What do you do with slides?

StoneNYC · Jan 4, 2013

coigach said:
I agree that most folks shoot slides these days to scan.

I've been shooting dr5 reverse processed b+w slides on a long-term project I aim to show as a book, all from either 6x7 or 6x17 medium format slides. Slides scan beautifully, with oodles of detail and have a particular 'look' I love.

And I also scan to create enlarged negs / pos for alternative processes such as photogravure.

Why do B&W slides scan better than B&W negatives? Is there less grain too?

I want to understand all this .
Also, you have a 6x17 slide projector??? How?

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

AgX · Jan 4, 2013

RattyMouse said:
What kind of slide projector does medium format? Do they still make them or do you have to go garage sailing to find one.

There are at least 29 models offered new from the manufacturers from 35mm to 6x7cm.

Braun:
http://www.braun-phototechnik.de/en/products/list/~pcat.106/Diatechnik.html

DHW (Rollei):
http://www.dhw-fototechnik.de/de/rolleivision-projektoren.html

Götschmann:
http://www.gecko-cam.com/sales/goetschmann/produkte-products/

RBT:
http://www.rbt-3d.de/index.php?idcat=30&idart=72&changelang=4

Reflecta:
https://reflecta.de/en/products/list/~pcat.5/Dia-Projektoren.html

(Type 110 and 4x5" projectors are no longer made.)

Lionel1972 · Jan 4, 2013

I love slides! I own a 35mm projector and a 6x6 projector. Very spectacular projected. But I also love diving into the slides with a good loupe (I actually use a 50mm lens wide open as a loupe) in front of a white page (try blank.org) on my computer screen. The polarized light from the screen works very well to eliminate the Callier effect of regular light (which tends to make all the tiny imperfections of the film base too visible). I need to hold the slide about one inch from the surface of the screen in order to avoid seeing my screen's pixels through the slide). It is a mind-blowing experience where you feel as if you could touch the subjects.
I shoot 4x5 slides too and always get a kick out of gazing into them with the loupe but I also got amazed how good they can look projected in my 4x5 enlarger. The light is dim but wow it feels like you could touch the virtual print.

Steve Roberts · Jan 4, 2013

I primarily project 35mm slides but do also scan them for publication or for producing prints. Secondhand 35mm projectors can be had for next to nothing - in fact I've had a couple of Kodak Carousels literally for nothing but still cherish the S-AV 2000 that I bought for what seemed a fortune in 1978!

Steve

BMbikerider · Jan 4, 2013

RattyMouse said:
I just got back from the lab a roll of Provia 100F. I am continually amazed at the level of color in this film, although the skin tones sometimes seem too saturated. Still, it is a very impressive film and can be viewed by eye a bit as I am shooting 6 x 4.5. The slides are so impressive that I am tempted to shoot an even larger format, possibly 6 x 7. But I'm wondering how most people use slides that they make. Projecting is not very common is it? Are slides enjoyable just looking on a light table? Do you also use a loupe? Do you find (insert the word that dare not be used here)-ing them to be satisfactory?

I am tempted to shoot more Provia film, but at the end of the day, it seems that I am confused at how best to use them. The computer screen perhaps is not my answer even though that is the easiest.

Sorry for rambling on.....

I too use slide film, although not as much as I would like to - it is getting too expensive. Yes I project them, why not that is what they were designed for isn't it. The main reason I like slides is the sharpness, far better than ANY projected digital image I have ever seen. Nor are they as well saturated either. I know you can increase the saturation with digital but that then seems very artificial. There is also a challenge of getting them right which with digital images that has gone and so has my interest. Besides a digital projector and a decent laptop cost far more than a half decent projector.

davidmasek · Jan 4, 2013

I project both 6x6 and 35mm slides. Recently, I got a Rollei P66 projector for 20eur or so, and two nice Leitz projectors for 35mm for another 20eur, so it does not have to be always that expensive. It gives me the advantage of being able to project old family slides in addition to slides that I shot. Btw. most of the old slides (60´s) are ok, just some turn to magenta color. It depends on the material, I guess. Not to mention making and projecting 3D slides, that is a nice hobby too...

wogster · Jan 4, 2013

RattyMouse said:
I just got back from the lab a roll of Provia 100F. I am continually amazed at the level of color in this film, although the skin tones sometimes seem too saturated. Still, it is a very impressive film and can be viewed by eye a bit as I am shooting 6 x 4.5. The slides are so impressive that I am tempted to shoot an even larger format, possibly 6 x 7. But I'm wondering how most people use slides that they make. Projecting is not very common is it? Are slides enjoyable just looking on a light table? Do you also use a loupe? Do you find (insert the word that dare not be used here)-ing them to be satisfactory?

