Convert Slides to Digital

Photographic slides, also known as transparencies or reversal film, were the format of choice for serious amateur photographers from the 1940s right through to the early 2000s. Unlike negatives, a slide shows the image in its correct positive colours when held up to the light or projected onto a screen. Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and Fujichrome were the dominant film stocks, and each had its own distinctive colour character that photographers knew and loved.

Many families accumulated hundreds or even thousands of slides over the decades. Holiday snaps from the 1960s, travel photography from the 1970s, family gatherings through the 1980s, all packed into trays, carousels, and boxes that have sat in cupboards ever since the last projector bulb blew. The images on these slides are often of higher quality than the prints from the same era, because the slide captures the full resolution of the film grain without the additional step of printing.

Slides degrade in specific ways depending on the film stock. Kodachrome is famously stable and often looks stunning even after 60 years. Ektachrome and other E-6 process films are less stable and tend to shift towards blue or magenta as the dyes fade. All slides accumulate dust, fingerprints, and occasional fungal growth, particularly if stored in humid conditions. Glass-mounted slides are better protected but heavier and more fragile.

We scan each slide individually at high resolution using professional film scanners with infrared dust-removal technology (Digital ICE), which detects and subtracts dust and light scratches automatically without affecting the image detail. Each scan receives a manual colour-balance check, and faded slides get careful digital correction to recover as much of the original colour palette as possible.