[LeighWillaston]

I have a vast collection of 35 mm.colour slides, and wish to capture them on my computer.

I don't possess or have easy access to a scanner, but I do have a 35 mm. projector.

I am considering projecting my slides onto a white surface, and photographing them with my digital camera.

Has anyone done this, who can advise me on any of the finer points of the process?

thanks,

LeighWillaston

[Don Schaeffer]

I tried that a long time ago. You can't stand right in front of the photo because you cast a shadow on it, so you always have angular distortion. Its very hard to get a decent exposure level and good contrast. The texture of the screen comes into play. If you can get a strong macro filter, enough to give you one on one, copy the slides using a light stand or a slide copier that attaches to your camera. It does pay to buy or borrow a scanner or get it done commercially at any Staples or Office Depot etc..

[shuttertalk]

I would probably think that it would be hard to get the colour and saturation to an acceptable level, and it would also depend on the quality of your projector... but definitely not the best solution.

As Don suggested - perhaps a renting a slide scanner would be a good bet - some have holders that can scan a few slides at a time...

Welcome to Shuttertalk!

[NT73]

http://www.plustek.com/product/7200.asp
My slide scanner came from jessops and was around £100 Sterling. after getting used to it it gives excellent results.:
We have a flatbed scanner with a built in adaptor for slides but it was taking far too long .
The plustech comes with software which more or less operates the scanner for you and the software program has spot/dust removal and various processing tools which can be automated. This makes scanning and finishing the slide quicker. The model with the (i suffix) has a few extra refinements.
There is a Silverfast website (software) as well with a forum.
We have around 20years worth of slides (a lot) Ain't done them all yet though.
Best of luck whatever.
Link to a scanned photo with a slight crop off the top. Original was portrait mode.
Somewhere off Nathan Rd. HK.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=6comt1u

[matthew]

Hi Leigh;

I have taken photos of slides as a way of quickly documenting and distributing them, so I didn't spend a lot of time on the setup. As Don points out, you'll always have distortion in the geometry of the image, and Jules is right about the saturation, too. Here's an example of how mine came out:



The results could be made better by taking more time with the setup. Mounting the camera on a tripod directly behind and above the projector would remove most of the distortion, and make sure that the screen is square to them both. You'd need to experiment with the length of the exposure to get the best results, and take a manual white balance with just the projector light if you can. Also make sure that you're using a good screen, because any surface imperfections or colour cast will be captured along with the image. All of the creases in my sample were introduced by the 36" white reflector that I was using as an impromptu screen.

Here's what the same slide looks like with a scanner:



As you can see, there's a bit of a difference. Not only is the geometry perfect and the sharpness vastly improved, but it also has the correct colour and tone. Look at the highlights on the trunk of the car: in the projected slide it's blown out and featureless, but in the scanned slide it's detailed and separate highlights. The scan also is much higher resolution; scanned at 4000dpi, it makes a 48MB TIFF file that happily produced an 8x12 print. That size is pushing the limits of a 38-year-old 35mm snapshot even when printed directly, so that's not a limitation of the scanner.

I'm using a Nikon Cooscan V, which is a dedicated transparency scanner. It scans one slide at a time and it takes about five minutes to do one slide, from taking it out of the box to saving the finished file. Flatbed scanners are cheaper and can scan batches, but don't give the same resolution.

A third option may be a slide holder attachment for a macro lens, or one that can fit on your camera if it's an all-in-one with a macro mode. This lets you photograph the slide directly with your camera. I've never seen or used one myself, but it may be another option for you.

Welcome to shuttertalk! Let us know what you decide and how it turns out.

[digitalzen]

All of the above remarks are valid, especially those about screen quality and distortion. I would use as close to a perfectly smooth surface as possible. Perhaps white poster board, projected close, but you will need a matte finish. Otherwise glare from the projector bulb will give you uneven lighting. You will have to be extremely careful about the projector focus, as well. All in all, a slide-copying setup with a macro lens would be much better.

That said, I have had reasonably good results doing as above, aligning camera and projector as closely as possible and using Photoshop Elements for straightening of distortion and other adjustments. Required tweaking every image, though. I wouldn't do it except in an emergency.

You also get a great deal better resolution with a scan. If the project isn't imperative, I'd store my slides in a cool, dry place with a packet of silica gel and wait until I could get a scanner.