I am tempted to shoot more Provia film, but at the end of the day, it seems that I am confused at how best to use them. The computer screen perhaps is not my answer even though that is the easiest.

Sorry for rambling on.....

I don't know, this was a problem I faced back in 1982, Cibachromes as they were known then, were good, but expensive, and I didn't have a projector, and knew that getting one, was a good way to lose all my friends, so I added the 10 rolls or so of slides I had to the archives, and they are still there. I have not seriously looked at them, in probably 20 years or so, other then looking at a couple a few years ago, during a scanning project. I gave up on the scanning project when, I realized how much of my early work, from back then, was complete crap.... The real way to use slides though, is projection, the key to a good slide show is you need 5-6 minutes of really good stuff, rather then 50-60 minutes of mostly mediocre stuff.

Us boomers, all remember sitting through aunt Ethels, 9,000,000 slide show where 8,999,983 of them were Uncle Henry, standing in front of some landmark or another, in that same tweed suit, with the same hat, and same pained look on his face, as Ethel droned on stories of the trip we had all heard at least 25,000 times before. Latin has the perfect term for those shows, ad nausium, as in the show seems to go on ad nausium.....

StoneNYC · Jan 4, 2013

Lionel1972 said:
I love slides! I own a 35mm projector and a 6x6 projector. Very spectacular projected. But I also love diving into the slides with a good loupe (I actually use a 50mm lens wide open as a loupe) in front of a white page (try blank.org) on my computer screen. The polarized light from the screen works very well to eliminate the Callier effect of regular light (which tends to make all the tiny imperfections of the film base too visible). I need to hold the slide about one inch from the surface of the screen in order to avoid seeing my screen's pixels through the slide). It is a mind-blowing experience where you feel as if you could touch the subjects.
I shoot 4x5 slides too and always get a kick out of gazing into them with the loupe but I also got amazed how good they can look projected in my 4x5 enlarger. The light is dim but wow it feels like you could touch the virtual print.

You actually own a 4x5 slide projector? Have you ever projected those onto the side of a building? That would be cool, such detail.

Why is the lamp light full? Can you get a higher intensity bulb?

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

cliveh · Jan 4, 2013

Slides are great to view as they have a much greater brightness value than prints, because you are viewing them by transmitted light (as are the pictures on your computer screen) as opposed to reflected light for a print. I think all the ways they can be used have already been mentioned. However, may I add that if you are doing alternative processes that require contact printing with a negative, then starting with a positive transparency means you can go straight to neg, instead of neg - pos - neg - pos.

polyglot · Jan 4, 2013

StoneNYC said:
You actually own a 4x5 slide projector? Have you ever projected those onto the side of a building? That would be cool, such detail.

Why is the lamp light full? Can you get a higher intensity bulb?

I'm pretty sure he said 4x5 enlarger, which is a not-uncommon item. I intend to make a 6x7 projector by modifying an enlarger with a HID lamp and faster lens.

Jim Rice · Jan 5, 2013

Actually 6x7 slides through a semi-modern lantern slide projector (I had a WW-II era Bauch and Lomb) can be very nice. I projected onto an outside wall of my white frame house. Slight color fringing but plenty sharp and cheap.

Alan Klein · Jan 5, 2013

I scan and show them on a HDTV screen. I realize that's DPUG, but that's what I do. Pictures look great.

adelorenzo · Jan 5, 2013

I shot a bunch of medium format Provia in the last year. They look terrific until I scan them and then I am inevitably dissapointed. I'm not sure where to go from here, I'm only shooting black and white until I can figure it out.

I have all kinds of color printing stuff for my darkroom so I'm considering trying color negative film so I can at least print it someday. Shame they don't make Cibachrome/Ilfochrome materials anymore as I have all the gear.

