This is a 35mm slide digitizing rig made by combining a custom made 3D printed slide holder and a macro photography kit.

This is an example of a digitized 35mm slide. It has been downsized to 14% of its original dimensions for display in this web page. The original dimensions are labeled in the image. The dimensions exceed the Smithsonian Museum's archiving guidelines by a 30% margin. The use of the camera and macro lens results in a file that will exhibit more image detail than the 35mm slide format contains. A flatbed scanner will need to digitize at approximately 5800 pixels/inch to acquire an equivalent amount of data.

This example slide was not cleaned or prepared for reproduction, so it represents a "worst case" scenario with regards to the accumulation of dust, filaments, aging defects, etc. Potentially harmful attempts to clean the slides have been avoided. This circumstance provides a useful standard reference as it indicates the condition that may be encountered if a slide is handled conservatively. You may notice that the imagery has all sorts of defects.

This is a closeup cropped portion of the slide displayed at 100% scale. The blemishes that are caused by tiny defects appear large because the practical display of a 35mm slide requires a high degree of magnification. It is helpful to recall that when similarly sized particles accumulate on a previously enlarged print the blemishes are less obtrusive due to their much smaller relative scale. When working with images stored in 35mm slide and negative formats the blemishes caused by small particles of dust etc. will be easy to notice and hard to ignore. At the 100% scale the display resolution exceeds the source media's capability to resolve detail. The actual grain of the film is clearly visible, which serves as an indicator that this digitizing process may adequately record the pertinent details.

This is an example of the same cropped portion of the slide after it has been retouched with digital post processing. The retouching process offers the advantage of being non destructive. The actual slide is unharmed by attempts at cleaning, and the original digitized data set can be archived before the retouching occurs. A disadvantage is that this process is most effectively performed by hand. The tedious process of retouching each and every blemish requires careful consideration and manual application with a digital photo editor such as Adobe Photoshop. Numerous attempts have been made to offer automated solutions for retouching but none offer the results that hand editing provides

This is another example of a closeup cropped portion of the slide displayed at 100% scale. The blemishes seem obvious.

This is the same closeup cropped portion of the slide after it has been retouched.

This is an example of the entire digitized 35mm slide, downsized to 14% of its original dimensions for display in this web page, after the retouching process has been performed.

This is an example of the digitized 35mm slide, as it might be offered for final display purposes. This photograph will print 18" x 24" at 300 dots/inch, which is a common specification for large format C-print (chemical process traditional photographic printing), and 8" x 12" at 600 dots/inch, which is a specification commonly observed by fine art ink jet printing practitioners. These specifications exceed the capability of the original 35mm film format to display detail and provide a comfortable margin with regards to archiving all of the potential information that the source media recorded.