[MacDV] Slide show approach

[Nick Scalise]

On Mar 21, 2006, at 6:42 PM, Jim Simmons wrote:

> I have successfully transfer video tapes to DVD format and achieved  
> good results. Now I am getting set to transfer a large number of 35  
> mm slides to a DVD for a slide show. Before I get too far down this  
> road I feel that I should get some comments and suggestions on the  
> approach I have in mind.
>
> I plan on creating the slide show in iMovie HD and iDVD 5.0. I will  
> be adding sound to the slide presentation. I am scanning the slides  
> at 300 dpi and saving in the TIFF format. I then open them in  
> Photoshop CS2 and perform color corrections because some of these  
> slide are 45 to 50 years old. I then save them in the Photoshop  
> format and will eventually create an album for iPhoto and them  
> insert into iMovie. The image size of the scans are the same as the  
> size of the original slides. Does this sound like a reasonable  
> approach or should the scan resolution be increased?

If I understand you correctly, you say you will be scanning the  
slides at 100% and 300 dpi. Is this correct? I would think that would  
be too small, especially considering all the time you will be  
spending on color correction, etc.

I would think that you would want to scan at a resolution that you  
could make reasonably large prints with them and have them still look  
good. Usually, if you want good 4x6 prints you would want at least  
150 dpi. (approx. 600x800) if not way more (1200x1600 +?). Scanning a  
slide 100% - 300 dpi would yeild what, 480x640 at best?.

Personally I would scan at the highest optical resolution of your  
scanner and go from there. If you scan higher than the optical  
resolution, then your scanning software is introducing interpolation  
(guesses) into the scan.

iDVD provides a method to store Hi-Res images from the slide show on  
DVD. This would provide the best of both worlds. You can view the  
pictures on your DVD player and also put the DVD into a computer for  
printing of the pictures.

Good luck,
--
Nick Scalise
nickscalise at cox.net