StoneNYC · Jan 5, 2013

adelorenzo said:
I shot a bunch of medium format Provia in the last year. They look terrific until I scan them and then I am inevitably dissapointed. I'm not sure where to go from here, I'm only shooting black and white until I can figure it out.

I have all kinds of color printing stuff for my darkroom so I'm considering trying color negative film so I can at least print it someday. Shame they don't make Cibachrome/Ilfochrome materials anymore as I have all the gear.

I just read on another forum you can duplicate them onto color negative film then print that.

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

StoneNYC · Jan 5, 2013

polyglot said:
I'm pretty sure he said 4x5 enlarger, which is a not-uncommon item. I intend to make a 6x7 projector by modifying an enlarger with a HID lamp and faster lens.

Haha whoops

~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

Ap507b · Jan 5, 2013

I have several boxes of E6 Fuji slides dating back to the mid 80's & when I projected them recently didn't see a single one that had any sign of age related problems.

Paul Verizzo · Jan 5, 2013

RattyMouse said:
Anyone want to discuss my questions?

What? You think people should stick to the topic on an APUG forum? What a radical concept!

Yeah, it annoys me to no end.

Here is what I do:

1. Scan them at a dpi appropriate for not only the film size, but the intended use and perceived importance and quality. Family snaps on the low side, especially if color shifted.

2. Back up both on site and off site with a service like Carbonite or Backblaze.

3. Once done with 2, toss 'em. OK, I don't toss my Dad's 4x5 Kodachromes, but who needs a projector for that? And I am SO cute at 5 months of age! Ha ha....

4. Share. Once they are digitized, so easy. "Hey, daughters, look at your old hippy dad!" Can't do that with slides.

5. Sigh when I look at my projector and screen. "What's that thing, grandpa?"

I have a box of photos and slides that survived a fire in 1988. Some came through amazingly well, although lots of carbon on the surfaces, others came through not at all, melted the film. The lesson learned is that although it is easier to lose your data than physical stuff, it can still happen to the latter. With digitizing and back ups, everything is safe as long as you pay your fee to the service. Storage used to be completely passive, now, not so much. Things change.

ME Super · Jan 5, 2013

My 35mm slides are both projected and scanned. The 6MP lab scans at time of developing are good enough for sharing online and small prints (up to 8x10). Slides look amazing projected at 2x3m on the side of the garage or at 4x6ft on the wall.

My 12-y.o. son has been infected with the slide bug too.

nworth · Jan 8, 2013

Slides have a unique and attractive look. When projected in a dark room, they create a certain magic. The bright colors and high contrast are what do it. I still have a slide projector, but I haven't used it in years. I have scanned many of my slides, and sometimes print them. The affect is not really the same, but you can make some great prints from them. 645 and 6X6 transparencies used to be mounted and projected as well, and projectors for these 120 sizes were commonly available. I haven't seen any, even on the used market, for years. A few projectors were made for 6X7, but that never really took off. I'm old enough to remember lantern slides (roughly 3X4 inches). With the right mask, you could project 6X9 transparencies with one of those.

AgX · Jan 8, 2013

For new MF slide projectors see post #4.

ME Super · Jan 8, 2013

nworth said:
... I still have a slide projector, but I haven't used it in years. I have scanned many of my slides, and sometimes print them. The affect is not really the same, but you can make some great prints from them. ...

I went 12 years without dragging out the projector. When I did, the results blew me away and that is what brought me back to film. Now it comes out every couple months or so. My projector is an inexpensive Vivitar model, and if that can blow me away, imagine what a better projector/lens would do! You really should get your projector out and load up a tray with slides.

Mike Wilde · Jan 8, 2013

I shoot transparencies, and usually just slot them into negative filing pages unmounted.

A while later I may mount 35mm (I do this myself, lots of mounts on hand and the gear to use them).

MF get scanned if the urge siezes me.

4x5 I put into black matt mounting outlines and an acetate sleeve and sit on the window sill. People see a 4x5 transparency and say wow most of the time.

I also shoot spluges of 35mm and 4x5 copy camera work as a way to document old paperwork or artwork things from around the house that we want a record of, but to free ourselves of the actual original. An old Polaroid MP3 copy camera with lenses to cover 35mm and 4x5 with good 4 way copy lights and a 20x24 glass platten is a big help in this respect.

