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using my cellphone

I’m guessing that many of the older picture takers among us have a mountain of slides sitting their closet in a proverbial shoebox. Hopefully they’re not collecting dust.

I was introduced to digital images in the late 1990s and since then I’ve been scanning thousands of my slides and transparencies. I started by using a reasonably priced flatbed scanner since I couldn’t justify a more expensive piece of equipment. The flatbed produced quite good results but at the expense of time and patience.

About a year ago I started using a simpler method to digitize the slides. The slides aren’t scanned. Instead I photograph each of them with a cellphone. The results are quite acceptable- image resolution and sharpness – since my goal is to archive all of these “forgotten” photos.


Here’s how I “scanned” a slew of slides in a very short while:

One of many boxes of slides that I have stored away
Here’s a vintage slide viewer that I’ve kept for many years
The slides are arranged in rows. This viewer can accommodate a full roll of 36 slides.
Here are slides from one of the boxes. You can rearrange them here if you want to maintain a particular order for digitizing.
This picture shows a group of slides. Use the zoom feature of your cellphone to zero in on a single slide.
Here I am zeroing in on a single slide. I’m careful to capture the entire slide.
Here is the unretouched image from the cellphone.
Another unretouched image from the cellphone
The quality of the cellphone image is quite good including color and contrast
Another image that helps me remember events from the past

Afterward the cellphone images are transferred to my desktop or laptop. From there I can work with them using my usual editing software.

I’ve digitized hundreds of slides using the cellphone and most of them are more than acceptable for archiving my huge collection of memories and events. As a bonus for my efforts wading through these slides, I was pleasantly surprised to run across people, places and things that I haven’t thought about in many years.

Please keep in mind that if the resulting images using the cellphone do not meet your quality requirements you still can scan the originals using a more traditional scanning method.

Give this technique a try to see if the results meet your requirements.

Written by:

Arnie Lee

Las Vegas Casinos

15th January 2025

Along the Strip

Below are some of the casinos for those of you who haven’t yet visited Las Vegas.

Many of the casinos are located on Las Vegas Boulevard which is commonly known as The Strip. Together the casinos provide an exciting, colorful light show during the evening.


Vacation Selfies

15th November 2024

Cellphone Photos

In past years we hardly had any photographs of ourselves while on vacation.

This has all changed with the advent of the cellphones with their builtin high quality cameras.

We took two mini-vacations this past September and October. Fortunately my arm was long enough to capture these pictures.


Here we are on the salt flat at Bonneville, Utah. Afterwards we had to wash the caked on salt off of our shoes
Enjoying the Grand Tetons on a chilly morning at String Lake
In Glacier National Park we walked on the beach in Apgar at Lake McDonald.
Here is Kris at a Logan Pass overlook in Glacier
On a very windy day at the top of the mountains along the Beartooth Highway.
Resting after a short hike in the Badlands NP.

If you’re photographing scenery or landscapes with your cellphone don’t forget to include yourself.! Hooray for selfies.

From our sister company these stickers are for the parks that we visited StickItToYourCar.com that I used to decorate our car’s bumper.


Written by: Arnie Lee

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