Photo: Phil, Ali, & Jake Eating Grapes on the Porch (1979, Indiana)Let's all agree that we've been digital for quite awhile now, wouldn't you say? I spent several years of my early career ushering in the world-wide web and converting every little thing to digital format. Well I'm at it again.
My mother entrusted me to help convert decades of our old family negatives, and perhaps slides, to digital. Partially to get copies of our lives out of old shoe boxes and into the hands of our whole family, but also to recover lots of classic old photographs that have gone missing or gotten destroyed over the years.
I found an archival photo digitizing business that seems reputable and affordable, which is great. But here is the crux of the problem. I now have to go through all the negatives to pull out all the crappola we would have deleted out of our digital cameras had we had them in the 1970s and 80s. I don't mind going through them, in fact I am looking forward to it, but trying to track down all the tools you need to take on such a project has turned into a bit of a holy grail expedition.
What's needed: a loupe, a light box, and archival negative sleeves. What's been found: a loupe and archival negative sleeves.
My dad had a light box/slide sorter from the 1960s in his basement for decades, and he hadn't used it in decades. So he did what any reasonable fellow who had gone digital, who was planning on moving across the country would do, and he sold it in a yard sale. I probably would have done the same. Except had I been thinking ahead I would have realized that I would have to use the old processes of laying all the negatives out on the light table, looking at them through the loupe to determine which ones I wanted, and then I would need to file them accordingly in my archival negative sleeves.
What's a girl to do you ask? Well, I don't want to buy a new light box because they are hard to find and somewhat expensive. Especially since I'll really only use them to convert analog to digital, then it will sit in my attic for the the next 40 years collecting dust. I would really like to just borrow one, but who even has one? Maybe I can make one out of light bulbs and opaque plexi just laying around the house. Yeah right. I'm at a loss. Any ideas?
8 comments:
Can't help you, but Karen was the cutest kid that ever was.
Glory be, I found one through my church email to borrow. Halleluiah!
I agree, Phil was the cutest baby there ever was.
You can tell even in the earliest of pictures that Alice was always the boss, look at how she's sitting in that chair over her siblings :)
It's Princess Alice on her throne with her minions!
Alice, what does your shirt say?
I'm glad you found a light box. I was going to offer the use of the two at school, but you would have to come to our little lab and I only have true rights to it for 3 more weeks. Digital IS so much easier! (I just spent 4 hours on my feet to make 2 prints, and one is still not up to par.
That picture is stinkin' cute of all three of you. I love old pictures!!
The point of this was not to talk about how bossy or not bossy I am, it was about digital vs. analog.
Also, I don't know what my shirt says Jakey. Your's has R2D2 and C3PO on it.
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