Scanning Slides - The Scanning Process

It has been a while since I discussed archiving techniques, but John recently sent in his slides, which I have been working through, and it got me thinking about documenting the process. Should anyone contemplate scanning slides, a checklist of steps might be useful. If for no other reason, this may help gauge the amount of time necessary for the task.

Here are the steps I take with slides, which I am scanning using my Nikon Coolscan V, a dedicated 35 mm film/slide scanner that scans only one slide or filmstrip at a time.

1. Remove all slides from their storage sheets.
   
2. Sort slides by decade and then year.
3. Sort the earliest year of slides by the date the slide was developed, grouping the different rolls of film (using the information printed on the slide frame) in chronological order.
4. Clean the first slide (I use a feather duster).
5. Scan the slide. This simplicity of this step is a bit deceptive, because with all the image enhancement I use (to eliminate some dust and scratches, restore color, and minimize film grain) scanning time takes 4-5 minutes per slide. This results in an image just under 23 megapixels per slide, with a file size (in TIFF format) that is just over 65 megabytes.
6. Repeat scanning for all slides.
7. Rename all files to reflect the fancy pants file naming system that incorporates the information from the slide frame.
8. Return all slides to their storage sheets.

And that's it for the scanning! For John's 138 slides, scanning will take about 10.5 hours and result in files occupying about 9 gigabytes of hard drive space; additional time is needed for the other non-scanning tasks. Some of these tasks can be accomplished will the previous slide is being scanned. You have been warned.

But, that's not the end of the image preparation! These files are too unwieldy, so I batch convert them in Photoshop Elements 5 from TIFF format to PNG format. This cuts many file sizes in about half without losing any information or degrading the quality. JPEG format can degrade an image but has a much smaller file size, so I typically use it only for distributing final versions of images.

I generally batch convert to several different sizes and formats for each image -- 100% size PNG image (for archiving as the "original"), 50% size PNG image (for further editing), 50% size JPEG (for distribution), and 10% size JPEG (as the "thumbnail" for quick viewing). I use the 50% size PNG image as the original for the JPEG images if I have edited the PNG image. These four versions of each image together often take up 40-50 megabytes, which, while substantial, is notably less than the original TIFF image. My terabyte hard drive has plenty of room (for now!) for all these images.

I have discussed image editing a bit in other posts, and likely will discuss it more in the future, but for now the above is the process I use for scanning slides. Whew!

Disposable Cameras and Reverse Winding

In a previous post I noted that that sometimes film can be shot with reverse film numbering.

"[T]he roll of film could have been shot backwards, with the the numbering running from largest numbers to smallest; I have seen this happen before on a roll from my wedding (I was very aware of which events happened first, despite the numbering on the roll), and it may be fairly common but unnoticed on old rolls."

I hadn't thought about this much ... until just this weekend.

My sons received disposable cameras at a birthday party last month and shot through the rolls pretty quickly. I picked up the developed film this weekend, and on both disposable cameras the film was exposed in reverse order. Which got me thinking, maybe this phenomena is related to disposable cameras (the boys shot with Fujis). Perhaps a disposable camera was used for the wedding pictures I previously noticed was in reverse order? We don't use disposable cameras very often.

The article "How Are Disposable Cameras Made?" says that disposable cameras use reverse winding so that the film is pulled into the cartridge as it is shot, making it unnecessary to rewind when finished.

Has anyone else noticed this? If there is a roll of film you know you shot on a disposable camera (Fuji or otherwise), can you tell if the numbering on the film is the reverse order of the order the pictures were taken?

This isn't an earth-shattering discovery, but it explains the reverse order of photographs shot with a disposable camera.

Caveats for Scanning

Grandpa took many of his pictures on slide film. Scanning these slides yields awesome results. The Nikon Coolscan V that I use comes with Digital ICE software to automate the restoration process. When possible, I highly recommend using a dedicated film/slide scanner and Digital ICE to digitize your family history, with certain caveats.

The first caveat is time. The scanning process is slow, and using the Digital ICE tools makes it painfully slow. I am talking minutes per scan, so you need time and a larger perspective about archiving history. Really, though, if time is a huge concern, then personally digitizing your family history is probably not your thing.

The second caveat is money. You need equipment to digitize pictures, and the good stuff is not cheap. The Coolscan cost hundreds of dollars when it was available (and it no longer is) and the film scanners currently available are typically more expensive. I initially tried cheaper methods -- flatbed scanners with film capabilities and even digital photos of projected slides (!) -- and was dissatisfied with the results. Sure, they can work in a pinch, but if I only want to do this once (and some things can only be done once when access to source material is limited) then I want to do it right. Used scanners are available, and outside professional services might also be reasonably priced for smaller projects.

The third caveat is storage. The scanned files are (and, really, should be) huge. They come out of the Coolscan as 60+ mb tiff files! I batch process them to make them smaller, but there is no getting around the size issue for quality files. Again, if you are going to do it, do it right. Buy a 1 tb hard drive so that space is not an issue.

The fourth caveat is experience. It takes knowledge to understand what the equipment and software do and how to best use it. Much of this knowledge comes from the trial and error of just doing it, i.e. experience. Sometimes, though, the trial and error part can be shortened by learning from others who have done it.

I guess the experience part is where I might be able to help you. I do not have the time, money, or storage space to do everyone's digitizing. But, I do have some self-taught experience that I would love to share to make your task easier. My price (FREE!) is pretty good, too.

Equipment and Software

The equipment I use is as follows:

• A Fuji S6000FD digital camera, which is discontinued;
• An Epson 2480 Photo flatbed scanner, which is also discontinued; and
• A Nikon Coolscan V dedicated 35 mm film/slide scanner, again discontinued.
  

It is not terribly high tech, but it works well for my purposes. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, which I hope to document.

The software I use is as follows:

• Photoshop Elements 5.0 for photo editing;
• Nikon Scan 4.0 for the Coolscan;
• MS Word or even WordPerfect (yes, WordPerfect) for page layouts and PDF saves; and
• PDFCreator or other PDF print drivers for PDF saves.

This software basically came with the equipment I purchased, or was purchased for other uses, or is available (in the case of the print drivers) for free, legal download. Basically, I have used the tools available to me to do the best job I can preserving the family history.