#Old picture slide viewer how to#
#Old picture slide viewer professional#
#Old picture slide viewer mac#

Typically a slide or negative is best scanned at 1500-4000 dpi, and youвЂ™ll usually need to go to a professional scanning and digitizing company with top-notch equipment to get that quality. That means your digitized images wonвЂ™t be clear, and you wonвЂ™t be able to enlarge them past their original size. Important note: If youвЂ™re going to go the scanner route for viewing your slides, I donвЂ™t recommend that you do the final scanning yourself on this type of equipment, because inexpensive scanners will scan your slides and negatives at a low resolution. Otherwise, you might be viewing the scan from a small screen on the scanner вЂ“ which is really not much better than just holding your slide up to the light in your living room! Also, look for the option to import your scans to a computer so that you can view from your computer screen.

#Old picture slide viewer mac#

Often, a device designed for PCs wonвЂ™t be Mac compatible, and vice versa. When shopping for low-resolution slide and negative scanners, look for ones that are compatible with your computer. Amazon has several models that are affordable and perfect for this process. This will let you see a larger, more detailed version of the image, which will help you in making your digitizing decisions. You can use a low resolution scanner to scan a temporary file for viewing and selecting the best negatives or slides to send to the digitizing company.The images youвЂ™ll view will still be tiny if you use this method, though. You can use a light tracer (yes, one of those devices we used to use as kids, that artists use to trace images) to lit up your image.If youвЂ™ve got an iPad, thereвЂ™s an app called Light Pad that you can buy to use your tablet as a negative viewer.This is a bit cumbersome, but it still works! You can do it the old-fashioned way, and hold your slide or negative up to a lamp or overhead light in your home.Here are some options for viewing your slides and negatives:

#Old picture slide viewer how to#

How to Select the Best Slides and Negatives to Digitize However, if you want to be discerning and only scan your very best shots, youвЂ™ll need to view your slides or negatives in advance to choose the ones you want to digitize. If you arenвЂ™t on a tight budget and/or donвЂ™t have that many slides or negatives to scan, IвЂ™d recommend just scanning all of them вЂ“ itвЂ™s simpler and easier. If you take a large collection of slides in to a conversion company and have them scan all of them for you, you will be charged for ALL the images you give the scanning company вЂ“ even the badly composed or poorly lit shots. I f you would like help managing this process, I can oversee the project so the scanning company has all information needed.Д«ut hereвЂ™s the problem: Digitizing slides and negatives can be expensive, especially if your slides are old. I recommend Memories to Digital (they have stores in Boulder and Lone Tree, Colorado) and FotoBridge. The best way to digitize your slides and negatives is to find a reputable company to help you.

If the images are not printed, my recommendation is that you digitize the images first, then consider whether or not you want to keep the original negatives or slides. If the images are printed, you can digitize the print instead of the slide or negative вЂ“ which is often considerably less expensive. The question I always ask my client is, вЂњAre these photos already printed or digitized?вЂќ LetвЂ™s start with the first big question: Is it a good idea to digitize all your negatives and slides? Should You Digitize Your Negatives and Slides? In this post, IвЂ™m going to give you some tips about digitizing and organizing your slides and negatives, talk about the pros and cons of hanging on to the originals, and explains how to store them safely. These are complicated questions, and the answers I give my clients always depend on a lot of factors. My clients usually ask me, вЂњWhat should I do with these? Should I transfer them all over to digital format? How do I do that? Then what should I do with the original slides and negatives, if I digitize everything?вЂќ When I help clients go through their prints to get their photo collections organized, we will often find negatives and slides mixed in with their prints.