Category — Digital Archiving & Storage

I recently posted (Part 1 and Part 2) on the DIY approach to scanning your old family 35mm slides. If you don’t mind spending the money and are not worried about shipping your slides, you might be interested in a few companies that will do all the hard work for you. Not only do these companies scan slides but they will also transfer Super 8mm films, old casettes, LPs, you name it. They are a one stop shop for converting your old analog treasures to the digital realm. You can also have them make extra copies for backup (highly recommend) and for gifts.

These two online companies were recommended here on Unclutterer.com.

Family Memories to DVD

The Photo Archival Company

If you’re a Costco member, check them out too. According to the Unclutterer article, Costco offers some transfer services as well.

So if you read Part 1, you’ve gathered your slides, purchased your 35mm slide storage box from Archival Methods, and you’re computer is set up and ready to go, so now what?!

My scanner can do four slides at a time, so I would assume most consumer scanners out there are the same.

1. Wipe down scanner bed with silk chamois.

2. Clean each slide with sild chamois, getting as much dust off as you can.

3. Your options will probably set to a default of 300dpi and 24-bit. If you plan on blowing up a really large print of a specific slide then you can choose 600dpi, 48-bit. Just a note, that the scans will take quite a bit longer at the higher dpi and bit rate.

4. Scan away!

5. Name and save files to folders you’ve created on your computer or external hard drive.

6. BACKUP! Always create a duplicate backup. Purchase an extra external hard drive just for that purpose or burn copies to DVDs. If you’re really obsessive, give some DVD copies to another family member for safe keeping. I know someone who keeps an external hard drive backup in a safety deposit box. Think about it!

7. Store slides in a cool dry place for permanent storage.

And now I’ll get into specific details. When I scan I use Photoshop, so when each set of four slides are done, the unsaved files are open on my desktop. I save my files as native Photoshop files (PSD files) and then create jpegs later. Supposedly PSD files have the most information and are also the largest file size so that’s why I first save them that way. If you’re not using Photoshop I recommend saving them at the highest quality jpeg or tiff possible. You can always make a photo smaller later but you can’t go back up without losing quality. Yes, it will take up more hard drive space but you really should keep them at highest quality.

As far as naming, there are many ways. I myself would like to do some more research about file naming photos. What I did for now, and this might change later, was name them according to event or category. So let’s say you have 100 slides from a trip to Disney World in 1984. Here’s how I would title the files: Disney_84_1, Disney84_1, or DisneyTrip_84_1. And then all you do is change the last numeral 2 to 100. If anyone else has any good ideas on naming out there, please send them my way.

Now, for file structure on your computer - I created files that exactly match the way the Archival Method Storage Box is constructed. I had so many slides that I had to buy 2 of the large boxes and 2 smaller trays for the few hundred extra leftover.

The system is constructed as follows:

1 - Master Box (holds total of 1200 slides)

6 - Slide Trays inside Master Box (hold 200 slides each)

8 - Slide Bins in each of the 6 Slide Trays (hold 25 slides each)

My folder structure on my computer is set up to mirror the physical box.

• Main folder is titled “Box One”

• In the “Box One” folder I create 6 more folders titled “Slide Tray 1, Slide Tray 2, and so on until Slide Tray 6.
• In each of the 6 “Slide Tray” folders I create 8 folders “Bin 1, Bin 2, Bin 3, thru Bin 8.”

Hopefully I’m making sense and not confusing you, but if you follow this method, you’ll always be able to account for all your slides or go back and scan something again if necessary. You’ll easily be able to locate the specific slide.

Well, that’s it! Happy scanning!

If you read my recent post you know I just finished a massive slide scanning project. I’ll now help you get started on your own project by giving you tips and some product recommendations to get you going.

1. Collect

Get all your slides together and consolidate to one location, in as few boxes as necessary. Most likely when your slides were developed they came in small containers, plastic and/or cardboard. I’ll be suggesting a better storage solution for final storage but for now if you have your slides in those types of containers, that’s great. Just get them all together, lined up and ready to scan.

2. Tools

You gathered your slides, now get your scanning gear together. You’ll need the following:

• Scanner that has adapters for slides and negatives. Seems obvious, but some scanners do not have that feature. Make sure yours does if not then you’ll have to buy or borrow a scanner that does have these features. My personal preference is an Epson scanner.
• Cloth for cleaning scanner bed and slides. You can purchase a specialty cloth at a photography store or use a silk chamois that is used for wiping prescription eyeglasses clean. I found the silk chamois worked better for me and you can pick one up anywhere that sells eyeglasses. You’re going to want to eliminate as much dust ahead time so you’re not fixing it after with software - a time consuming process.
• The MUST purchase, the 35mm Slide Storage System from one of my favorite stores, Archival Methods. You will love this archival quality, storage solution for your slides. It will aide in how you name and organize your scanned files on your computer. I HIGHLY recommend it. .

• Lastly, make sure you have software loaded on your computer that talks to your scanner. Do a test run before you get going. I installed a plugin in Photoshop that controls my Epson scanner but my scanner also came with its own stand alone software. Scanners will come with software or you can look into acquiring another piece of software such as VueScan. I’ve never tried VueScan but it seems to get good reviews and probably has a few more features than you’re included software. The standard version is $39.95 and the professional version is $79.95. Available for Macs and PCs.

Once you’re all set up, my next post will get you scanning away!

This past weekend I finished a very long project that I started over a year ago, scanning and digitally archiving every 35mm slide in my family’s possession.  First of all, I come from a family of crazy photo takers. On top of that every photo from about 1967 to 1984 exist mostly as slides.  All in all there were just under 3000 slides.  I have an Epson scanner and Photoshop and embarked on the task of scanning all these slides to preserve them and to finally be able to see and enjoy what was on all of them.  It was a very time consuming process but so completely worth it.  

I started my mission by first locating all the slides that were completely disorganized all over the house - in the basement, in drawers in the office, in boxes with print photos, still in slide projector carousels even though we no longer have a slide projector - You get the picture.  All these amazing treasures of photos and memories had become clutter.  Yikes!  That’s the kind of state they were in…complete chaos.  So I started scanning, and scanning, and scanning.  Anytime I had some spare time I’d scan.   I can scan 4 at a time and it takes a few minutes for each tray to scan.  So with almost 3000 slides you get an idea of what a project it was.  After when I was all done with my insane project, or so I’d thought, I’d find more slides and more slides, and right before I moved I even found a few hundred more.  I brought that last bunch with me to complete the project.

This weekend was truly the last all the slides. Phew! I can’t believe I actually finished and I can’t believe I even started it in the first place.  It was one of those someday/maybe kind of projects but once I got going I was on a mission.  It was so much fun, and so meaningful to discover what was on so many of the slides that we had all forgotten or in many cases had never even seen.  Stored on my external hard drive I started taking my disk around to different family member’s houses and showing them iPhoto slideshows of all these amazing photos. I burned DVDs and took them on my trip to the former Yugoslavia this summer and shared photos with my aunts that took them back 25-30 years and they just loved it.  I’ve made prints and enlargements and shared with other family members.  It was totally worth it.  

In recent years, with how cheap computer storage has become, I’ve really gotten into digitally archiving old analog and print media.  I’ve transferred old Super 8mm films to MiniDV, finished my crazy slide project, and next I’ve been scanning old black and white photos that have no copies or negatives, where the only copy in existence is that ONE photo. 

I know many of you out there also have ambitions of getting all your family photos in order and would like to do something like I’ve done to preserve the old stuff. I’ll address these topics in more detail in upcoming posts. Today, I just wanted to share my accomplishment