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How to Convert Slides From a Carousel to Digital Photos

Before digital photography, if you were viewing a slide show, you were likely sitting in your family's recreation room viewing slides that were projected onto a larger white screen. These slides were usually stored in a carousel tray that sat on top of the slide projector. Storing your 35mm slides this way allowed you to sort your archive by event or date. Converting these slides from the carousel into digital photos is a straightforward task, but may be time consuming, depending on the number of slides you need to scan.

Things You'll Need

Film scanner
Anti-static cloth

Instructions

- 1
  Turn your home computer and scanner on. Open the software for the scanner and create a new folder where your slides will be saved to, and set the scanner to scan slides.
- 2
  Remove the slides from the first carousel you want to convert to digital files. These carousels have a locking ring in the center of them that prevents the slides from accidentally falling out. Turn the locking ring and lift it up. You can now access the slides one a time.
- 3
  Clean the first slide for scanning carefully using an anti-static cloth. This specially treated cloth removes dust and debris from the slide and helps prevent dust from collecting on the slide during the scanning process.
- 4
  Place the slide into the scanner's carrier tray and press or click the "Scan" button to begin the process. If your scanner and software utilize a preview screen, inspect the slide you are about to scan, looking to make sure it is level and straight and that there is no dust on the slide. Press or click the "Scan" button again to commence the process.
- 5
  Save the scanned slide to the folder you created earlier as a TIFF image. This type of image is larger than JPEG images, but it extracts and retains more information from the scan process. Repeat these steps until all the slides you want to scan are processed.

Photography