DIY or Pro what’s best for my 35mm Slide Collection?

Probably one of the most popular formats for pictures in the 60’s though to the early 90’s was the 35mm slide. It offered high quality and vibrant colour. Many of us remember the annual Christmas slide show or talks on travel to some far flung destination illustrated with their 35mm slides. These days many of us don’t have a working projector and even if they do it’s quite a hassle to set up the projector and screen to view so what is the best way to get them transferred to a modern digital format. Should we consider doing it ourselves or send them for a professional scan?

Let us look at each method to see what might be best for us.

The DIY Method.

The first option might be to buy a simple slide scanner device, there and numerous devices on the market today and they mostly require hand loading and scanning 1 to 3 slides at a time so if you have lot then it can be very time consuming to do. The results will be variable depending on the machines quality and the users ability. So read the reviews and be prepared to experiment to get the best output possible.

Scanners like this cost between £70-£300 currently. Most scanners will get the colour almost near on correctly exposed images, so some knowledge of colour correction is a bonus if you really want them to look their best and bring the colour back to what it should be.

Pro Bulk Scanning – is this right for me?

So if you don’t fancy that then you can opt for a pro scanning service, some companies will simply bulk scan the slides using high speed single pass, so colours will vary and you will get an approximate copy, this is the cheapest and quickest method.

Pro Multi-Pass scanning and Photoshop adjustments.

Others like us will do a slower multi pass scan and then Photoshop every image using a colour calibrated monitor, to get them looking the very best.

Multi pass looks at the image scene for both highlights and shadow areas so it retains more of the tonal range than a single pass scan. Once the raw scan is complete it is loaded into Photoshop where the job of setting the mid range highlight and shadow areas and colour balancing the image to look the best it can be. This is carried out by an experienced technician.

Some images that are under or over exposed do offer a challenge but can be improved somewhat over the original. Some images may have imperfections, such as dark spots in the sky areas so clone painting can be carried out leaving a more pleasing image, further work can also be carried out to repair damaged images. Digital ICE is employed this uses infrared to give a much cleaner image.

This is by its nature a slightly more expensive service but the results far exceed a bulk scan result.

Sorting and Viewing.

If you have a large mixed collection of 35mm slides then you could do some sorting and editing to remove the duplicates and take out any unwanted images such as views and landscapes that you would not necessarily want so see and just leave the key family pictures. You can simply hold them up to the light with magnifier to see them or use a viewer like the one shown here. They currently cost around £15-20.

Viewing and sharing.

Once they have been converted they can be uploaded to a digital Photo library alongside your digital photos or placed on a USB stick, this can be inserted in a smart tv as most TV’s have a slideshow capability where they will play the slides to music automatically.

More information on our 35mm Slide Scanning service here.