Digitizing Color Transparencies -- What You Should Know
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When You Digitize Your Color Slides (also called "Transparencies"), Things You Should Know
When I stumbled over a large box full of color transparencies (35mm slides) from my early photography days, I wanted to see them again.
Although I had spent many years of taking pictures using transparency films such as Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Agfa, Sakura-Color, Fujicolor, and 5421film, I never had a reliable projector (whether a straight-tray or carousel projector, they never used to work well anyway--the ones I tried always wanted to eat the slides)...
I searched through some of the boxes of slides and found a few hundred I thought might be worthwhile seen and shared again--and got them digitized. Most came out fine.... but some had problems--
This Squidoo is an attempt to help you avoid the problems that I had with some of the digitized images.
P.S.-- If you look through all of my other lenses, you will see that I've used digitized slides for much of the photos presented.
BLUE Hawaii Images on Goodies from CafePress!
Rectangle Magnet
Rectangle Magnet
Calendar Print
Calendar Print
Greeting Cards (Pk of 10)
Greeting Cards (Pk of 10)
Postcards (Package of 8)
Postcards (Package of 8)
Small Poster
Small Poster
Why Slides Versus Prints in the First Place? And Now, Digitizing?
Accurate Color Depiction and More Control of Final Image!
Sometimes, the photoshop would print photos that were hopeless. This might have been my fault because the film was incorrectly exposed or focused or was blurred. But many times, I had exposed it correctly, but an inexperienced technician at the photoshop would try to adjust the exposure to make it "normal". This usually happens only when you take out-of-the-ordinary shots that do not cover the usual range of colors and contrasts.
A usual picture--especially one that's recognizable to the average technician at a photolab--presents no problems for creating a print. The technician can adjust it accordingly to get the skin-tones right or to get something else that's easily recognizable to be right. This creates a photo that generally is what is intended.
However, photos such as night shots, or underwater shots, or snow shots--if there's nothing easily recognizable in the image--can result in a mess during the final development process. And as I got more and more experienced with my photography, I was having more problems with getting the correct development of my prints.
So, I learned how to develop my own film--black and white, color print (C-41 process), and color transparency (E-4/E-6 process). I also learned that transparency film was not forgiving. Unless you knew that you had underexposed or overexposed the film, you'd have to develop the film with the same times, temperatures, and procedures no matter what. The resulting slides were the resulting slides.
I quickly learned to "bracket my exposures" to ensure that I'd have a better change at capturing the images I was trying for. This worked well--because when the transparencies were developed by the lab or by myself, they resembled more closely the sight I had seen and had tried to capture.
This is why I decided early on in my photography experience to switch to transparency film--I could have the images captured the way I wanted them. (I still used print film for much of my family shots and for when I was working at the newspaper.)
Except for those who have converted to digital, this is why professional photographers use transparency film.
More Goodies on Digitization from Amazon!
So now you have Transparencies/Slides. Now What? Digitization!
However, if you have inexperienced technicians, they may try to comply with the scanner software that tries to overcorrect for color/contrast balance in an attempt to make the picture "normal". So, we're back at the problem that existed with getting positive prints from negative film. The only difference, however, is that you now have a way to remedy this problem.
You can either scan the slides/transparencies yourself with a flatbed scanner with slide-adaptor or a dedicated transparency scanner (sort of time-consuming) or you can take them to a scanning company to have them done. To get around the problems mentioned above, make a note on a stick-um-note (on the slide frame, not the film itself--duh!), whether the color/contrast on the image on the transparency is what you want or if you'd like them to compensate for under- or over-exposure when they scan the image.
This advice may help you to alleviate your problems with getting the images you want when you digitize your photos.
Digitizing Prints and Transparencies can be Helped by Software!
Some Examples of Troublesome Images are Presented in this Squidoo!
