Slides from the '60s

[fotoflair]

I acquired some 35mm color slides from the 1960s. A few years ago I had an imaging shop convert a few of them to tiffs which were around 20mb files. The quality was crap considering the large file size, and it blew me away to see how bad they were (they look grainy and thin). I've edited some, and a few didn't look too bad afterward.

I can edit scanned images (and still will), but I would like a better starting point than before. What should I be looking for in the way of processing slides to digital files when it comes to looking for someone else to do it? Or is there not a way to get quality scanned images from old slides like these?

Thanks for listening.

 

[Derrel]

1st thing--cleanliness of the slides themselves. This is one of the most crucial parts of the process. Old slides often have an accumulated layer of fine grit and dust and particulate matter on them...you, or the scanner operator, will have to make sure the slides are truly clean before the scans, or photographic reproductions,are done. The boxes or trays or pages the slides are stored in are probably quite dirty themselves....this area, slide cleanliness, is a major,major PITA.

2nd thing: Not all scanners are created equal, not all scanner software and scanner profiles are created equal,and not all scanner operators care about the work they are doing. The implications are obvious here. Good work is not hastily done, and hastily done work is not good. A cheap scanner is not good, and a good scanner is not cheap.

3rd thing: With the advent of new, high-resolution d-slrs, older technology solutions like slide duplicators have made quite a comeback. I recently saw some slides done by a fellow using a Nikon D700 and a very simple sheet metal slide duper called a "B D B", for which he payed eighteen Pounds Sterling from UK eBay...saw them on Flickr, and I thought the quality was as good as many $900 35mm scanner images done with a Nikon CoolScan. D-slr copies can be made much more-rapidly than scans can be made,and the results reviewed almost instantly, whereas a scan can take 1 to 3 minutes,depending on several factors.

Dark, underexposed slides can be very difficult for lower-end single-pass scanners to scan,and on those types of images, a multi-sampling scanner is absolutely essential, and this can make for a very slow scanning process.

Slides from the 50's,60's,70's and so on can be pretty darned good technically, especially if they are old, fine-grained Kodachrome slides, which was a wonderful film. I would suggest asking for a sample or two or three of the work a company does,and having a clear idea of how good the product is going to be,and what the price will be.