7/29/10

SCANNING SLIDES is different than negatives


I've been working on deadlines this week so have not been able to respond to an email from a reader, Mary, about scanning slides.
I have been using my scanner for about a week. Great results on negatives and photos but not so much on the slides.

I get the four that I placed in the guide but not able to enlarge them or view them individually.

I have read the help and instructions online. What am I missing on the slide instructions?
I tried to email my response to Mary, but I get a message indicating that the email account will not accept messages. So Mary, if you're out there here's what I wrote you:
  • I believe what might be your problem is one of the choices you make before scanning. Look under the various settings before you scan. Look for the information about what sort of film you're scanning. For slides you want to choose "positive film", NOT color or b/w negative. Slides are not negatives.
  • Next you need to scan a preview before doing your final scan. You should find a tool on the left of the "Preview" window that says "Marquee" which allows you draw a dotted marquee line around the specific images you've preview scanned. You then need to go back to the settings panel and set your scale under "Target Size" to around 1200% which will give you a nice large image. Then hit the scan button.
  • You should then have a grouping of your slides show up on your screen. You will need to save the image, then take it into an image editing program to split the images apart.
Mary, let me know if this helps. And check your email preferences to allow responses, otherwise I cannot respond to your questions.

To read a bit more about scanning slides and negatives see my previous post entitled...wait for it...How to SCAN SLIDES AND NEGATIVES.

6 comments:

  1. On my Epson scanner (which is suddently on the fritz, meh!!) I have to be sure to click the "select all" button on the preview pane so that all the marquee areas will be scanned. I have an older scanner, so maybe they did away with that on future models.

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  2. Sounds like a software glitch. Perhaps you need to update your drivers. Or simply uninstall and reinstall. Doesn't sound like the actual hardware is fritzy if it's still scanning.

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  3. It's corrected - something was stuck and I rebooted, all is well, thankfully! I just got a huge packet of old photos, so it's imperative my scanner works, lol.

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  4. Your post is true. Great review, I have been scanning slides every time we had those memories for special occasions.

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  5. Thanks Convert.... Glad you found this little post useful!

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