The Dark Days of Slides and Negatives

[indigo_rose99]

The pictures at last done, I reluctantly approach my brother for the mysterious tools to scan the boxes of slides mixed in with our grandfather's photos.  I get two plastic templates.  No instructions.  My brother has never scanned slides either.  He says that the template will also scan negatives, but this is a figure-it-out-as-you-go situation.

Last Friday I unwrapped the plastic sheets with squares and rectangles cut out and began poking at the scanner.  Four hours and many attempts later, I had not managed to scan a single item.

Sunday I brought in the Big Guns: my tech support husband.  T poked at it, broke a piece off the scanner, put the piece back, and changed a setting in the software.  Then he thought about it, and took the "broken" piece back off the scanner.  *sigh*  Hardware changes.  I now realize that this piece must have been what the Help text meant by "Important!
Before scanning film, be sure to remove the document mat from the TPU and the Auto Film Loader."  That what?  From the what?  No pictures or definitions were included.  T lucked into this one, and we were scanning slides.

Monday after he left for work, I went back to scanning slides.  I scanned a tray (four) full, replaced the slides, and... it refused to work.  Error message.  I swear, I only changed the slides!!! 

I rotated the slides. Perhaps they were backwards?  Error.  I poked at the software. Error.  I rebooted the scanner.  Error.  I rebooted the software.  Error. I tried scanning negatives.  Error.  I tried scanning slides again.  Error. 

Five hours later, the scanner and my computer were still in their singular pieces (translation: I had not smashed it all to bits).  I was climbing the walls.  T came home at last and I handed the task to him.  He opened the scanner and said, "I see the problem!  You have the wrong template. This is the negative template."  I am afraid that I took a bit of my frustration out on my innocent husband.  *shamed look*  He put the slide template in, inserted slides, pressed the icon... And it scanned perfectly. 

I had to leave the room.

Patiently, he pulled out the completed slides and put new ones in.  Error.  He poked at the software.  Error.  He poked at the hardware.  Error.  I took painkillers and came back in speaking distance.  We rebooted my laptop.  Error. 

Finally we switched over to trying to scan negatives... and one scanned successfully. I changed the template and software settings (no automation here!) and successfully scanned a screen of slides. 

Today I spent entire day alternating between scanning a screen of negatives and a screen of slides.  I'm terrified that if I change this irrational pattern, it will stop working.

I admit that I didn't break out the black candles and the chicken feathers, but we did try the dancing around the room and singing off-key to the scanner.

I think I have finished the slides.  My folder tells me that I am up to scan 2587, including photos, slides and negatives up to this point. Now I am working on the odd-sized negatives.  They must be done one at a time, black and white separate from color, three different sizes.

I really want to kill something electronic. 

Comments

[ovrclokd.livejournal.com]

*arrrrrrgh* *massive amounts of sympathy*

i'm glad you have a Tech Support Husband and enough self-control not to destroy that which thoroughly deserves it. sounds like that scanner is seriously temperamental.

now that you've found a pattern that works (alternating slides and negatives), is it worthwhile to try the two-sets-of-slides-in-a-row test again? if it fails, then you know the alternating is mandatory; if it succeeds, then you can reduce the amount of change-template-and-settings interaction...

[tiger-stripes.livejournal.com]

I completely understand *hug*

I really want to kill something electronic.

This is now my status message for IM :)