The photo of the chef at the top of this page is all red with some tones of black. He was illuminated solely by the red heat lamps over the food serving area in an otherwise darkened dining area. It was a dramatic scene and this is the image I wanted to capture. No adjustment to make "normal" was necessary. I wanted all the RED.The photo in the snow is just one of many I took on the slopes. I've taken other photos in similar circumstances (the Space Shuttle at White Sands Missile Range, for instance). The Space Shuttles come in only one color: WHITE. White Sands is (duh) WHITE. The clouds were WHITE.
These photos are akin to taking a picture of a polar bear drinking milk during a blizzard. A lot of WHITE, not much with other colors. I've had phototechnicians complain that these photos were horrendously "OVEREXPOSED". Well, yeah, if what I took a picture of had been green or brown, yes, they would be considered "overexposed"--but when most of the stuff in the image is white, "overexposed" is what your camera and software and an unexperienced phototechnician will complain about.
Night shots are usually recognized by phototechnicians as being "night-shots". However, they sometimes will still try to "normalize" the photo--by "lightening it up". Which creates a grainy, weirdly green or grey photo. If I want a black photo with just the lights of a building or cars showing, then that's what I want. Having a slide to point to and being able to say, "this is what the resulting image should look like" is very helpful in getting the right resulting image.
Again, the all-blue scuba-diving shot represents what I saw when I took the picture. However, ALL-BLUE is what the computer sees and what the phototechnician sees. If they are avid scuba-divers, they may process this image correctly, but if they have never dived and are not familiar with what's in the image, you might get an image that resembles the set from the Creature from the Black Lagoon rather than the turquoise waters of Hawaii or Guam.
So... to summarize here, always put a note on your "out-of-ordinary" slides when you are getting them digitized. Do you want them corrected? Or, is the image precisely what you want? Make sure you indicate this on the slide before you get it digitized. Then, your images will be more akin to what you were expecting.
Want to Digitize Your Photos Yourself? Check Out These Scanners and References!
It takes more time and you will need patience learning how to use this equipment, but maybe the satisfaction of getting the images exactly the way you want them will be worth the extra effort. The folks who digitized my transparencies used the Nikon Coolscan -- but you can try the others if you want alternatives!
Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED Film Scanner
NIKON CoolScan 5000 ED -- Designed for imaging pro more...0 points
Plustek Opticfilm 7300
The Plustek OpticFilm 7300, a dedicated 7200 dpi f more...0 points
Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Speed Film Scanner
Minolta is pleased to announce the addition of the more...0 points
Wolverine F2D100 35mm Camera Film to Digital Images Scanner Converter (Black)
Do you have thousands of pictures from the past on more...0 points
Film Scanner with silverfast Ai
The OpticFilm 7200i is a 7200 dpi film scanner cap more...0 points
Scanning Negatives and Slides: Digitizing Your Photographic Archives by Sascha Steinhoff
A large number of contemporary photographers have either more...0 points
Link Up With These Other Great Resources!
- Take Great Pictures Dot Com!
- This website is a joint venture between camera manufacturers and the PhotoImaging Information Council to help you to learn how to get more bang for your bucks with ANY kind of camera you might have. All sorts of great tips here!
Develop Better Exposure for Yourself! Drop a Note!
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fanfreluche
Feb 19, 2011 @ 1:55 pm | delete
- Back to your page for an angel blessing!
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Tipi
Dec 29, 2010 @ 9:18 pm | delete
- I've never used slides but I'll sure pass your information on to folks who want to digitize theirs. Another lovely Purple Star ~ perfect!
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WildFacesGallery
Dec 29, 2010 @ 7:34 pm | delete
- Really nicely done. We have on occasion needed to digitize a slide (most artwork images) and it's always a hassle. I'll bookmark this so I can come back to it next time it comes up. :)
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fanfreluche
Dec 18, 2010 @ 8:28 am | delete
- Wow this page comes right on time. We just found 3 big storage boxes filled with negatives ranging from the early 50's to mid 70's. They were taken by my husband grand-father when he did medical service in various part of Africa and Asia. These are just so unique that we want to save them. He has pictures of tribes that probably are just completely gone. I started to look in to one of the film scanning machine, but was a bit leery to invest since I know nothing about them. And having them done by a professional would be costly. So I need to do my homework, bookmark this page, re-read it and find some more information. I thought I could manage the job myself.....but seeing you know a lot about photography and did not do it yourself got me worried.....
