Webinar on digitising 35mm transparencies

The Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation will be holding a webinar on digitising 35 mm transparencies on 22 May at 5pm (https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/93946132169).

Target audience: Professionals from archives, libraries and museums involved in digitisation processes; technicians and service providers in the field of digital reproduction; students and researchers with an interest in the subject.

Speaker: António Coelho, Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation

Registration: geral@fmsoaresbarroso.pt 

About the initiative

Today, the digital reproduction of opaque documents is supported by well-established international standards, stable technologies and accessible technical guidelines. However, the digital reproduction of transparent originals - such as negatives and slides - continues to present specific challenges, requiring more experimental approaches and constantly evolving methodologies

This webinar explores the technical and operational challenges associated with the mass digitisation of transparent media, taking as an example an emblematic archive of journalistic photography from the last quarter of the 20th century (the archive of photojournalist Carlos Gil). The focus will be on transparencies in 35mm format, in their most common formats: Black and White Negative, Colour Negative, Colour Positive (slides).

Rather than proposing universal solutions, we share the practical experience developed at the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation, the obstacles faced and the paths found to achieve the main goal: producing authentic and accessible digital duplicates, without compromising the integrity of the originals, and guaranteeing their future reuse in different contexts.

The initiative is part of the project ‘See before you shoot. The revolutions in Latin America and Portugal through the lens of photojournalist Carlos Gil’, funded under the Iberarquivos programme.