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How to Use a Flatbed Scanner to Create a Contact Sheet of Your Slides

In the days of film photography one of the first steps after developing your film was to create a "contact sheet." They were created by laying the negatives cut into strips of five or six frames on a single sheet of photo paper and turning on the enlarger light. When processed you had 24 or 36 small images on one sheet of paper that you could then inspect. With digital technology you can scan you 35mm slides on a flat bed scanner to create a contact sheet.

Things You'll Need

Anti-static cloth

Instructions

- 1
  Prepare the slides for scanning by cleaning them with an "anti-static" cloth. This cloth is treated to remove dust and dirt from the surface of the 35mm slides and to help prevent dust from collecting on them during the scan process.
- 2
  Organize your slides in groups of vertical and horizontal images. If you have enough of each, you may want to do one contact sheet of vertical images and one contact sheet of horizontal images.
- 3
  Lift the lid of your flatbed scanner and place the slides on the scanner's platen. Use the paper sizing guide on the frame of the scanner's platen as guide for arranging your slides. Following the guide will ensure all of your slides will fit on the page.
- 4
  Lower the lid of the scanner. Press "Start" on the scanner will scan the images and create a contact sheet for you.
- 5
  Save the scan on your computer's hard drive and print it out on your photo printer.

Photography