Classic British Flight Sim

I finally have a tool to process my old slides prior to adding them to my website. I've just been testing and for my first trial I used three slides that were not actually taken by me. A First Officer took them in July 1979 and gave them to me some time later. They show a sequence of land and taxy in somewhere in Zulu Mike...It was in the days when I wore a beard.







Next I need to know how to clean old slides like this before scanning and without doing any damage...Any useful tips would be appreciated.

Hi Peter

We used to used Indusrtial Spirit (similar to surgical spirit) but the firm had to get that by prescription from a chemist.

Later purpose made film cleaners came out.

They are pretty good...... but I don't think they will remove the beard.

Always of course try out on a small trim off section.

Garry

Peter,

I'd be very careful about putting anything wet on slides as it can locally distort the surface (meaning they go out of focus when scanning/printing) and/or leave water or other residue marks. A blower-brush will remove large particles and a very soft lint-free cloth can be used very carefully to remove anything thats 'stuck'. I dont know what you are using to scan them, but something like a Nikon Coolscan filmscanner has its own built in electronic/software dust-removal that works brilliantly and manages to somehow ignore or clone-out dust and dirt specs.

Toby

PS... almost forgot to say.. nice photos... I dont know if you have or are planning to post them over on the TPS' forum but I know the guys over there would like to see them

Peter,

You could try scanning them, and then cleaning up the scans instead.

AndyG

Toby

That is why they are spirit based.

This is what we did in the trade.....cleaning up pics and slides was a common neccessity especially before the days of scanning and computers.

Even water is OK it they are dried properly they won't distort.

Garry

Cracking pics, bought a smile to my face

Nice landing Peter!

Becareful when cleaning them. From my experience cleaning negatives in the dark room, most of my attempts left more stuff on the film than I removed.

Try compressed air first, then maybe a photographic film cleaner.

Thanks for all the replies chaps...I've been rooting through all my slides to see where to start...I'm amazed how many I have. Lots of super Venom ones and as yet very few Hunter ones.

Anyway, I'll try out your tips...Toby, yes I am using a Nikon Coolscan V ED and it does seem to have a lot of bells and whistles :dance:

Yes, I'll post them over there as well Toby

Its been a couple of years since I used the Coolscan, but try enabling "ICE". If memory serves theres a toolbox window in the software and its an option about 2/3 down the list.