Converting slides to digital, advice?

[bugboy]

Hi,

I was wondering whether anyone has any experience with converting colour slides to digital? I have stack loads and would like to get as many as I can converted so I can actually admire my handywork from years ago! I've tried some professional places with mixed results but not entirely happy with the quality of most and in the long run it will prove to be hugely expensive. I would love to do the converting myself but are the home portable converters any good? Looking online they seem to be relatively cheap, around the £100 mark, which would prove to be very cost effective in the long run but are they that cheap for a reason?

Any advice would be greatly recieved.

Paul

[MikeOxon]

I use a home-made copier with my macro lens.

Once set up, facing a plain white cloudy sky, for preference, I set 'cloudy' white balance, f/8 aperture, then focus manually and let aperture priority set the exposure. Run through your slides as fast as you like! See http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming/technic2.htm for an illustration of my method.

Mike

[Paul Wetton]

I've used a slide scanner with perfect results. Cost was around £150. Make sure you get one dedicated to slides with good resolution. Mine's doing the rounds with the family now as once used you're finished with it. Borrow one if you know someone who has one or maybe buy second hand. Unfortunately don't remember the make or model off hand.

[bugboy]

Thanks both, I think I shall give Mikes idea a go first since it does look an extremely cheap method and there's also lots of cloudy skies round here at the moment!

[Jack Harrison]

I have used similar methods with slides with some success. But colour negatives (stage in making colour prints) have beaten me. I cannot get acceptable results. Of course, after copying the negative, I make a negative image of that but the resulting colours are hopeless.

I'm not likely to repeat the exercise (copying from colour negatives) but am curious how is might be done.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

The problem with colour negatives is that most of them have an orange mask to compensate for errors in the dyes. I've found that this mask upsets the exposure, if trying to copy with a camera, so I use a specialist scanner with the necessary colour-correction software.

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

You would think that it would be possible to colour balance (negatives) with ordinary software but it defeated me.

Hypothetical anyway. Not likely to want to do it again.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

I must admit, Jack, that recently I tend to photocopy a print rather than work from a colour negative. The print machines often seem to have done a better job than I can achieve with my scanner.

Mike

[Charles Nicol]

i purchased an Epson V330, which is similar to this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Epson-Perfectio ... words=v330

it was very easy to use & produced great quality files.

[bugboy]

First attempt using MikeOxen's home made copier. These were taken against a halogen bulb in my front room tonight, didn't worry about settings etc, just sorting out focusing and getting the length of the tubing right. I've used some corrigated packing card roled into a tube and think I've got the length about right in the large white pic. Will probably need some more tweeking but they show promise so many thanks for the tip Mike . Now just need to wait for a bright cloudy day to see what they look like with correct lighting.

[NickC]

Rather than wait for a bright cloudy day, try using your computer monitor with a predominantly white screen (e.g. by opening a text editor or word processor and not typing anything in). Just point your contraption at that and see how you get on.

[bugboy]

Rather than wait for a bright cloudy day, try using your computer monitor with a predominantly white screen (e.g. by opening a text editor or word processor and not typing anything in). Just point your contraption at that and see how you get on.

There you go, zero post processing

Cropped version of same pic done professionally

[MikeOxon]

Looks as though you are off to a good start, Bugboy. Of course, you can use any light source you like, so long as it is even. I suggested a plain sky because it is fairly bright and white. You may need to experiment with white balance when using other sources. I tend to avoid 'auto WB', so that results are consistent across a set of slides.

Mike

[bugboy]

Think I'm pretty much there now Mike, 'cloudy' & 'shade' settings give the best results as far as WB is concerned, shade a little bit warmer. It's cloudy here in London so have been busy experimenting this afternoon, here's another 2 versions of the same pic, I'll let you guess which one I paid money for!

[MikeOxon]

I'll let you guess which one I paid money for!

The EXIF data give the game away! The Nikon Coolscan LS5000 has given good resolution of fine detail but the colour casts are horrible. Your version might benefit from a little 'sharpening'. I assume that the original was a flash pic; these are always difficult, with a combination of harsh lighting and a black background.

Mike

[bugboy]

Yes it was a flash pic, I used flash a lot more often in those days than I do now. You're right about it not being pin sharp but compared to anything I've paid for over the years it's a million times better. I'll continue experimenting, plenty of time to get things as perfect as is possible until spring brings back the next generation of the real thing! Many thanks for the tips and advice

[bugboy]

Been steaming through my slides now, it helps with the withdrawl symptoms until the new season starts for the real thing!

For those who are interested here's some more of my copies compared to what I've spent money on over the years:

Needless to say, the only place the horrid paid for copies will exist very shortly is this thread!

[David Tipping]

Apologies for joining the discussion late...I've had a Canon Canoscan 4400F for a few years. Can't remember what I paid, but certainly less than £100 (I'm a Yorkshireman and we're notoriously tight!) As well as scanning ordinary documents and photos, it does slides (4 at a time) and with care, negatives too. More than that, it comes with something called Photo Studio as part of the package, which enables you to improve the original if, for example, it is under- or over-exposed, needs cropping, sharpening etc...the same sort of stuff you could do on Photoshop. It has probably been replaced by a newer model nowadays, but I would certainly recommend it.

[JKT]

I'm a bit late for this, but two flashes on manual at 45 degree angle (one on each side) and white paper works well for light. You can control the exposure and work out the white balance. If the slide holder is rigidly fixed to camera, you can even do minimal HDR to remove digital noise from the shadows.