them for you. These scanners are the right choice if you are planning on scanning hundreds or more photos.

Scanning negatives and slides

Scanning negatives and slides is harder than scanning paper prints. In most cases it is easier and maybe cheaper to use a professional scanning service (such services include www.slidescanning.com, www.myspecialphotos.com, www.pixmonix.com and many more). If you want to scan at home your standard flat scanner will not be good enough. In most cases you will need to spend money on purchasing a film/slides scanner. Those scanners are more expensive than the flat paper scanners. Negatives and slides are small high resolution sources and thus require scanning at higher DPI than paper prints. In most cases 2400DPI or higher should be used.

The considerations for scanning negatives and slides are similar to scanning paper prints. If you need to scan just a few negatives or slides speed and ease are not important but if you’re going to scan hundreds or more you should spend more money on scanners that can feed the negatives or slides automatically or can just load a roll of film and scan it.

If you are one of those people with boxes of old negatives in your basement or hall closet, you are not alone. Photography has been a popular hobby with people ever since the invention of the first camera.

One problem that professional and amateur photographers alike have always faced is deciding the proper way to preserve their art once it has been shot and developed.

The good news is that if you are one of those people with boxes of old negatives and pictures old enough to be in the historical archives, many companies offer 35mm slide scanning services, and digital photo restoration.

Scanning a negative not only allows for the development of the image, but also enhanced digital clarity, even for the oldest negatives. Photo restoration can also repair sun damage and scratches. While there are many companies that offer these services, here are some things that you should look for when choosing a photo restoration and slide scanning service

3000 dpi slide scanning services for 35mm slides, as well as 110,120,126,127, and 200 format slides

Industry standard automated dust and scratch removal, utilizing programs such as Kodak Digital ICE. The slide scanning services that you choose should include a manual color rotation, cropping, red eye removal, rotation, and additional dust and scratch removal as points of service.

Quality slide scanning image processing performed by qualified technicians who employ a trusted photo restoration program, such as Adobe Photoshop.

Additional photo scanning services, preferably 600 dpi photo scanning services for both priceless, antique photos, as well as newspaper clippings, postcards, and other medium.

An experienced photo scanning and slide scanning, photo restoration service should also be able to offer its customers black and white slide and black and white negative scanning. The option to view and choose prints online, preferably with the understanding that you will pay for only the prints that you select.

Does it really make a difference what size memory card you use? If you take a lot of pictures, then choosing a memory card with more storage space will likely be a priority for you, so the short answer, simply put, is yes.

When choosing the most logical memory card size, you should first take into account how many pictures you usually take at a time. As stated in the previous paragraph, If you are a world traveler, your memory card needs will be different from those of a person who only uses a camera for holiday get togethers.

You will also need to decide how big the files are of the pictures that you take. Smaller files, such as those for online pictures will take up less space and enable you to fit more on a card. Larger files for printing will need more room.

If you have a 2 megapixel camera, 128MB is usually enough. For a 3 or 4megapixel camera, a 128MB or 256MB memory card is usually plenty. For a 5megapixel camera, start with a 256MB memory card.

Transferring old photos and slides to a digital format brings numerous benefits, not to mention the space savings. Say goodbye to all the old photo shoeboxes and slide carousels in your basement or garage! New digital services allow your precious images to be converted to DVDs, online sharing, and other fun digital media. This untraps your photos and allows them to be shared and enjoyed with your family and friends, whether they’re in Boston or Boise.

Overview

If you’re like most families, you have dozens of boxes and albums of old photos, as well as carousel trays of old 35mm slides. All of these pre-digital formats unfortunately can be considered trapped in time, as they sit wasting away in homes around the world. The photos in the boxes get torn or crushed, while the plastic cellophane pages in the photo albums react with the chemical makeup of the photos and often discolors them, turning them yellow over time. Storage in extreme environmental conditions, such as the heat of an attic or the cold and humidity of a basement, also affects the quality of the photographic paper.

Slides fare somewhat better, since they are usually protected in circular trays that house anywhere from 20-140 slides. It is difficult, however, to find a specific slide without having to load up the projector and go through each slide. And the once popular individual slide view finders that were manufactured in the 20th century are fast disappearing.

Digital Transferral

With the advent of digital cameras that are now extremely popular and affordable, families for the first time find that they have significant photo and slide collections in multiple formats: those images that typically pre-date the 1990s, and those taken during or after the 90s, when more families turned to digital media. It’s time to open the door to enjoying and sharing your older photos and slides by ensuring all of the older formats are transferred to digital.