A bunch is ephemera- theatre production posters, programs, cast listings and thank you cards from a particular production. My wife and I have done over 50 theatrical productions between us in community theatre within the last 15 years, and the momentoes boxes were starting to seriously overflow.

I also shoot in the copy camera or with a bowens illumitran, quite a stock of old 100' bulk reel stocks of e-6 dupe films and c-41 interneg stock. Once the corrective filtration and exposure is dialled in for each particualr stock the results are amazing.

Sometimes my duping is done to reinterpret old slides. Sometimes it is to add a new generation onto to the best shots of a carosel of color shifting aging Ektachome or Anscochome slides from decades past. Once the major fade colur shift bias is mostly compensated away from with judicious filter your eyes and brain doe quite a good job accepting the reduced information that some colours carry.

I do confess turning to the scanner as a quick way to pick the right mix of compensating gelatins prior to then loading them into the duper and copying the old stock.

osprey48 · Jan 10, 2013

I scan my 6x7 slides as projectors for this size are way over my budget. I also scan my print film negs, as I'm still trying to decide which format to stick with, although it looks like print film will win in the end when I eventually get round to start processing colour. If I want a print of a particularly good pic though, I take the file to a local lab and get a 16x12 done.

Going back to the post about deterioration of slides, my father's 6x6 slides from the 60s and 70s were dug out when I bought my Epsom v700 in order to scan them. Most of them were still spot-on despite being in buried among junk up in the loft for 30 years, but some had acquired a strong magenta cast, which I had to remove digitally. As the deteriorated slides were the same age as the good ones, it must have been the quality of film used at the time. Not all the slides have the film make on them, but the good ones seem to be Agfa colour, whereas the pinky ones were Gavaert, whoever they were. Anybody heard of them?

I remember our family slide shows, and as someone has already said, its the magic of a beam of light in a darkened room which computer screens can never equal. We still have our old 6x6 projector, (probably in the loft too) so reading this thread has started me thinking about shooting a roll of 6x6 on my Yashica Mat just to crank the old magic lantern up again. If it works....

AgX · Jan 10, 2013

osprey48 said:
...Gevaert, whoever they were. Anybody heard of them?

Gevaert once was at rank 3 in world scale...

-) the Gevaert company was founded in 1894 in Antwerp (Belgium)

-) in 1964 Gevaert and the West-German Agfa (a company of similar kind and and size) merged to form the 2nd but largest photographic materials manufacturer in the western world. Only by that they could successfully compete with marketleader Kodak.

-) that transnational merger was very extraordinary in Europe's history. Both holding companies, Gevaert and the german Bayer concern, each founded a new company (Gevaert-Agfa and Agfa-Gevaert resp.)

Both new companies remained legally entities, but by exchanging both entities' shares and by leading both by practically the same board of directors both entities worked as one.

-) in spite of the merger, the adjustment of the product lines and the new brandname "Agfa-Gevaert", for some product ranges the Gevaert name remained as brand- or trade-name up into the 90's.

-) during the silver crisis of 1980 Gevaert could not langer bear the stress by the silver price tenfolding within months, and Bayer with their much larger reserves paid out Gevaert to keep the company alive. Agfa-Gevaert from then on was a sole German company.

-) in 1998 Bayer restructured its businesses and wanted to get rid off the photographic business. Agfa-Gevaert was turned into a Belgian company, on public shares.

-) in 2004 Agfa-Gevaert sold off its consumer branch to a German investor, after which within months that part mysteriously went into bancruptsy and was dissolved.

For the remaining, huge, Agfa-Gevaert company see here: www.agfa.com

-) the founder, Lieven Gevaert,
was in contrast to the investors of the older Agfa company a hands-on entrepeneur. He started business in his mother's workshop. In this he resembles George Eastman (Kodak). But in contrast to Eastman he was not only a benevolent person but moreover politically active. Behind the scenes he strived on the socio-economic field for the emancipation of Flanders. He can be considered a very important person for the Flemish history.

marenmcgowan · Jan 10, 2013

I love shooting slide film... I think looking at it on a light table is very rewarding. And, there is nothing wrong with scanning it IMO. Get a good quality scan, not a 1-hour photo scan. I also like to cross-process slide film. The Provia is beautiful.

What do you do with slides?

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