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Help please - scanning of old 35mm slides

16 years ago

Hi, as I mentioned in another thread, I found some great old family photographs. They are slides going back to 1958.

Some of them look to have something that looks like very fine black spider webs on them, except that it is right on the slide. My parents lived in Florida since the early 70's, so perhaps it is some sort of mold or mildew.

If it is mold or something like that, does anyone have any idea on what I could use to try to remove it without destroying the transparency? I have some extra slides that I can experiment on.

If you don't know the answer, can you provide any other sites that I could check?

Also, for the slides that are not damaged, do you know of a good mail-order service that I could use to convert the slides to a digital image?

Thanks very much,

Lynne

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Comments (6)

minrose
16 years ago
Sorry I don't know of any mail-order service that would do this. Do you have quality film lab near by like a Filmdrop, Photoworks? They would probably do it.
Have you tried to doing a search on the internet for some of your questions?
netla
16 years ago
I suggest speaking to a conservator who specializes in photographs. They may be able to recommend a method or product to fix the slides. If the slides can not be fixed, you can scan them and then fix the scans with photo editing software. I know it will not save the slides, but at least you will have the photos. And whatever you do, get them scanned before you or anyone else starts trying to clean them.
Which brings me to the scanning: If you have a lot of photos that need to be scanned, it may be more cost effective for you to buy a scanner and do it yourself. You can get a very good scanner relatively cheaply and they are easy to use. You can get free photo editing software (Gimp) that has all the necessary features you need in order to fix the inevitable colour shifts and scratches in the photos, or if money is not an issue, you can get Photoshop or similar software.
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lynne_melb
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Minirose and Netla. Thanks very much for your replies.
I've done some searching on the internet, but haven't found anything yet.

Netla, I think you are the first person I've met who is from Iceland. I have a slide scanner, but I'm worried that the mold would get into the scanner and damage it. I used to live near Chicago, and a lot of amateur photographers would donate images to them. I'll try to contact them.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks
Lynne
punamytsike
16 years ago
Not really answer to your question, but some other people might find this post searching scanning slides and it might help them -
I just found and bought a neat gadget - digital duplicator, that you screw onto your camera like a lens and take a picture of the slide. This far the results are very nice :)
joyce_6333
16 years ago
I've had an HP Photo Smart scanner for almost 10 years and it does a wonderful job of scanning old slides. It scans negatives, slides, and photos up to 5 X 7 size. It was pricey at the time (close to $600 at the time), but I'd bet they have come way down in price, and probably do an even better job.
lynne_melb
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks Punamytsike and Joyce

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