This process uses equipment to scan each image and produce a digital version without ever actually touching the photo or slide, so the original is never harmed. Specialized software enables the now-digitized image to be restored and enhanced, fixing such problems as red-eye, scratches on the original, or distorted colors.

Benefits

Once in digital form, there are four clear benefits to the new format:

1. Organize, combine and label – It’s easy to arrange and identify your transferred images once they are in digital format. Moving them around is as simple as moving them around on your PC screen. And you can combine all of your memories, both pre-1990s and post-1990s, into one digital collection of DVDs or storing online. Say goodbye to boxes and carousels that take up space in the garage.

2. Make them look better – It’s a fact that the old photos and slides we grew up with do not improve with time, but rather, lose their quality. With digital technology, you can have them restored to their original color and vibrancy.

3. Preservation – Natural disasters aside, we’ve seen what happens just with the simple passing of time – photos are unorganized and unlabeled, remaining a mystery to future generations. Storing the images in a digital format preserves them for generations.

4. Enjoy and share – What good are memories if no one can ever enjoy them? If you never view the photos in the boxes, look through the albums, or fire up the slide projector, those images are lying dormant. You can do fun things with digital photos:

a. Build photo books online

b. Produce photo calendars and other family momentos as gifts

c. Use them as revolving “wallpaper” (background screens) on your computer

d. Send them to an iPod or mobile phone for your kids or grandkids

e. Create DVD slideshows for special occasions, like a birthday, anniversary or graduation

It’s not only fun but easy today to convert old photos and slides to a digital format. You can join the digital revolution!

About iMemories

iMemories is a leader in the dynamic Web 2.0-generation of Internet services. The company transforms old-media memories into crystal-clear digital files that consumers can enjoy and share—whenever and wherever they like.

In iMemories’ 8,500-square foot fiber-optic studio, production professionals use state-of-the-art technology and techniques to convert old home-movie films, videotapes, photographs and slides into organized archives and full-length digital productions. Memories that were deteriorating in the dark are preserved forever on optical disc—and easy to edit, organize, store and share worldwide through iMemories’ private, secure online user experience.

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©1998-2007 iMemories. iMemories name and iMemories mark are trademarks of iMemories, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Disclaimer:

This article is provided as an educational guide for iMemories customers. Use of or reliance upon the information set forth in this article shall be at the reader’s own risk, and shall not establish any contractual or other legal relationship between the author and the users of this information.

Old Pictures usually hold a special place in our hearts. Photographs from decades or even a century ago are fascinating to look at, even if we don’t know who the subjects are or have never been to the photographed locations. Old Pictures can take us back to a different time in history when the architecture, clothing, modes of transportation, and hairstyles are often interesting and sometimes amusing. Today’s digital imaging technology can help you restore and preserve your old Pictures so that you can enjoy them now and also pass them on to others.

As photographs age, there are several problems that occur. Old Pictures fade over time. Sometimes photographs are stored in conditions that damage them. Direct sunlight, humidity, heat, and fluctuating temperatures can all cause Pictures to deteriorate. Even the photo albums that are meant to keep photographs in a safe environment can cause damage to Pictures.

You can scan your old Pictures to a digital format, usually JPEG or TIFF, and then restore them using digital image software. Research the available software and purchase one that is user-friendly with multiple restoration options. You want to be able to get rid of scratches, uneven fading, fill in tears, and fix any other blemishes on your photographs. Your intention might be to simply store your photographs as digital images on your computer, CD, or DVD, but careful restoration allows you to make high quality prints as well.

Make sure your old Pictures are as clean as possible before you scan them. You can wipe them with a clean, dry cloth before placing them on the scanner, but don’t do much more than this. Too much handling, especially for photographs that are already in bad condition, can damage your Pictures even more. Don’t try to fix a tear with tape. Some old Pictures that have been passed around extensively may have small pieces of debris stuck to them. Resist the temptation to scrape off the debris because it might leave a hole or white spot on your photograph. It will be easier to use your image software to cover any small debris.

Once your old Pictures are scanned, you can begin working with the image software to adjust the coloring, even out tones, fill in tears and scratches, and get rid of the “red eye” that is so common in old Pictures. Take your time with each photograph and restore it to the highest quality possible. If you don’t like how your adjustment looks, you can undo it and try again.

A high end scanner and image software are, of course, preferred for restoring old Pictures, but not everyone wants to purchase expensive equipment to do this. Professional quality scanners can run into the thousands of dollars. A great alternative to scanning your old Pictures yourself is to use a professional photography service. These services use state-of-the-art scanning equipment and can work miracles with damaged photographs. You’ll want to find a photography service that will scan your Pictures one by one to ensure each one is restored to the highest quality photograph possible.