Examples of Slide Scans. Lightnings and Spitfires

[itsafokker]

Following chat about dedicated slide scanners, I thought some of you may be interested in what you can achieved. I use a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000. The advantage of a slide/negative scanner is that it is built just for that job and works at very high resolutions capturing much more detail than a flatbed scanner. It can produce an image 5600 x 3800 pixels or an 18 x 12 inch image at 300dpi. These files can easily produce A4 or even A3 prints from a good condition slide.

Add to this its ability to scan the surface and electronically remove dust plus full colour correction. Not all scanners can do this so check specs before buying. The Nikon also scans to RAW formats which maximises the improvements you can make. The following examples are from some of my older slides. To post them here I have reduced them to 800 pixels width so there’s not much detail but enough for you to see the results.

The first image is not cleaned or colour corrected. It has a strong colour cast and the 2nd image is zoomed in to show the dust. The 3rd image has been cleaned and colour corrected. It has also been straightened in Photoshop.

The 4th image is a cleaned up scan and the 5th shows what can be done in Photoshop to remove annoying distractions.

To get the best out of scanners like the Nikon does take some skill but these can be learned and any Photoshop user will be ok.

I hope that’s of interest.

David