Put not so great in the title here because I wanted to set the expectations very low. I got the bright idea to try and scan a few pictures on the copier at the office to see how it would do. It scans them a bit dark. I tried the lighten setting but it just washed them out. Even though they are not great, I thought I would share them as the subjects are decent. Hope you all enjoy and someday, I promise to get much better scans of these. Starting with N&W 611 because you can't go wrong with that, right? Southern SD35 3037 Southern GP50 7025
It's good to see these @BNSF FAN . Scanning is a strange science. Some of my slides scan blurry, even though they're razor sharp and in good light. No amount of messing around with settings or with different scan software helps. Same with my darker slides taken in heavy overcast. I talked with a well known color book author a few years back and he agreed that scanned results can be strange. He has two scanners from two different manufacturers, both of high quality with excellent specifications. Inexplicably, some slides scan better on one than the other, with neither scanner always the best.
Those are not bad at all. I have plenty of slides like these, and too many much worse. I keep them anyway. They cannot be captured ever again, and they evoke some interesting memories.
A few more....... CN 4123 - London Ontario Canada CP 8235- London Ontario Canada This was a UP unit being built but I have no idea what road number it ended up being and wonder if the ole girl is still around - London Ontario Canada
Some Conrail CR 4020 - Altoona PA CR 6126 - I think Sunbright TN - I liked the look of the Conrail Quality scheme CR 6379 - No note on this one but may be one I picked up at a show or swap meet??? CR 6494 - My all time favorite CR SD40-2. It was a regular visitor to Chattanooga back in the day. So wish we could still see consist like this today
I never shot slides when I shot film--only APS & 110 and they're all bad. All I have are crummy prints. Good to see older stuff, and that 611 and Conrail series looks great!
Cool photos! A lot of the odd colors and contrasts can be corrected with image editing software like PhotoShop or its free ersatz kin, GIMP. I scanned all 5300 slides of my Dad's collection after he passed (including about 400 of Expo 67). I used a Canon 8800 scanner (it's as big as a '68 Buick), the best compromise between value and performance that I could find (accent on value). It took me some months to get through all of them. Most came out OK, the integrated image processing worked pretty well. Some were off - after a few attempts I stored the best one of them and when I needed one, I ran a copy through GIMP to correct colors and levels. Always keeping the original. I did notice that some film brands and types worked better. I also scanned some of my own slides and negatives - more recent than nearly all my Dad's photos, and the colors were better. But my Dad's slides looked great using a projector. The same results for Dad's more recent photos. In any case, it always takes a little adjustment with software to tweak colors, contrasts, and adding just a little sharpness. The tools available in software - even the free ones - are quite powerful and with a bit of practice, are a breeze to use.
I've found it's best to always keep the unedited scans as you did, then save the edits under a new file name. That way, the unedited files are always available as a starting point as editing skills improve. Yeah, some film brands, types and processing have stood the test of time and others not. I think @BoxcabE50 and I have both been permanently screwed by Fotomat and their crappy Kodachrome slide processing. Some of my Fotomat-processed slides have red shifted and there's only so much you can do to correct it. Thankfully I used Fotomat only intermittently.
Probably one of their 1000+ SD70M's. Most likely still around, either upgraded, in lease fleets or sold to someone else.
When yer right, yer right! It must be an SD60M. UP's monster order for 1000 SD70Ms came in 1999, ten years later.
Here are a couple more. The Spirit of Tennessee train CSX 1992 - I was not fortunate enough to ever catch it when it had the presidential seal on the side
Good or bad, these pics are historical and well worth having and sharing! Some of us have never seen these before or the locos.
Never discount or throw away any of those old photos and slides. They are scenes (and memories) which cannot be captured again. And who knows what special little detail they reveal for modelers or historians, which has not been previously known.
Just curious, what editing program(s) you have and use? I use IrfanView for the basic stuff. Then MS Paint and "Photoscape X" for other massage work.
