{"id":13623,"date":"2025-01-23T15:15:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T20:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/?p=13623"},"modified":"2025-02-11T12:17:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:17:33","slug":"scanning-slides-a-practical-cheat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/?p=13623","title":{"rendered":"“Scanning” Slides – a Practical Cheat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

using my cellphone<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here’s how I “scanned” a slew of slides in a very short while: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of many boxes of slides that I have stored away<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Here’s a vintage slide viewer that I’ve kept for many years<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The slides are arranged in rows. This viewer can accommodate a full roll of 36 slides.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Here are slides from one of the boxes. You can rearrange them here if you want to maintain a particular order for digitizing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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This picture shows a group of slides. Use the zoom feature of your cellphone to zero in on a single slide.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Here I am zeroing in on a single slide. I’m careful to capture the entire slide.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Here is the unretouched image from the cellphone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Another unretouched image from the cellphone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The quality of the cellphone image is quite good including color and contrast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Another image that helps me remember events from the past<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Afterward the cellphone images are transferred to my desktop or laptop. From there I can work with them using my usual editing software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give this technique a try to see if the results meet your requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arnie Lee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[238,21,181,8,853,101,780,141,202,97,14,4,28],"tags":[1106,1153,59,1141,1152],"class_list":["post-13623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessories","category-composition","category-equipment","category-informational","category-online","category-personal","category-photographs","category-presentation","category-review","category-scenic","category-stills","category-tips","category-travel","tag-cellphone","tag-digitize","tag-scan","tag-slides","tag-transparencies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13623"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13660,"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13623\/revisions\/13660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stayfocusedpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}