Scanning Slides

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frank
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Scanning Slides

Post by frank »

I can see that many people like myself have problems scanning and processing old slides. They often come out "over exposed" and grainy.
Can anyone suggest a work flow for improving.

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AlexC
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by AlexC »

I'd say that you need a good quality slide to start with, Kodachrome 25 or 64 for instance.
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AMB
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by AMB »

Quite agree with Alex. Probably those you see are over-exposed etc in the first place. Also you need a good digital lazer slide scanner like a Minolta-Dimage Elite 5400 or Canon Coolscan V ED, of which I have both. Unfortunately, both are long out-of-production and manufacturers don't seem to realise that there is a market for the generations before the digital era, who shot slides from the late 1950s up to date and there are thousands of slides to scan out there . Thankfully I have both scanners and they can still be found on a well-known auction site, but be prepared to pay a high price!
Any imperfections can then be corrected in Photoshop. 'Many people' is quite generic and I think 'most people' on here to a splendid job scanning their slides.
Adrian

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jonny7
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by jonny7 »

Get yourself a slide copier! or make your own. Then" boom" :smile: fit it to your digital camera and hey presto, 24 megapic images.
Clean and tighten them up on a good photo suite and you will be doing what thousands do.
That's why old devices like the Minolta Dimage 3 are loosing out...try it..I made a home made one, if you go on google and type in (home made slide copying) it will
give you some ideas...good luck. Also look for an Ohnar slide copier, if you want one off the shelf..
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UC880
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by UC880 »

The method that I use is to put the slide on a light pad, set up a tripod with the DSLR fitted with a macro lens, followed with some editing as required.

ImageC135GLA2 by Mark McArdle, on Flickr

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AlexC
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by AlexC »

AMB wrote: Canon Coolscan V ED, of which I have both.


I think that you must mean Nikon Coolscan V ED which I also have. Sadly I'm unable to use it anymore as I've recently got a new computer, but as I've lost or mislaid the CD I can't load it on the computer. Of course on the other hand it may not be usable with Windows 10 anyway.
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LN Strike Eagle
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by LN Strike Eagle »

AlexC wrote:
AMB wrote:Sadly I'm unable to use it anymore as I've recently got a new computer, but as I've lost or mislaid the CD I can't load it on the computer. Of course on the other hand it may not be usable with Windows 10 anyway.

You can probably download the latest drivers/software from Nikon.
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Brevet Cable
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by Brevet Cable »

And even if there aren't drivers for recent versions of Windows, try running it under 'compatibility mode' ( or whatever Win10 calls it )......according to a friend who's got Win10 on one of his computers, Vista compatibility tends to work better than Win7 compatibility for old software he uses.
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flashman8
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by flashman8 »

Alternatively.......................try vuescan software from here

https://www.hamrick.com/

It makes me able to use old scanners on my windows 7 64bit ultimate pc.
Sony A700, A550, , Minolta 135, 500, Sigma 10-20, Sony 18-70, 50,70-300GSSM,Tamron 17-50,90mm

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AlexC
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by AlexC »

I did contact Nikon, and I was quite surprised at how unhelpful they were. Basically the scanner has been discontinued for many years (which I was fully aware of of course) and that was about it.
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frank
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by frank »

flashman8 wrote:Alternatively......try vuescan software from here

https://www.hamrick.com/

It makes me able to use old scanners on my windows 7 64bit ultimate pc.


Yup I use Hamrick as well due to that problem.

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Dollar99
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by Dollar99 »

frank wrote:I can see that many people like myself have problems scanning and processing old slides. They often come out "over exposed" and grainy.
Can anyone suggest a work flow for improving.


frank

As far as your original question goes, if you followed the sage old advice of photographers and slide film you over exposed by 1/2 a stop to get the best out of the film. This means when you scan they can appear a bit too bright. I too use VueScan and find by upping the black point in the Color tab to 0.02% this reduces that slight over exposed look. Combined with using levels when editing you should achieve something near your goal. As to grain, does depend on the film, old Agfa scans very grainy, sometimes looks like it has been covered in sugar! It can be minimised, there are several noise reduction programmes out there, I use Neat Image but there is a noise reduction package in the Nik Collection which you can still download for free. A word of caution, it is very easy to apply noise reduction and wipe out all the small details in your image. You have to be prepared for a bit of trial and error, small increments are often best.

Alex C - VueScan supports the Nikon V ED and should run under Win 10.

PS for anyone on Facebook there is a group dedicated to scanning and editing questions for aviation related subjects at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1102434186467646/

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Ruislip Rustler
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by Ruislip Rustler »

You can still use the Nikon Scan software on a Windows 10 pc without any issues.

Simply install that, then download the trial version of Viewscan which installs the Nikon drivers you'll need and then open Nikon Scan and Bob's your uncle!
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frank
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by frank »

Dollar99 wrote:
frank wrote:I can see that many people like myself have problems scanning and processing old slides. They often come out "over exposed" and grainy.
Can anyone suggest a work flow for improving.


frank

As far as your original question goes, if you followed the sage old advice of photographers and slide film you over exposed by 1/2 a stop to get the best out of the film. This means when you scan they can appear a bit too bright. I too use VueScan and find by upping the black point in the Color tab to 0.02% this reduces that slight over exposed look. Combined with using levels when editing you should achieve something near your goal. As to grain, does depend on the film, old Agfa scans very grainy, sometimes looks like it has been covered in sugar! It can be minimised, there are several noise reduction programmes out there, I use Neat Image but there is a noise reduction package in the Nik Collection which you can still download for free. A word of caution, it is very easy to apply noise reduction and wipe out all the small details in your image. You have to be prepared for a bit of trial and error, small increments are often best.

Alex C - VueScan supports the Nikon V ED and should run under Win 10.

PS for anyone on Facebook there is a group dedicated to scanning and editing questions for aviation related subjects at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1102434186467646/


Many thanks - just what I was looking for :smile:

richyrara
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by richyrara »

Frank you can do it much more cheaply than that - as UC880 I use a light box (ebay) and a macro lens and the results are no worse than I'd get using a top notch scanner, mainly due to the quality of the original transparencies.

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flashman8
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by flashman8 »

if you followed the sage old advice of photographers and slide film you over exposed by 1/2 a stop to get the best out of the film.


I now underexpose everything by 0.7 stop to saturate the colours
Sony A700, A550, , Minolta 135, 500, Sigma 10-20, Sony 18-70, 50,70-300GSSM,Tamron 17-50,90mm

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wallace
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Re: Scanning Slides

Post by wallace »

The Tips from the top floor photography podcast is discussing photographing film using a macro lens and a light table.
A DIY approach but it could bring dividends

https://tipsfromthetopfloor.com/2018/05 ... gitize-it/

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