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How to Transfer Slides to a CD For Cheap

For years, 35mm slide film offered professional and amateur photographers an option for using film with a higher degree of color correctness. Slide film was offered in slower film speeds. The lower film speed allowed for deep color saturation, which was ideal for landscape photography. If you have a closet full of slides you want to save to a CD, you will need to convert them to digital files. You can do this using any digital camera and a light and recipe card holder.

Things You'll Need

White letter-size piece of paper
Painters tape
One or two small desk lamps
Small table or stool
Recipe card holder

Instructions

- 1
  Attach a letter-size piece of white paper to a wall with painters tape. Place a small table or stool just in front of the wall where you taped the paper.
- 2
  Position a desk lamp on the table. Direct the light at a 45 degree angle to the paper so the light illuminates the paper. The lamp should be approximately 18 to 24 inches from the wall. If the table is large enough, use two small desk lamps, one on either side to the paper, and angle both at 45 degree angles toward the paper.
- 3
  Attach your camera to a tripod. Turn the camera on and set the white balance to the custom setting. Turn the lights on to illuminate the paper. Photograph the paper and use the image to set the white balance on your camera.
- 4
  Attach a slide to the recipe card holder. Position the slide and card holder 12 inches in front of the wall. Look through your camera and adjust the camera position or advance the zoom lens so the image on the slide fills the viewfinder. Take the picture and repeat this process until all the slides you want to save have been photographed.
- 5
  Attach your camera to your computer using a USB or firewire cable. Create a folder in your computer where you will download your pictures. Download the pictures to this folder.
- 6
  Insert a blank CD into your computer's CD-burner drive. Right click on the folder you created and select "Send to" from the drop-down menu. Select the CD drive containing the blank CD and click "Ok."
- 7
  Remove the CD after your computer has burned the images. Use a felt-tip marker to label the CD.

Photography