Scanning your old positives? Great! But keep these 5 things in mind!

I feel relieved. I recently completed scanning all my old positives; it is the wrap-up of an era for me. It is a large task that I kept postponing for some time and finally decided to restart last spring.

Having put in many hours of semi-manual labor, I can definitely say that I am happy to be done and that if I had the option to use film again and go through the same process, I would simply refuse. After 22 years of digital photography and 16+ years of digital processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, I admit that I am not going back from having digital shooting freedom, a precise photographic catalog and full processing freedom.

Along the way I have learned precious lessons that I would like to share with you. Hopefully, the following points will make the task easier and more enjoyable for you.

1. Set up the process before you start.

You do not want to start this journey without having a reliable method that will produce the best possible results. What you need is the hardware, the software and the appropriate settings.

In my case, the scanner is a Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400II, a very capable machine from the 2000s. Naturally, its old software does not run on modern Windows machines, so I had to resort to using VueScan, a magic piece of software that has drivers for all kinds of abandoned hardware that still works fine but is no longer supported by the manufacturers.

I chose a representative set of positives and started my tests. A few trials and some YouTube videos from film photographers who use VueScan provided all the information I needed. In my case, I went for the maximum resolving power of about 35 megapixels, maximum 16-bit depth and single passes. This can be very different for different scanners and aims. For example, someone who wants to create a quick archive does not need the full resolving power of the scanner.

Having nailed the process is crucial. There is nothing worse than having progressed with many scans and then deciding that changes in the settings can bring better results. Going back and forth costs effort and time. Doing the preparatory homework beforehand is the best way to start.

2. Your catalog will grow substantially. Organize accordingly.

Scanning is a slow process, but that does not mean that files will not accumulate steadily and quickly. Instead of creating a heap of digital files without any kind of description or time stamp, I took advantage of the labels on my storage boxes where I had been keeping my positives all those years. Every scanned roll went into a different folder with dates and locations. As I photographed with four main cameras but never recorded this information with my rolls, I can sort of tell what is what, but not 100%. Another proof that organization and data recording matter…

From then on, management in Lightroom Classic was a breeze. Once a roll’s scanned photos were imported, I did some further organization. For example, some rolls contained photos from more than one trip, adventure or event, so I had to create separate folders for each of them. In the digital realm, organization by rolls does not make sense; what matters is the date, the project, the location, the people, the event… Depending on how each one of us organizes photos, this step takes on a personal flavor. Since cataloging in Lightroom is not the subject of this post, I will stop before opening a door to an unnecessary infinite discussion…

3. Be prepared for what you will find when you scan your positives

I was so surprised by the results of my scans. Some of them turned out fabulous. Detailed, with beautiful colors and this characteristic film feel that we sometimes want to achieve with our digital cameras and editing.

Many, however, did not come out so great, and I attribute this to two reasons. It sank in that in our old photographic lives we were at the mercy of the film developing process. Inaccurate machine tuning and old chemicals can wreak havoc on complete rolls, something you realize much later, especially with positives that are so much harder to properly review compared to the usual printed photos. Secondly, chemical deterioration is another reason for concern. Despite my best efforts to have my positives stored in ideal conditions, time takes its toll.

I can say with certainty that the development process issue is much more severe. I noticed that older rolls were fine, while some newer ones had serious issues from the moment I received them from the photo shop. Unfortunately, these issues generate more work, which I discuss in the next point.

4. Scanning means more photo processing

Given that scanning software is cumbersome for precise corrections, the best option is to do the necessary adjustments in photo editing software at the final stage. And yes, this works well, but it is a long additional step that costs time. A lot of time. Even when taking advantage of replicating adjustments across photos from the same roll.

To do the job properly, every photo needs its own separate curve tweaks. There are also general adjustments, sharpening, noise removal… Scanning software does a good job of eliminating scratches and dust, but it is not perfect. You still have to go in and remove deep damage, more dust and dirt, fingerprints and scratches from processing equipment. I think I do not need to say more to prove that this is quite a task on its own.

The good news is that the boring repetitive manual tasks are finally over and now is the time to enjoy the results. Even archived photos straight from the scanner can be instantly accessed. Without any further deterioration! You can go back to the catalog whenever you like and work on those newly acquired files from the comfort of your computer. No projectors, no fiddling with frames, no ambiguity!

5. Scan and catalog first, process later

Doing the scan-catalog-processing cycle for every one or a few rolls is a very inefficient procedure because you have to jump between fundamentally different things. After processing a roll or two, you then need to fire up the scanner again, catalog and go back to photo editing again. And to be honest, the photo editing can range from pretty fast to pretty long, depending on the state of the scanned files and how far you want to go with the editing stage.

For these reasons, I found it much more efficient to scan and catalog everything in Lightroom first. Of course, I could not resist taking care of some frames that were always ingrained in my memory, but these were relatively few. In practice, the photo processing stage started right after the last scanned roll and, to be frank, it is an open-ended task that I can do depending on time availability. It would not be a very clever move to embark on processing thousands of frames in one go. I have a life… As a first editing step I decided to pick a limited number of the best photos and center my efforts on those.

I hope I made it clear that if you have a substantial number of positive slide photos to digitize, you are getting into a marathon and not a quick sprint.

If your slides are just a bunch of rolls, you are probably better off paying a lab to do it for you. It will work out quicker without the hardware, software and process worries. Another bonus is that a carefully chosen lab can provide you with readily processed images that you can immediately enjoy.

If you want to also digitize negatives, then you should make your decision based on total volume, cost, time and effort.

People who have only experienced digital photography do not have to worry about any of the above, unless they wish to go back to family archives or need to do it for professional purposes. Right now, I categorize myself in a very fortunate category! I can enjoy my slides without having to deal with frames and projectors anymore!

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