If you have old photo slides, you can scan them and create high quality digital copies if you have the original film negative. You can then send copies of the scanned slides to friends or relatives via email or even print the image on your printer.
An added bonus to scanning a slide is that you can use the full surface area of the image in your scan. Most photo labs crop and cut negative or slide images to fit on a particular size piece of paper. Scanning slides with a film or slide scanner made for the job is easier than with a flatbed scanner. Nevertheless, you can obtain excellent image-scan results from your slides with a flatbed without much trouble.
Instructions
1. Cut the slides into individual frames or pictures if they are on a strip. Although scanning an entire slide strip is possible, individual slides provide much better images.
2. Place the slide in the middle of the flatbed scanner glass. Place the slide as evenly as possible (in relation to the sides of the scanner glass). Place a transparency cover or regular letter-sized piece of white paper over the slide. Do not close the scanner lid cover.
3. Place a desk lamp or other light source directly above the transparency cover or piece of paper. Place the light source so that the bulb of the lamp is four to five inches above the top of the cover or paper. Turn on the light.
4. Launch the scanning application that shipped with your flatbed scanner. Click the "Scan" or "Preview" button in the application (whichever is applicable). Wait while the scanner warms up and then scan the sides. Use your mouse to adjust the preview area in the scanning program so that only the slide image displays in the preview window.
5. Click "Scan" or "Final" in the scanning program to scan the slide again at full resolution. While the scanner scans the slide, wait for the scanned image to display on your computer monitor.
6. Click "File/Save" in the scanning application, then save the scanned image in GIF or JPEG format. If you create an ultra-high-resolution scan, save the image as a TIFF file. (Note -- the scanned slide image will appear to be inverted in terms of color and depth.)
7. Open a graphics editor application, such as Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw. Click "File/Open," then browse to and open the image file you created with the scanning program. Click and select the "positive exposure photo" button or link on the application toolbar to convert the image into a grayscale or color photo. Save the image on your computer.
Tags: flatbed scanner, image your, scanning program, Click File, Click Scan