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Scanning slides - advice
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Jun 5, 2019 19:25:27   #
Schoee Loc: Europe
 
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am about to undertake a project to scan a lot of old colour slides that my late father took about 55 years ago. The plan is to scan them and then do limited processing to correct colour and remove scratches and dust marks. The files would be saved in two folders: ‘as scanned’ and ‘processed’. The results will be provided to all the family and I hope the grandkids and great grandkids will appreciate a bit of family history.
I would appreciate any advice from anyone who has done a similar project. What order do you do the processing steps such as colour corrections first or dust removal first? I am a bit of a beginner and am learning how to use Affinity Photo for this task.

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Jun 5, 2019 19:53:21   #
PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago
 
Schoee wrote:
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am about to undertake a project to scan a lot of old colour slides that my late father took about 55 years ago. The plan is to scan them and then do limited processing to correct colour and remove scratches and dust marks. The files would be saved in two folders: ‘as scanned’ and ‘processed’. The results will be provided to all the family and I hope the grandkids and great grandkids will appreciate a bit of family history.
I would appreciate any advice from anyone who has done a similar project. What order do you do the processing steps such as colour corrections first or dust removal first? I am a bit of a beginner and am learning how to use Affinity Photo for this task.
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am... (show quote)


Welcome to the forum. I did a project like yours several years ago.My process was to brush the slides with a camels hair brush, blow with filtered air from my air compressor, scan, save. I did my Post Processing after the scan with Adobe lightroom.

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Jun 5, 2019 20:01:18   #
bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA
 
Epson flatbed scanners are very good but can feel a little slow if you have a lot to do.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/647187-REG/Epson_B11B198011_Perfection_V600_Photo_Scanner.html?sts=pi

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Jun 5, 2019 20:08:29   #
BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan
 
The first thing should be to go through all the scanned images (or before, with the slides) and rate them for content and repetition. Being the keeper of my Dad's slides and both parents' large collection of photos, I can tell you there may be many of the same subject or of yet another mountain that doesn't mean much to those who weren't there. Some are priceless but many aren't. Then cull them down to a set that will tell a story to those in the future.
My grandkids think the ones of me at one year old are darling because they know me, but the endless pics of my sibs and I are more appreciated a few here and a few there.

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Jun 5, 2019 20:20:14   #
Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA
 
I scan them at 4800 dpi and save them. I dont use any dust removal tools in the scanning software as they don't work for me. I use the Photoshop healing brush tool to remove dust and fiber and scratches. It blends the surrounding colors to make the dust specs, etc. invisible. I do post processing last if needed. Then I resize and save the files as jpg. The finished files are 8 to 10MB in size. The scanned files are about 80MB.

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Jun 5, 2019 22:28:08   #
f8lee Loc: New Mexico
 
I did this using a Nikon Coolscan 4000ED for my own stuff years back, and am currently using that same slide scanner at a historical society where I hav scanned upwards of 2K slides to date.

The VueScan scanning software for this unit is pretty good (actually, better than just "pretty good") - it does an excellent job of cleaning up scratches, faded colors and dust spots (plus red eye in many cases) - with the accessory slide feeder to auto-feed the slides it is also pretty automatic (though you'll want to keep an eye on it - if the slide mounts are bent at all they could jam - nothing difficult to fix but it just means time wasted if you leave it alone for 30 minutes and return to find only 2 slides scanned before it got stuck).

Flatbed scanners are okay, but a dedicated slide/negative scanner might prove to be an infinitely more efficient use of your time.

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Jun 6, 2019 05:52:06   #
kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy
 
Schoee wrote:
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am about to undertake a project to scan a lot of old colour slides that my late father took about 55 years ago. The plan is to scan them and then do limited processing to correct colour and remove scratches and dust marks. The files would be saved in two folders: ‘as scanned’ and ‘processed’. The results will be provided to all the family and I hope the grandkids and great grandkids will appreciate a bit of family history.
I would appreciate any advice from anyone who has done a similar project. What order do you do the processing steps such as colour corrections first or dust removal first? I am a bit of a beginner and am learning how to use Affinity Photo for this task.
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am... (show quote)


Using a scanner that has ICE or the equivalent (automated dust spot removal) will save you a huge amount of time and tedious work. It is brilliant, but be warned that it does not work with Kodachrome (or black and white).

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Jun 6, 2019 06:49:09   #
ZSHOTS
 
f8lee wrote:
I did this using a Nikon Coolscan 4000ED for my own stuff years back, and am currently using that same slide scanner at a historical society where I hav scanned upwards of 2K slides to date.

