I spent at least half my photographic life shooting film. Color and b/w neg, transparency, even some crazy "instant" roll films from Polaroid (waaay back). I had a VERY small sampling of these, going as far back as the 1980's, scanned to Kodak Photo CD. Well, I was able to pull some of my favorite images from that Photo CD and published them in an earlier project. However, that project - and the memories it brought back - fired my desire to start digitizing my slide film collection.
My research started with the obvious; buying a flatbed film scanner. But the more I read, the more I realized I wasn't going to find a film scanner I would be happy with, at a price that didn't bleed out my pocket book.
So, I started looking at other alternatives and after more research, decided that a slide copying attachment for my DSLR was the route to go. It offered the benefits of focus control, moderately hi-resolution (Nikon D7000) and - very important to me - RAW capture. The images you see below are my first captures. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm getting decent quality files, and with some tweaking in Lightroom and/or Photoshop, I'm producing results I am happy with.
The device I settled on was the Opteka HD2 slide copier. I had to buy a couple step-down rings in order to attach the copier to my Sigma 70mm macro lens, but all in all, it was a very affordable solution. The Opteka is a little awkward to work with, but I quickly got a rhythm going and once I was set up, I easily duplicated 24 slides in under 20 minutes. The hard work (if you can call it that) was working in Lightroom and occasionally Photoshop to crop, straighten and remove dust/processing residue from the captures.
This collection will likely change. As I digitize more images, I'll likely break out projects based on year, location or even film type, to keep the scroll manageable.
Enjoy!
One of my absolute favorite Polapan images. So happy to finally have a RAW digital version of this image. I shot this back in 1987.
Greece - 1990
This series will DEFINITELY get it's own project, as soon as I dig up the rest of the selects.
Mexico
Toronto
Polaroid Polacolor instant slide film. I have some other images I'm dying to digitize that were shot with this film. It's not nearly as "nice" as the Polapan film, but it does have its own distinctive character.
Florida
Wasaga Beach - 1980's
Not Egypt. A sandcastle at the front entrance of a long-gone amusement park in Wasaga Beach
Cottage Country, Ontario
This is another favorite, story-telling image of mine. A lot of challenges with the sky though, as the image had a lot of dust/dirt. I started off by using the spot removal tool in Lightroom, but quickly realized I'd be at it for 30 - 60 minutes, if I was lucky. So, instead, I moved the image over to Photoshop and after making a selection with the Quick Selection Brush, I applied the good old Dust and Scratches filter. I had to tweak the settings, but it did an awesome job. In under 5 minutes.
Check out the associated Work in Progress (WIP) for a couple other before/after examples.
I've updated this image, applying more spot retouching applied.
More spot removal applied to this image recently, along with tweaks to Vibrance and Clarity to create a richer, more dreamlike image.
