Looking for a slide scanning guide for 35MM slides? Read on to find out everything you need to know!
35MM slides used to be the most common photographic format in the 1960s because of their compact size and superior colors. However, much like negatives, the popularity of slides has dwindled since the inception of digital cameras.
With that said, it’s pretty common to find old 35MM slides in old photo albums. Pre-digital period photographers will likely have collections of these slides. You might have even inherited them as family heirlooms. If you have these slides, it’s best to digitize them through slide scanning. Otherwise, you’ll run the risk of seeing them deteriorate with time.
What Are 35MM Slides?
A 35MM slide typically refers to a positive photo on film, which is cut into individual frames. The frames are mounted in plastic or cardboard to protect the material and enable projection. Colored 35MM film slides are more common than black and white ones that are rare in any size format. These slides were originally designed to save space in storing photos.
Moreover, this handy format made projecting photos on a screen relatively easy for enjoyable group viewing. It saved people from flipping a photo album individually. Eventually, as online file-sharing of digital formats became more popular, people used these slides less and less. However, many people still have photos in this old-school format. But these pictures are collecting dust in old photo collections and boxes.
If you happen to have these slides lying around, it’s best to hire a slide scanning service to convert them into a digital format, such as JPEG or BMP.
Here’s an overview of the equipment and process involved in scanning photo slides:
Equipment for Scanning Photo Slides
You can use different equipment to transform your photo slides into a digital format. For one, you can use a printer or scanner that has provisions built into it to scan 35MM slides. This type of equipment typically has a separate piece built into the top of the scanning bed to hold the 35MM slides.
Your second option is to use a dedicated 35MM slice scanner, which a 35MM slide scanning service will use to scan your slides. These scanners feature a tray to hold the 35MM slides. Each slide is pushed through the equipment and scanned. It’s undoubtedly the more straightforward method to scan the slides since the scanners are easier to handle and smaller.
The Process of Scanning 35MM Slides
When scanning a 35MM slide through a printer/scanner, you need to put the slide into the holder and scan the bed. Then you will need to crop each slide to save it individually using the scanner’s software.
On the flip side, if you use a dedicated scanner, you can place 3 to 5 35MM slides on the scanner tray at once. Push the tray through the scanner and can each picture individually. It will enable you to adjust the lighting behind each slide instead of the batch of slides that you would have to fix in the scanner.
Why Use a Professional Slide Scanning Service for Your 35MM Slides
If you have the budget to hire a professional slide to digital service, hire them to convert your 35MM slides into digital files. They can convert all your carousels of slides into digital files quickly and effectively since they have the required equipment and expertise. A professional service can convert slides to digital images and give them to you as online files, in USB flash drives, and on the cloud.
They will scan photo slides to yield high-quality images that you can easily print in an enlarged form. If you look up a well-established slide scanning service near me, you can find a company that can expertly restore old photo slides with debris or dust spots.
Professional slide scanners will also ensure that their scanner bed is as clean as possible to ensure you end up with premium-quality images. Moreover, you can ask the slide scanning service to organize the slides in a specific order before screening so that you end up with organized images.
Lastly, an expert slides to a digital service company will have the high-quality scanner needed to scan the images quickly without compromising their quality. They have scanners that can produce poster-sized images without losing any details in the pictures. Additionally, they will have computers and software that will go with the latest scanner without causing any problem in scanning the slides.
So, what are you waiting for? Search for the best slide scanning service near me on your chosen search engine and choose a 35MM slide scanning company that works best for your needs.
