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ColorSlide.com 35mm Color Slides as low as $1.49 each!
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All of the artists I know need 35mm color slides of their artwork for juried shows, contests, and exhibitions. As a professional photographer for the past 30 years, I've setup and photographed countless pieces of art and other slide presentation materials. Artists carry in their canvases, sculptures, prints, etc. and we photograph them onto 35mm slide film. If you've paid for this, then you know how expensive those slides are. I'd like to show you how to shoot your own artwork with a digital camera and have 35mm color slides produced for a couple bucks per slide.
You need an adequate digital camera, so look for a 2 Megapixel camera or better. The image it shoots needs to be 900 x 600 pixels or larger at 96 dots per inch (dpi) or more. Our film recorder page size is 4096 x 2732 at 372 dpi, so any image between those two sizes will be photo quality. The closer you can get to the maximum, the sharper your slides will be. Shoot at the highest quality setting on your camera. This produces the largest file size and you'll have the best 35mm slides that you can produce.
Use two lights at a 45 degree angle instead of the flash. The flash will glare on the painting and it will cause a dark shadow with sculptures, so turn the flash off. The lights can be inexpensive clamp-on lights with reflectors, available at hardware stores. Two 60 watt bulbs will provide adequate illumination. Place them on either side of the camera and clamp them on something movable like a couple of chairs. Sit in a chair to be on the same level as the lights, and hang your painting down at that level. For best camera focusing, keep the back of the camera parallel to the painting and keep the camera in the center of the piece of art.
Next, transfer the images to your computer. Each camera and computer is different, so follow your manufacturer's instructions. If image software came with your camera, crop them and color correct them. Our film recorders have a page size of 4096 x 2732 pixels, which is 7.5 x 11.25 inches at 372 dpi. If your image measures larger, i.e. 11 x 17 inches at 200 dpi, do not reduce their size. The larger dimensions will compensate for the smaller dpi in your image.
Save your images as a JPG file with minimal compression. Don't use maximum compression because that causes the "lossy" effect with the JPG file format. The lossy effect is also caused by multiple saves in the JPG file format, so try to do all of your manipulation before the first save. It would be wise to save the original image in it's raw form and then work on a copy of it. That way you'll never have to reshoot anything. As an alternative, you can save your images as an IBM TIF file using LZW compression, without any data loss.
Next, find a slide service bureau for printing to 35mm slide film, like us! It may be available locally in your area, but it can be expensive since they won't be doing the volume that we are. Many slide service bureaus are available on the Internet, but their prices vary widely. Do a Google search for "digital images to color slides" and there will be several choices.
The last hurdle you'll have is determining how to transfer images to them. Images smaller than 2 MB can be emailed one at a time as email file attachments. Use a real email account since free accounts (i.e. HotMail) have file size limits. Do not email them from your image editing program since the program may reduce your image file size before sending them.
Images larger than 2 MB can be uploaded through our website. If the website upload method isn't available, then upload your images using an FTP program like WS_FTP. If you have a broadband internet connection like a cable modem or a DSL line, then this won't take long, but if you're on a phone modem it can take hours. We recommend that you save your valuable time and ship your images on a CD, DVD or zip disk.
The service bureau should look at your images to make sure they're OK and then they'll "print" them to 35mm color slide film. The film recorders look like just another printer to the computer, but they use expensive print driver software to communicate between the two devices. Expect to pay a couple bucks per slide plus return shipping costs. As for how long it will take... expect a few days for the color slide production and a few days for the inexpensive return shipping. If you give yourself a week, then that should be plenty of time.
Please visit the Image Requirements link for more info.
Konold Kreations
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