How to scan a slide

Slide scanning guide

Still got boxes of slides tucked away on top of the wardrobe? By scanning them into your computer and turning them into digital images, you can give them a new lease of life; print them out, save them to disc or spruce them up with image-editing software (see our reviews of photo-editing software).

Digitising old images also makes them easier to share with friends and family – you can email them or publish them online on sites such as Flickr.

All you’ll need is a scanner with a slide scanning attachment (see our reviews of scanners to find Which? Best Buys) and a computer. Our step-by-step guide shows you how to scan a slide.

1 Clean your slides

Before you start, make sure your slides are free from dust. 

You can buy a special blower brush (about £5 from camera shops) to remove particles without scratching the surface of the transparency.

2 Load your slides

Not all flatbed scanners are capable of scanning slides. Those that do, come with separate adaptors to hold the slides or film in place. 

The adaptor for mounted slides (the ones with cardboard or plastic around them) has a number of slide-shaped holes cut out of it (see picture). 

Depending on the adaptor you have, you'll either need to slot the slides into the attachment or place it on the glass first and put your slides, face down in the slots.

3 Prepare to scan

In order to scan slides, the scanner has to shine a light (positioned in the lid of a flatbed scanner) through the transparency. 

To set your scanner up to do this, you'll need to remove the protective cover attached to the inside of your scanner's lid (it should unclip quite easily). 

Put it somewhere safe to avoid damage. 

Close the lid and turn your scanner on.

4 Preview your slides

Your scanning software controls how you perform your scan. Your scanner will come with its own software – our Best Buy Canon scanner uses ArcSoft ScanGear. 

Open your scanning software and click to select the source of your scan. 

This is the description of what you're scanning; to scan mounted slides choose Positive colour film. 

Select Preview. The software will display a copy of your slides.

5 Adjust the brightness

If your previewed slides look a little too dark, use the scanning software to adjust the brightness. 

Use software settings such as backlight correction or remove dust and scratches to brighten your slides or remove any minor imperfections.

6 Advanced settings

For more control over the brightness adjustment, ScanGear has an Advanced Mode which allows you to make more detailed adjustments to your slides. 

Click the Brightness/Contrast icon then left-click and hold down the slider. 

Move it to the left or right to adjust the brightness or contrast.

7 Adjust scanning settings

Since slides are tiny, the higher the resolution you scan at, the more detail you'll get in your scan. 

Bear in mind, though, that a higher resolution also makes files much bigger, so they'll occupy more hard disk space.

Scanning at a resolution of 1,200dpi is perfectly adequate to turn your slide into a 4x6-inch print. 

Select the slides you want to scan and click Scan.

8 Scan and save

Scanning your slides may take a minute or so depending on how many you've selected. After scanning, the images will show up, re-sized, on your screen. 

Name your scanned slides and save them as Tiff files somewhere you can find them easily (in the My Pictures folder, say). This format makes sure that all the detail of your slide is retained.

9 Edit images

You can use your image-editing software to further tweak or edit your slides. Close your scanning software and open your image editing software. 

Find your saved slides (File > Open > My Documents > My Pictures, for example) and use the available tools to make fine adjustments to your images. 

Use the red-eye removal to take away glaring red eyeballs, say, or the clone tool to cover up unwanted marks (check out our reviews of photo-editing software to find Which? Best Buys).

For more on what to do with your digital images, see our guides to making your own calendar and creating a screensaver.

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