Keeping old slides after scanning ?

[stantheman]

Currently scanning a vast collection of slides from the 70s to the 90s and just wondering if others threw their slides away after completion ? They are on Flickr and photobucket besides the backup on my phone .
Personally there’s something more nostalgic about actually handling a slide and wondering what others did !
I found the sky on some of my old slides was yellowish …what causes this

 

[etr221]

To answer the last question first - quite simply, time: all slides will deterorate with age: quite how fast, and in what way will depend on all sorts of factors - original fim type, storage conditions,....

My own thought is to ALWAYS retain the originals. Then you can ALWAYS go back to them (for whatever reason).

They are on Flickr and photobucket besides the backup on my phone .

Are you confident - really, really, stake your life on it, confident - that Flickr and photobucket will continue? Are you confident - really, really, stake your life on it, confident - that you won't loose your phone?
I don't think I would be...

Are your scans really top, maximum, quality - that you won't EVER think could be done better? I don't think I could say yes about mine... (Who knows what new technolog might come along?)

Only you can decide your answers. But remember, the one thing you can't do is go back and take the original photos again...

 

[Commoner]

Agree with etr221. Have been tempted to dispense with my collection of slides from the 70s and 80s but it's that nagging doubts about the permanency of digital storage and file formats that prevents me form doing so. Just out of interest stantheman what's your Flickr address as it would be good to see your photographs.

 

[Spamcan81]

NEVER get rid of your originals.

 

[Western Sunset]

Definitely keep them. Surely they don't take all that much room up.

When I worked as the local studies librarian for a local authority, we kept everything, even though we'd scanned them all. Whilst storing glass negatives in a temperature-controlled environment came at a price, we felt it worth keeping them. Who knows what new technologies are around the corner to get even more out of the originals?

 

[45669]

Apart from all the reasons for keeping them outlined above, if you really don't want to keep them, sell them. eBay is the obvious place to start if you try to sell them individually, but there are people on eBay, and who advertise in the railway press, that will buy them as a job lot. They, of course, then sell them individually and make a profit. Otherwise, I think some of the railwayana auction companies also have sales of slide and or photo collections.

I've still got all mine going back to the late 1950s.

 

[najaB]

Currently scanning a vast collection of slides from the 70s to the 90s and just wondering if others threw their slides away after completion ?

Keep them if you can. You never know what improvements there will be in scanning technology. As an example, my father's slide collection (not train-related) was scanned 15 years or so ago at the then super-high resolution (effectively 1K). Had he disposed of them then he wouldn't have been able to get them re-scanned last year at what's basically 4K.

 

[Mr. SW]

I used to work in an aerial photo archive.

** You must retain all original material **

Somebody, somewhere, sometime in the future will muck it all up, delete the wrong data files, shred the wrong documents, incinerate the wrong samples.

Many backups is the way forward: Cloud, memory cards, portable hard drive, CDs, DVDs, hard copy. And keep them in different places so you don't lose them in a fire or other disaster. Check periodically for condition and renew if necessary.

Your little pictures of whatever may mean little to anyone now, but in the future, the only record of an important event, or social and industrial history.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Definitely do not dispose of them.... If you really don't want to keep them, sell them to someone who will look after them.

Anything from the 1970s-80s Southern or Eastern Region related....? I can offer a good home

 

[8A Rail]

Simply you always keep the originals. Likewise place / store them safely in suitable containers / boxes and in reasonable constant temperature room (out of direct light too). Greater majority of my collection going back to the early 80's have been stored in the little bedroom in a cupboard and remain in the same condition as originally taken.

The other thing by keeping the originals, technology is constantly improving so consequently in due time, copy of the original files will improve too compared with today. Other thing about computer technology, for anything and everything, you have a delete button, so once press, its gone!

 

[Islineclear3_1]

I don't have many slides but the ones I do have, I keep in the dark and away from extremes of temperature

 

[Bill EWS]

Currently scanning a vast collection of slides from the 70s to the 90s and just wondering if others threw their slides away after completion ? They are on Flickr and photobucket besides the backup on my phone .
Personally there’s something more nostalgic about actually handling a slide and wondering what others did !
I found the sky on some of my old slides was yellowish …what causes this

I have all my slides from way back to the 70's plus all my old and family photographs scanned. They are also spread in sites such as Flicker. My first back-ups were on CD's then on to DVD's but in recent years I decided to save everything on my computer onto External drives. I have two drives saved as working drives with two more drives of each saved as Back Up drives and put away. With technology continuing to progress the next stage would be to save everything to static drives and as mentioned who knows what future technology will bring but, of course at my age that will be a family member's decision, who knows they could all just be thrown out. I saved some 1960's home made 'railway' cine films from the dust bin when a work colleague's family threw all his films, cameras and projectors in the bin after the died.

Check out my Flickr site to find many samples of my transparency scans....

My Flickr Albums The into photos easily show the difference between transparency and digital photographs.

I am planning to purchase a new computer soon. Having everything backed up on external drives should make it quite straight forward transferring anything required for the new computer.

 

[Western 52]

I have about 35000 railway slides, all scanned and backed up on OneDrive. But I'll always keep the originals! As others have already said, scanning technology constantly improves and rescans one day may be better than my current scans.