Reasons to convert your slides to digital format

These days’ nostalgia is a large part of our lives with so many things going retro or vintage. However, some items from the past can benefit from the use of modern technology. One of these things is slide digitization, where you can convert your slides to digital format.

Over time, the color and clarity of your old slides will begin to fade and they are prone to static (dust) which in turn can scratch the emulsion surface. This affects the quality of the image.

In fact, old photographic slides can be quite fragile, and must be handed with extra care. Slide digitizing services can breathe new life into your old family images and ensure they can be enjoyed for years to come, long after some of the people in the slides have passed away.

Here are three of the top benefits of using a slide digitizing service to safeguard some of your most precious memories.

Improved Quality of the Digitized Slide

No-one believes that paper, including slide photographs, will completely go away, but the sad fact is that they are not free from the damaging affects of the sun and being handled. With digital photo editing, some of the lost image quality can be restored.

Ability to Share the Digitized Slide

Only people in the same physical place can view the slides being projected. Digitizing your slides allows you to share photos of yourself, your family and your friends on the social media or you can use DropBox and We Transfer to quickly and cheaply send your digitized slides to your friends and family.

Preservation of the Digitized Slide

A recent survey found that nearly half of all parents have not yet considered how they will share their photos or videos of their children with them when they are older.

Furthermore, a lot of parents have trouble locating the slides and of their family in the first place.

Having your slides saved and convert your slides to digital format, provides the convenience of having your family images in a central (shared) location while providing the security and backup of digital storage.

Convert your Slides to Digital Format – Which Slides Should You Digitize?

Digitizing slides can be expensive, especially if you have thousands of slides. If you are on a budget you will have to view each slide and pick out the best ones that can be fitted into your budget. In this way you can reduce the cost of converting the badly composed or poorly lit shots.

If you are not on a tight budget and/or don’t have that many slides to scan, it is better to scan all the slides, as they will be much easier to sort when they are in digital format.

How to Select the Best Slides to Digitize

Here are some options that you have for viewing your slides to decide which ones to digitize:

• Hold your slide or negative up to a lamp or overhead light in your home
• If you’ve got an iPad, there’s an app called Light Pad that you can buy to use your tablet as a negative viewer
• You can use a light tracer to illuminate your image