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How to Scan Negatives and Slides to Digitize Your Photographic Archive

Digitizing your 35 mm slide and negative archive can be a time-consuming task. If you spend the time to organize your slides and negatives before you start to convert them to digital files, when you are finished you will have a well-laid-out digital archive of your photography. Another advantage to scanning your slides and negatives is that you will have a version of them that will not fade over time as slides and negatives can do when they are not stored properly.

Things You'll Need

  • Anti-static cloth
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Instructions

    • 1

      Prepare your slides and negatives for scanning by first organizing them into a system that can be easily accessed. You can do this in a number of ways; for instance, arrange them by date, and place them into folders named with the year and month the images were taken, or arrange the pictures based on event or subject, and name the folders accordingly. If you have a significant number of images to scan, you may want to devise a cataloging system that will encompass all three parameters.

    • 2

      Open the scanner software on your computer. In the software, create a new folder where your first set of scanned images will be saved. Name each new folder to match the way you have organized your images. If you have sorted by event or subject, then use the most appropriate name; if you are organizing by date, use the correlating date for each folder.

    • 3

      Clean your negatives and slides by carefully rubbing them with an anti-static cloth. These cloths are specially treated to remove dust and debris from slides and negatives and will help to prevent dust from collecting on them during the scanning process. Complete this step just before you insert the slides and negatives for scanning; if you clean them all at the same time, they will need to be cleaned again before you scan them. The anti-static coating will only help prevent dust from collecting for a short time.

    • 4

      Place the strip of negatives or the individual slides into the appropriate carrier tray, and insert the tray into the scanner.

    • 5

      Click on "Scan" in the software, and inspect the image in the preview window of the scanner software. Once you are satisfied with the image, click "OK" for the scanner to complete the scan and save the image to the folder you set up earlier. Repeat this process until all of your slides and film negatives have been scanned into your computer. Depending on the type of scanner you are using, you may be able to scan without first previewing the image in the software. In those instances, you will only need to click the "Scan" button once.


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