The VueScan scanning software for this unit is pretty good (actually, better than just "pretty good") - it does an excellent job of cleaning up scratches, faded colors and dust spots (plus red eye in many cases) - with the accessory slide feeder to auto-feed the slides it is also pretty automatic (though you'll want to keep an eye on it - if the slide mounts are bent at all they could jam - nothing difficult to fix but it just means time wasted if you leave it alone for 30 minutes and return to find only 2 slides scanned before it got stuck).

Flatbed scanners are okay, but a dedicated slide/negative scanner might prove to be an infinitely more efficient use of your time.
I did this using a Nikon Coolscan 4000ED for my ow... (show quote)


I have a Nikon Coolscan and load one at a time Is there a loader I can get that automatically feeds the scanner one at a time from a bunch of slides ?

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Jun 6, 2019 06:54:28   #
Architect1776 Loc: In my mind
 
Schoee wrote:
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am about to undertake a project to scan a lot of old colour slides that my late father took about 55 years ago. The plan is to scan them and then do limited processing to correct colour and remove scratches and dust marks. The files would be saved in two folders: ‘as scanned’ and ‘processed’. The results will be provided to all the family and I hope the grandkids and great grandkids will appreciate a bit of family history.
I would appreciate any advice from anyone who has done a similar project. What order do you do the processing steps such as colour corrections first or dust removal first? I am a bit of a beginner and am learning how to use Affinity Photo for this task.
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am... (show quote)


I have done hundreds of slides for the same purpose that date back to WWII.
I have found that the Epson v750 , now the V850 pro model to be absolutely superb.
Easy to use.
It color restores faded slides and removes dust specs that are virtually impossible to completely remove.
With out that feature you can spend a lifetime trying to clean up the dust in post and never do as perfectly as the Epson will do.
Try other methods as you wish and then do it with the Epson and you will hate yourself for wasting time and money doing it the hard way.
Again I have done hundreds and counting negatives of many sizes thousands of scans.
Ps it will do 12 at a time.

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Jun 6, 2019 07:32:09   #
Schoee Loc: Europe
 
Thanks to everyone who has responded. A lot of things for me to think about. I really appreciate your input.

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Jun 6, 2019 07:56:21   #
Architect1776 Loc: In my mind
 
kymarto wrote:
Using a scanner that has ICE or the equivalent (automated dust spot removal) will save you a huge amount of time and tedious work. It is brilliant, but be warned that it does not work with Kodachrome (or black and white).


I used it with hundreds of Kodachrome slides with no problems at all on the Epson V750.
Got rid of dust just fine.

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Jun 6, 2019 08:10:24   #
brent46 Loc: Grand Island, NY
 
This is a great way to scan slides. It is fast, and you can capture in raw and edit. D7100 with nikon 28-105 in the macro mode with 60 watt daylight led bulb.


(Download)


(Download)

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Jun 6, 2019 08:19:15   #
Kaib795 Loc: Maryland, USA
 
Very creative. Anything that can save those old treasured slides is great. I like wood working too. Cheers

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Jun 6, 2019 09:15:22   #
rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona
 
I did something similar to your project a few years back. I'd suggest an Epson scanner and Silverfast software to drive the scanner. Much like taking a photograph, get the best results you can with the scan and process afterwards.
--Bob
Schoee wrote:
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am about to undertake a project to scan a lot of old colour slides that my late father took about 55 years ago. The plan is to scan them and then do limited processing to correct colour and remove scratches and dust marks. The files would be saved in two folders: ‘as scanned’ and ‘processed’. The results will be provided to all the family and I hope the grandkids and great grandkids will appreciate a bit of family history.
I would appreciate any advice from anyone who has done a similar project. What order do you do the processing steps such as colour corrections first or dust removal first? I am a bit of a beginner and am learning how to use Affinity Photo for this task.
Hi, I hope people here can offer some advice. I am... (show quote)

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Jun 6, 2019 09:19:30   #
cameraf4 Loc: Delaware
 
Schoee wrote:
... a lot of old colour slides....


The first tool in you bag-of-tricks should be "patience." I am in the midst of doing the same thing with, what I call "a boatload for 35mm slides." "As scanned" and "Edited" are how I file the results. I have found that a D850 with an ES-2 does a better job than my "old" 35mm slide scanner did and gives me more flexibility, but it sure is S-L-O-W. Best of luck, however you progress.

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