Latest update on the 35mm slide scanning part of the project.
For the SlideSnap Pro system we ended up with a camera/lens stack that includes the Fuji XT2, a Fuji to Nikon mount converter, a Kiron 2x Teleconverter and my old MicroNikkor Macro lens. We did not send the lens out for refurbishment. Yes, the lens was/is hard to focus but the advantage is once focusing is finally done it sticks there.
The final decision was to save only JPEG files for this go-round. Actual realized scan resolution is about 3200dpi. This is good enough for cataloging and most purposes. The quality of the pictures doesn't really warrant more resolution for most of them. Those few that do need a higher resolution can be re-done later.
My workflow is:
- Sort slides into rolls based on known data, the printed processing date on the slide mount, the subject and any other clues you can find.
- Clean Slides and place into carousels with a blank title/separator slide between rolls or batches of pictures that will be treated as a roll for cataloging. Slides should be in order from lowest frame number to highest within a given roll. The ideal number for a batch of carousels seems to be 3 or 4 80 slide carousels. More than that and they are sitting around too long after scanning. Fewer and the efficiency of doing the same task at once is not there. 140 slide carousels do not seem to work as well and are subject to more jamming especially with older slides that are slightly or significantly warped.
- Run the SlideSnap scanner saving as JPEG files on a high speed card. Slow SD cards do not work well.
- Copy raw scans onto hard drive and onto backup server drive. Once verified then erase the card.
- Check all the slides to be sure you have them in the correct orientation. Rotate any that are actually portrait format now. I'm using Preview on the Mac but any simple editing package will work.
- Run the SlideSnap Pro AutoCropper tool to remove the excess black border. I found that these settings provided the best results for me. Sensitivity 2 Normal
overcrop % 2
Check the move suspected bad crops to subfolder uncropped instead of cropping option
Output is to specific folder Use 2 Old_Slide_After_Border_Removal
Check the retain source folder name checkbox
80 slides takes about 2 minutes
- Check all cropped images to verify they are ok. Check and manually crop any uncropped images. I use Preview for this as well.
- Using “A Better Finder Rename 10” edit the file names to be the appropriate Resource Group, Roll and frame number according to our Resource Group descriptions and file naming convention as you take each roll out of the carousel. It’s important to do the renaming as you take the slides out of the carousel. That’s the only way to get the image numbers to match the slide image numbers properly. It goes pretty fast though. Rename the images to match the printed frame number if there is one.
- As you rename the slides place a PAT safe divider with the RG and Roll number. The divider goes in front of the slides. Place the finished slides in roll number order in a storage box. Keep all of one resource group together. Slides that are unlabeled do not get any additional labeling done at this time.
- Update my project document in the Resource Groups section with the number of images, the roll number and any additional information. If there is a processing date on the slide mounts add that to the description.
- Put each Roll into it’s own subfolder per my Resource Group naming conventions
- Move the roll folders into the top level for that resource group on main server in the Scanned Old_Pictures_Ready_For_Import folder
- When you are ready to import into LightRoom move the folders into the folder Picture_Files_Cataloged in the sub Folder for this Resource Group on main server.
- Import into LightRoom with an add in place as you’ve done all the prep work of rotations and renames. I am adding my own custom metadata presets for each roll. These include process keywords, film type as well as basic copyright info etc.
This entire process of cleaning, organizing, scanning, renaming files and importing into Lightroom is taking less than 2 minutes per slide.
The procedure seems onerous but having the separate steps means I can stop at any stage and come back to it hours, days or weeks later and pick up exactly where I left off. I haven't needed a proper written checklist but I have considered creating one in Omnifocus so I can track exactly where I am with each batch of carousels. So far I can stop or start without too much hassle because of how I do things.
One interesting discovery is that as we find slides I missed in my initial collection process it's fairly easy to set up a single carousel with all the orphan slides I've found, scan them and slot them into their respective resource group and roll in the filing system and in Lightroom because the image files are named with slide frame numbers. That preserves the shooting sequence in the filename which has proven important for proper cataloging later.
Cataloging is a whole separate step and is proceeding much more slowly because I have to have the parties involved, me, my stepdad and my husband all sitting around the monitor telling me what the images are of and the other data I need to properly catalog them. At least I'm getting them in and ready to be cataloged. Average seems to be about 2-3 minutes per slide to fully finish the cataloging in LR.
Another step that is in work is to develop a workflow for using Amazon Web Services' Amazon Glacier to maintain a deep storage backup of all the image files and a more current in regular AWS space the Lightroom catalog. I can do it all manually but I'm looking at some automation of the process using ARQ to create a proper archive (in Amazon's use of the term). Not totally happy with my procedures now and still learning so that one is on hold until I figure it all out.
Hope this is of use to others considering a big slide archive/scanning project.