Window into the Past
For a couple of months, I’ve been converting old film slides to digital.
Crates, tubs, and zip-lock bags full of slides from 135, 126, and medium format were left behind by Grandparents on both sides. Before you could share your photos online, or on your TV, they were shared with a projector. Now, to preserve those memories, and to remember the people who took them, I have worked to bring them to digital format. At this point I’ve digitized, and edited, over 1,200 photos. It is about time that I shared some of them here, and showed some of my process.
Different sizes of slides had different requirements for digitizing. Above, on the left, is a Kodak film and slide scanner that I bought Mom a couple Christmases ago. She never got around to this project due to its scale. Turns out, it is really good at digitizing most slides and negatives. Grandpa Moore’s collections were mostly in that 135 format, and some in the smaller square, 126 format that scanned easily in the Kodak. Grandpa Berger, however, shot most of his slides in a much larger medium format camera. Without spending thousands of dollars converting these, I worked out a way to hold, back light, and shoot these slides with my phone (Pictured above on the right).
Not all of the photos taken were well-preserved, and not all of them really hit focus. Still, they show a glimpse of the past. More importantly, I think, they show what the photographer found worth remembering. Now to share some of my favorites:
