I am currently out of luck with scanning.
The KodaPost lab that I used for the first bunch of slides
did a poor job on them.
As soon as I find a good and safe way to scan slides, it will be posted here
(though I'm leaning towards the opinion that a good way would include
the word drum in its name, and also have the attribute expensive).
Our club-owned
Later note: Well, my friend's
All images require post-scanning processing. To me, this has been an important part of image creation process (besides getting a good shot on film, of course). Several steps are the necessary minimum: curves manipulation (black/white points, gamma and color balance; often more complex adjustments are done with curves), then resizing and sharpening. The only way that I know of to do it well is to use the full version of Adobe Photoshop. You need to get one.
I really should say more about it, but every time I start writing a definitive guide, my view of the proper workflow changes before I finish the article. This is just fun. I have few unfinished drafts on my disk, and no two of them are alike.
Useful tip. Photoshop adjustments, while significantly improving pictures, are very easy to overdo or do insufficiently carefully. This results in unnatural image look, but you often don't notice it immediately. I found it useful to apply changes as adjustment layers whenever possible, but that's not the main thing. The key thing is to leave the image alone for few days after editing it and saving as .psd master file with adjustment layers. Then open it again after some time passes, and all of the sudden, you clearly see if the adjustments you did were right or wrong, and how they can be improved further. Repeat as necessary.
Only after you open it again after a while and feel it looks right, should you proceed with generating JPEGs in multiple sizes and publishing them on the Web.
Curves adjustment is often the most critical and versatile step; here is just one example from Dan Heller.