Thursday, February 23, 2012

Scanning Old Negatives & Slides

I've made a discovery and feel like perhaps I'm the last to know... is it common knowledge that you can buy photo scanners (relatively inexpensively) that will scan 35mm film negatives (B&W and color) and even 35mm slides? It's very cool, especially if you're like our family and have boxes and binders full of 35mm film negatives and positives. So I purchased an Epson V500 Photo Scanner from Amazon and I'm very pleased. It gives you lots of options with regard to image quality, and the end result is great. And in today's digital world, you can take your scanned image and touch it up in PS and make it look even better than the original!
One of my favorites... left to right, my Mom, Grandmother and Grandfather out for a drive in their Buick Roadmaster (1949?). What a beauty, and look at all that chrome!! Scanned from a B&W negative.


Another fun photo... scanned from a print I've had in my office for about 15 years... that's my wife, son, daughter, and pet dinosaur out at Cabazon (notice dino's nice smile for the photo and "hand" on my wife's shoulder; and my daughter is missing some front teeth... fun times!).  
The next two photos are from 35mm Kodachrome slides. I used to shoot a lot of Kodachrome, and I have a bunch of binders full of slides in my office. At one point I was going to throw them away because I didn't know what else to do with them. Thank goodness I didn't!

Both of these photos were taken years ago from my Sister-in-law's deck overlooking Kona. So beautiful... almost makes me want to go out and start shooting film again!!
Have a great weekend. Linking to 
Skywatch Friday. Heading out to the 
desert this weekend for a family reunion...
hope to have some good desert shots to post.

39 comments:

  1. those look really great! time to get a rebirth!

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  2. awwwwww...wonderful memories! super love the second to the last picture...what a beauty!

    thanks for dropping by at www.explorerminded.com

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  3. wow! nice one for SWF, magnificent sight!! Happy weekend! Hoping you can visit my skywatch post.

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  4. WOW! Your Grandpa kept a shiny, clean car. Love those old photos and the sunsets on film are spectacular. I don't really miss film, though...

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  5. Love the vintage photo...I think the chrome is beautiful....and those whitewalls!! The sunsets are stunning. What fun it will be to go through all those slides....

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  6. Great shots, I'm really intrigued with the scanner. My father has lots and lots of negatives and slides from his stepfather and other relatives.

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  7. This is amazing...who knew? certainly not me. I love all of them. Those sunsets are amazing!!!

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    1. I must really like the word "amazing"! Ha!!!

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  8. So nice to get the old photos archived. Thank goodness I've only had to scan prints so far. Nice sunset shots. Have fun in the desert.

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  9. That Buick Roadmaster is one of a few cars I always wanted to have someday and restore. I guess I jumped the gun on the 35mm stuff. I tossed all my slides years ago. How did I know technology would someday come up with a scanner for them?

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  10. It's fun looking at old photos! The sky over Kona is to die for! Wow!

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  11. Glad to hear that you didn't throw your slides! Lovely pictures.

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  12. Old pictures are precious..glad you found a way to restore them. The sunsets are breathtaking!

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  13. Wow !! the yellow sun sinking into the purple sea is gorgeous ! You are right about old prints that can look better than the originals once scanned .. I have been scanning a lot those days too !

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  14. I am glad you kept these old photos, they are beautiful. The last two shots are gorgeous. Happy Skywatching!

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  15. Great collection of photos, we too have boxes to be developed, we live in a very different world now where we don't have one of those film developing booths in the car park of every shopping centre.

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  16. Never throw anything away - I don't have slides but do have lost of old photos which I've had good fun with scanning and have also found PaintShop Pro can bring out some good detail from my early digital photos too.

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  17. That must be a wonderful discovery, Peter.
    Specially the last two shots are great for Skywatch Friday.
    Thanks for sharing and enjoy your weekend.

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  18. Oh, I didn't know that either! I have boxes full of old slides out in the garage, too, and many of them were those my father took. I'll have to get one of those scanners! Thanks for the tip! I can't wait to see them now!

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  19. How lucky you are to have such a treasure of memories. Beautiful sunset!

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  20. This is great to know. The printer is so efficient in the reproduction! I think I still have my negatives. Thanks for the tip!

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  21. The second sunset shot is magnificent. I love the rich colours!

    I have an Epson V700 scanner and use it all the time. It's a bit of hassle, scanning all those old (and new!) slides, but the quality is great. I wish you much joy of your new toy...

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  22. Such awesome photos here. Thanks for sharing.

    SWF

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  23. Great info - thanks for that. I've heard of people paying hundreds of $$$'s to get their old pics archived.

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  24. Beautiful photos.

    Regards and best wishes

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  25. I'm glad you have discovered the fun of scanning - I used to run a meme for scanned photos. I spent around $100 on my scanner, and it did a great job with all my old prints and slides, and was even smart enough to scan several at once, figuring out where they were and putting each in its own file (mine is an older version of yours, an Epson V300). I try to post one old scanned photo each Saturday, as I spent a couple of weekends getting all my old photos scanned to digital. I like yours a lot!

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  26. Love the oranges and purples in the Kona sunset!

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  27. beautiful photo; and nice blog; bravo. From Romania ,Sebastian

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  28. All the early photos (and quite a few of the later ones) on my blog were scanned. But I've never tried scanning negatives! Will have to give it a go if it gets results like yours!!

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  29. Hi there - I have a drawer of a filing full of slides! I have scanned a few - I miss some aspects of film - and the packages in the post is one of them.

    I shot more the a few rolls of Kodachrome in my time and the colour still knocks me over - and then they made Velvia!

    Cheers from the world that still remembers slides!

    Stewart M

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  30. Nice car. I love that shot. So rustic.

    Beautiful shot of the sunset. Love the colours.

    Alexander
    Alex's World! - http://www.kakinan.com/alex

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  31. Love the photos you scanned! Your family is beautiful. As are the skies!

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  32. I need to do that..but I need an new scanner first..I like these..Michelle

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  33. Love the colors in the sunset images.

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  34. Wonderful scanned photos! I should work on doing that when we're back in Oregon (where all our old photo albums and boxes and boxes of slides reside in storage at our daughter's home). Somehow in my head I am singing "don't take my kodachrome away". Sadly, they did!(But I also remember being careful not to take too many pictures because we couldn't afford to process millions of them!)

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  35. Totally cool. What a great thing. Before this was an option, I sent my negs and the like to Scan Cafe. It's great the technology can help us preserve these things.

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  36. A Buick Roadmaster? I couldn't tell, but it's a beauty!!! Greats shots, all of them.

    Irene

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