Formats
35mm Slide restoration
A 35mm slide is a positive transparency in a 2 x 2 in cardboard or plastic mount, projected on the living-room wall and stored in carousels and shoeboxes. It has to be backlit to be seen at all.
Ektachrome and other E-6 films drift red or magenta, Kodachrome holds its color but scratches and grows fungus, and the mounts warp and pinch the film. Handle the 35mm slide by its edges, scan it once at a high resolution, and do the repair on the file rather than the object.
Slide Restoration is the first tool to run on a 35mm slide; it is written for this material and keeps the output at the shape of the upload. Chain Face Restoration and the upscaler in the Studio if the 35mm slide is going to be reprinted.
Original on the left, restored on the right; hover to see more of the repair. Made in the Studio from a scan of the print.
Print and file requirements
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Years in use | 1936 (Kodachrome) to about 2005 |
| Typical size | 2 x 2 in mount with a 24 x 36 mm image |
| Process | Reversal (positive) color film, K-14 or E-6 |
| Appearance | Small and dense; must be backlit or projected |
| How it fails | Red or magenta shift, fungus, scratches, warped mounts |
| Scan tip | Scan as a positive at 2400 dpi or more before uploading; a phone photo against a bright window also works |
What matters for these photos
- Red or magenta shift, fungus, scratches, warped mounts on a 35mm slide
- A 35mm slide scanned once, badly, and never touched again
- Faces on a 35mm slide that are too small or too soft to enlarge
- A reprint of the 35mm slide for a frame, needing more pixels than the scan has
Suggested order of passes
- 01
Run Slide Restoration on the 35mm slide
Written for the way a 35mm slide fails: red or magenta shift, fungus, scratches, warped mounts.
Slide Restoration - 02
Clean up the 35mm slide scan
Removes scanner dust, borders and the color cast a flatbed adds to a 35mm slide, and straightens it.
Scan Cleanup - 03
Restore the faces on the 35mm slide
Recovers eye and skin detail at natural strength; small faces on a 35mm slide are plausible reconstructions.
Face Restoration - 04
Upscale the 35mm slide for reprinting
A 35mm slide is small to begin with; the upscaler adds the pixels a frame-sized print needs.
Image Upscaler
Questions
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