I came across this article, where someone experimented with creating stereoscopic images on a scanner. If you don’t know what stereoscopy is, read here.
A man in Germany named Richard Schubert figured out how to create these with real objects, using a 35mm slide scanner. There are some images included in this English interpretation of his work. Take a look… it’s super cool!
Have you bought a 35mm slide scanner yet? If not, then wait until you have a plan in motion before cleaning lint off your slides. Chances are, your slides will accumulate lint or dust pretty quickly if you leave them lying around. If you are ready to store or reorganize your slides, it wouldn’t hurt to clean the dust, but you’ll need to do it again just before slide scanning.
To clean the the slides, start with a clean dry 100% cotton cloth. I would recommend purchasing a cloth made for cleaning eyeglasses. First, check for any large particles, like sand, that could scratch the slide during cleaning. If you do find anything, softly whisk it off with the cloth before proceeding.
While holding the slide casing with one hand, drape your other hand with the cloth and, using your thumb and forefinger, gently rub, but don’t scrub, the transparency between the cloth, trying to clean both sides of the entire image. In my experience, this has been the most efficient method. It’s not really necessary to try to remove any dust from the cracks where the casing touches the transparency. Most images will end up getting the very edges cropped anyway.
Another option, is to use “canned air”. This somewhat works, but it usually won’t rub off anything stuck to the slide (usually things with oil, like fingerprints or food crumbs). Also, canned air has to be replaced. With a cotton cloth, you can wash it reuse it over and over again. An air compressor works, and if you are lucky enough to have one, then great! It may be too strong, however. Don’t accidentally blow the slide out of your hand and risk letting it get scratched when it lands across the room!
Here are a few tips for some situations that may arise:
1. If you can’t seem to get off a fingerprint, don’t worry too much. Convert it to digital anyway. Usually it won’t even show up!
2. If the fingerprint shows up on the scan, it may have “burned” into the image over time, and cannot be physically removed. You can try to remove it during the retouching process.
3. If you feel it’s necessary to clean with anything liquid, please follow the advice of this photography veteran.
4. If you are using a scanner with Digital ICE technology, take advantage of it! It works wonders!
5. If you plan to transfer slides to digital, using one of the digital camera methods, some of the dust won’t be noticeable.
Anyway… that’s it! That be should be enough cleaning for your slide scanning purposes.
I’ve seen it all. Customers used to bring me slides in all kinds storage. Often, slides were still in a carousel — who knows how long ago their project went on the fringe. Some were in shoe boxes, with small stacks bound by rubberbands, so they don’t slide everywhere. There was usually no logic to the stacks. You could tell they had been thumbed through right before they brought them to me and gave up on trying to keep them in some kind of order.
One lady had them divided into vacations and labelled in waxed paper boxes. This was actually pretty cool because they are just the right width. Unfortunately, she didn’t realized that low-cost cardboard is not acid-free. Most of her photos were faded and pinkish, and I couldn’t recover a lot of their color. It was a sad day.
When I did the 4,000-slide job, they were in a drawer system that was obviously designed for slides. My grandma’s slides were intermingled with her photographs in her many boxes of geneaology material. Finally, lots and lots of people had them in Ziploc baggies. That is convenient, but a mess. It’s not very fun going back setting them all the right direction, especially when there are hundreds.
I am currently storing my slides in an acid-free box I bought on sale at Hobby Lobby. After I use my 35mm slide scanner, I’m going to number them, and line them all to make a bottom row. I’m going to cut a piece of acid-free scrapbook paper to size to separate the layers, and make a second layer of slides until the box is completely full. I never plan to access them again, so from this point, they can go into deep storage. I recommend a cool, dry place, of course.
Please share your ideas about 35mm slide storage, and let us know what works for you!
So, as I research infomation to supplement what I know about 35mm slide scanner help, I keep coming across the Flickr site. I just signed up to see what all the rave is about…
OK… Wow! You can sign up on Flickr super quick. I just did it in like 15 seconds because I already had a Yahoo ID. Now, it looks like you can 1) Make a profile 2) Upload photos or 3) Find your friends. This site can be used in a million ways, but I have a perfect idea for those of you embarking on your “slides to digital” project.
Look for your family on Flickr. You would be suprised how many people you know who are already on here! Look for the folks who come to your family reunions because it’s pretty likely they are in some of those slides you are ready to convert! After you’ve added them to be your friends, invite your other friends and family members to join Flickr. Inform this new fanclub of yours that you are working on your slide scanning project, and you are ready to go!
As you scan your slides, upload them on Flickr. Your friends and family can look at your digital images and comment on them. This is the BEST feature EVER! Let them help you ID the slides when you need help! Share funny memories with each other!
I’ve volunteered to be the family member who gets to digitize all of my grandma’s slides and photos, and I am SO going share them on Flickr. This photo-sharing problem has been bothering me for a couple years, and this is the solution! The best part, is that you can upload the photos in very high quality and quantities, so it’s not necessary to send CD’s to all those family members. Plus, it’s live! If something needs to be updated immediately, then it’s not a problem — no need to burn a bunch of CD’s again.
So, take a look at Flickr! You can search without joining, and then join for free when you are ready. 
If you think about it, it’s not too suprising that the unforgettable James Bond movie title sequences were inspired by a 35mm slide projector. The producers consulted with a designer who whipped up the idea and presented it to them with twenty or so random slides, and he went in front of the projection and showed how interesting it looked to have the images become convoluted and wrapped around the shape of his torso. Obviously, they bought into the idea, and the iconic concept was born.
So, although many of the Bond movies are seriously dated, with that blue eye shadow and knee-high boots, it’s a good thing 35mm slide scanners had not yet been invented, or we wouldn’t have such awesome James Bond title sequences to mimic! Click here for the original article from Telegraph.uk.co.
Welcome to 35mm Slide Scanner Help! We know you landed here because you probably cleaned out your attic last month (or have a family member who did). Now you don’t know what to do with those old slides, which are fading as fast as the memories that created them. It is time reintroduce them to the world, and the first step, as you must have already guessed, is to turn those slides to digital before they are damaged any further! From that point, there are endless options…
Well, did you know that there is more than one way to convert slides? There are several options to choose from, and if you can believe it, some don’t even include the use of a slides scanner. A few factors weigh in when deciding what to do:
money (for those lucky ones, this is irrelevant)
time (some of us SAHM’s still think we have it)
scan resolution (bigger is not always better)
We will teach you what you need to know to get your project going! Frequent blog posts will contain the info about slide scanning techniques, but we also will have a 35mm slide scanner forum, where you can post questions and suggestions that apply to you now! We’d like to help as much as possible to save you time and money, and still get your slide scanning project accomplished!
It can be really fun once you have your slides to digital. We’ll keep you up-to-date with picture ideas and photo projects that you can use to present these almost-forgotten memories. Won’t your family be suprised when you start “movie night” and the TV pops up with old photos from the sixties? That reminiscent experience will be a memory in itself!
Let us know if you have any suggestions or comments as we get going. After having our third son, we had to end our seven-year multimedia services business, but we want to share the knowledge we’ve gained from all the trial and error, so you don’t have to waste your time. Suscribe to our RSS, so you can keep your 35mm slide scanner research current, and we’ll see you around!
Lisa and Jason
Visual Memoirs
www.35mmslidescannerhelp.com
scanninghelp@gmail.com
P.S. If all this seems like too much, just send your slides out to ScanCafe.
If you think you'll never get around to actually buying a 35mm slide scanner, check out the slide scanning services offered by ScanCafe. They'll provide quality slides to digital for an excellent price! Click here and scroll down to see what you think of their sample!