How to Determine the Emulsion Side of your Slides?

by Marsha Knackstedt / Tuesday, 18 November 2014 / Published in How To

How to Determine the Emulsion Side of your Slides?
http://youtu.be/ax5v20xyKTg
This post is to share with you about determining the emulsion side of a slide. All of the slides shown here are lying with the emulsion side up. The emulsion side consists of a silver halide colloidal particles dispersed in a gelatin matrix.

The reason why you want to determine the emulsion side is so that you can scan or project your slides from the correct side.

There are several clues to help you determine the emulsion side of a slide. The emulsion side is less shiny and has a bit of a texture to it when held up to a bright light. It is also concave or curved downward. The emulsion side often has the name and logo of the processor on it and sometimes says something like “this side toward screen”.

The non-emulsion side of the slide is the side that you want to scan. It has the correct orientation of the image on it. It is more shiny and smooth. The non-emulsion side is convex meaning that it curves upward.

The little mini 110 slides work much the same way but have one additional clue. There is a little window with a slide number in it that is located on the shiny (non-emulsion) side.

If you’d rather not have to mess with figuring out the emulsion side of your slides you can bring or send them in to Leave A Legacy where we’ve scanned thousands upon thousands of slides and we will figure it out for each one for you, scan them and give you a digital copy. We hope that this explanation has helped you figure out the emulsion side of your slides.