Doing something beautiful

[PH XKR]

Over the years the family and youtube has got to see some of my stop motion video's as it is something I love to do. Through a random conversation at the weekend I am now the proud curator of my late uncles slide collection dating back to the mid-60s through to late 80s/early 90s.

He sadly passed 20 years back through a brain tumour, he was the closest man (other than my dad) to me and I grieved for years as his passing had such a massive impact.

So imagine my delight at now having over 1000 slides to scan in and see pictures of my family no one has seen in decades. Some will be of myself as a child and I cannot wait to get to them.

Each slide was processed by Kodak so they all have their unique numbers but they are all out of order in the reels, so task one will be to sort each reel one at a time and proceed to scan and document. It is hard to guage at the minute to see how long the task will take. There are so many reels, each of which takes approx. 120 slides and I haven't counted the boxes but definitely more than ten.

This will take some time, fortunately I am between contracts so I have time to dedicate. The other members of the family (his kids) don't know I am doing this so it will be a super special surprise for them too.

I will hopefully be able to post one or two pics, or films of the slides once done but will use this to trace my progress.

For Christmas I was bought a slide scanner that can feed slides through but it is a portable unit and, whilst ok, doesn't do the justice these need so just retrieved a trusty old dedicated slide scanner from the loft and trying to get it to work in Windows10.... this is going to take months!

[PH XKR]

Simpo Two said:

I started a similar project a few years ago, took a break after about 200 - and never restarted!

Good luck with your task (BTW the round holders are called carousels).

yes but I cannot spell that

[PH XKR]

Already have that used to run a studio but now just do it for fun but thanks for the tip!

[PH XKR]

Fortunately the flatbed does 4 at a time, does wb, backlight correction and colour restoration. Done the first carousel, was weird to see my uncle finally.... Then seeing a picture of my mum in her teens for the first time its striking to see resemblance with my daughter! After that seeing her pregnant with myself, first time for that. Oh and seeing Manchester airport back in the early 70s with a Dan air plane was rather cool.

Well 1 down, 9 to go.

[PH XKR]

For the purpose of the exercise the resolution is being kept reasonable, not excessive. The slides are being scanned at approx. 460% at a good dpi, this produces a good quality image that prints out good and shows nicely on screen. Would be nice to do more than 4 at a time but its not taking that much time and as you said at 16 a time it wont be any quicker, just less scan jobs.

[PH XKR]

fortunately all these slides are Kodachrome so it is consistent tone. I've not done any for over a week as I have been ill but her 70th birthday is soon and its put the impetus on to continue. I calculate approximately 20 hours of copying, curating and then sorting before I put them into a nice film.

[PH XKR]

4 cassettes completed, been a bit under the weather so lacked motivation but now powering through and should be able to complete 2 per day. 400 slides scanned in, epic to see my mum as a child. Seeing the scary resemblance to my own daughter. Pictures I'd never seen. The last cassett was a slog as it was holiday photos but now getting interesting. Oldest cousin born, 1st year, 2nd year, then my other cousin born. 400 down, 700 to go.

[PH XKR]

Finished the first batch of 1103 slides. Theres about 100 in lose packages to do but I leave for Belgium in the morning, will finish them next weekend. Wanted to get this lot back to the rightful owner before I lose time.