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EditorDave Dec 18, 2010 @ 12:01 pm | delete
- Hi fanfreluche! Thank you for commenting on my page. I *could have done the scanning myself* --and I've considered buying the Nikon CoolScan to do the job (because it comes with special software to fix typical issues of old transparencies such as scratches, nicks, and other film blemishes). But in my case, I had a job that was taking up a lot of my time (and paying rather well) such that it would take me more time to fool around with each slide than what my "billable time" was worth, so I decided to get the slides done by a company that specializes in doing this (here in my town). For me, I found boxes and boxes of slides from back in the 1960s through the 1980s.... more than 25,000 of them. So I went through the boxes (thank God I had labeled the boxes for a general idea of what was in them)--and "cherry picked" what I thought were the most dramatic or memorable. Then I went through the pile again and did another "cherry pick". When I got the pile reduced to about 1000 slides that were the "cream of the crop", I took these to the slide digitizing place. Even then, I sat with the technicians who were going to do this and explained precisely what I wanted. Most of the slides did not need color correction, some needed to be oriented the correct way (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Russian languages can look fine no matter which way they are oriented), and some needed some scratches and blemishes removed. I paid about $1.24 each (for "high-resolution"--you might not need such high resolution). And when I dropped off the slides, I dropped off only 100 at a time. (If you drop off more than that at a time, you'll overwhelm them.) This will also let you do "quality check" and verify that they've got their act together. It helps if they are local so you can check in on them from time to time--also if they need to call you once in a while to ask for you to check in. I've downloaded the digitized images from the DVD/CDs that they gave me onto my computer--and from there, I've assembled my own CDs of images for family members and for special interests. Also, I've since used some of the images on my Zazzle stores and CafePress stores and my daughter is using them as inspiration for her paintings. So, jump on in, and go for it. If you have a lot of time, you will enjoy doing this yourself with your Nikon CoolScan (or other option)--and you can control the arrangement of the images better. But if time is limited for you and you don't want to take the time to learn the equipment and software, the specialists are a good alternative. Good luck!
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fanfreluche
Dec 22, 2010 @ 4:00 am | delete
- Thank you for taking time to respond! I think I am going to pick about 50 and try to have them done by a specialized company. I found one that seems reliable, they do apparently correct problems like dust on the slides and scratches. Then I may do some more. I am still interested in a scanning machine, eventually, but not the top of the line (a bit pricey for a hobby). Thank you again and happy holidays!
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vallain
Dec 18, 2010 @ 7:42 am | delete
- I've been wanting to scan in my older photos and my husband's slides. Our scanner can handle negatives, so I should "get with it."
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ohsogroovy
May 29, 2009 @ 12:37 am | delete
- Great lens. Your are "focusing" (haha) on exactly what my new blog is about. You have a lot of great info. I like all your examples. It sounds like you are coming from a photographer's point of view, which is awesome. I had a business digitizing slides and creating music videos from them. The quality didn't have to be very high, so I used the technique where you put the slides on a light board, and take photos of them with a digital camera. It was WAY faster then a scanner. I would only recommend that if your goal is a video, though. Please visit my blog at 35mm Slide Scanner Help. Put your link on my message board if you'd like. You have a great resource here!
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lisadh Dec 21, 2008 @ 11:57 am | delete
- Thanks for the info. I'm hoping to take the plunge and digitize all my old slides soon.
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RolandTumble
Dec 4, 2008 @ 11:53 am | delete
- This is why I'm just as glad that I didn't get serious about photography until after digital came of age.
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by EditorDave
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