Can you make slides from digital files?
 

Is it possible to have slides generated from digital files?

I have noticed most places would like you to send them slides of your work. I do not have the luxury of keeping one camera with slide film loaded all the time, so when my work is delivered I usually have not made a slide, but have always made a digital image.

Has anyone noticed that this requirement is starting to change? I know the richness of Ektachrome is hard to beat, but wow, the day I tried to shoot slides I was messing with my filters for light, etc., and it was a major case of "sometimers" disease.

Elizabeth, this response might be coming way too late for you, but I stumbled across this thread while looking for a particualr topic.

Yes, you can make slides from digital images. I found http://www.slides.com located in Wisconsin and ordered through them with great results.

The first slide was priced at $4.00, 2nd at $2.00, 3rd at #1.50, 4th at $1.00 plus US priority mail at $5 to California.

If you know of one better priced by now, please share the address.

Enzie, how is the quality of the slides? I was afraid it would be like the inter neg process to get off of print film and would take the quality down a generation.

But I talked with a professional photographer friend of mine (he wasn't sure about the digital) and he said if you do slides correctly, you should bracket each shot 3 to 4 times, so if you want 10 copies whoa, it gets expensive, he suggested just going to a color house with a copy board and they can give you as many slides as you need per subject. I haven't checked into the cost of that yet. Plus, my work seems to leave my studio too quickly.

Thanks for that resource.

I am not familiar with the term "bracket", so I can't respond to your question. I tried to get the sharpest focus I could manage, and loaded jpg images according to the required file size directly though the net. I was very happy with the quality and I will enclose a sample. I had used a medium to create sand and it became quite three-dimensional. If the image loads OK, you should see that clearly as well.

I have done slides of my paintings to submit to shows, all from my digital camera.

I take them to a local camera processor who specializes in slides - I bet there is one like it where you live too.

They charge $8.00 for each master slide, and .90 cents for each duplicate made from that master. Thus, the dupes are a generation away from a master, but they are still quite good.

I take my digital shots into Photoshop and place the image in a 4" x 6" format with enough space around the image on all sides for the slide to mount to. You can also do it in a 2 to 3 ratio.

I save them out as TIFF files at 300dpi.

Bracketing
 

Bracketing refers to the adjusting the F-stop setting of each shot up and down so you get a range of shots with your lens aperture at a normal state (as dictated by your light meter), a more open state, and a more closed state. This means that you "bracket" your subject from darker to lighter and then pick the best shot.

Michael, you are a world of information. I have so many different things going on right now, I don

Thanks for your input!

I was wondering what is the best quantity of slides to order if you think a piece is good? I figure you need a copy for archiving, portfolio and then to send out for various workshop, groups or shows. Since most are not returned I would hate to pay for the master slide and then not order enough copies.

Does anyone have an idea, based on experience, about what is the best number?

Beth:

When I get slides done, I label the master and put it in a separate box. That way, there is no chance of me losing it, and I can make dupes any time I need more. I usually do between 5 and 10 dupes at a time as I don't typically go to that many shows each year.

www.slides.com

Great slides, inexpensive and fast.

I use Slides.com as well and have been very happy with their services. They have several ways by which you send them your images, which makes it convenient and fast.

Michael, how do you determine which one the master slide is and how do you get duplicates made?

I have been resending the original file and paying the initial set up fee when ordering more slides of the same image.

Enzie:

I queried them on this and basically what it amounts to is that all of the slides we get back from them are originals.

The master/duplicate process came from a time when there were two processes and then two machines that did the work. These days, they can spit out original quality slides at four times the rate out of a single machine.

These days, you are really paying for setup as opposed to a "master slide".

This is great - just the information I needed. Thanks! Wish I had stumbled across this thread earlier. I have two cameras (a Canon FTQL and a Canon FTb) that I have been using for some 30 years (I'm sure must be antiques by now) for capturing slides. If I had known it was that easy to send off tiff files to this company for quick turnaround, that would have saved a lot of time and expense. I will certainly use the slides.com resource in the future. Plus, it's becoming more and more of a challenge finding and having slide film developed as my local camera store recently informed me that they are no longer processing slide film.

On another note, I bought a 2.1 megapixel camera 3 years ago and technology is advancing so fast, it's already time to upgrade to a higher resolution camera - a problem never encountered with my old manual cameras that I'm sure will be taking good pictures for another 30 years.

Slides.com
 

I have used slides.com and the results were excellent and fast. :thumbsup: