Cropping, Sharpening & Colour Saturation
A Clean Image
How Big?
Thumbnails
Slide Quality

The success of your auction depends largely on having an accurate image preview & description available to prospective bidders. For that reason, we strongly suggest that images uploaded are prepared with a dedicated photo scanner, not a flatbed type document scanner. Photo scanners are available from most major manufacturers such as Nikon, Canon, Hewlett-Packard etc. The newest generation of photo scanners offer up to 4000 dpi resolution, while earlier types scan at lower resolutions. Either type is acceptable. If you can afford one of the new generation types, the results are spectacular!

Cropping, Sharpening & Colour Saturation

Remember that the image buyers see must be a true representation of the actual slide you are offering. With the abilities of various photo editing software programs, one can turn a marginal slide into a much better one, using tools such as cropping, sharpening, and improvements in color saturation. Using  those tools to any excess means that the image preview is no longer representative of the actual slide itself. Sharpening & colour enhancement may be used to restore any loss of image quality, not to artificially improve the slide. The method of cropping your image is a personal decision. You may elect to show the slide with the mounting visible, or you may crop the mount out. Esthetically, the latter method provides a better look, but keep in mind that cropping to make the aircraft appear larger in the frame is not acceptable.

A Clean Image

Before scanning your slide, please take a few seconds and remove any excess dust on the surface. Looking at a dusty slide is similar to viewing a fine oil painting through dirty, fingerprinted glass. If there are any dust specks you missed, they can be removed with your photo-editing software. Displaying a well prepared, clean image indicates that you care for the condition of your material.

If your slide has any "problems" such as minor scratches from age, or processing, or any emulsion marks, it is your responsibility to be forthcoming with that information.

How Big?

We suggest that your scan be no larger than 750 pixels in width. The maximum allowable image size for upload is 100K. Sizes larger than this will increase download times, and will generally require the viewer to scroll either horizontally or vertically to see the entire image. Keep in mind that in our impatient internet minded world, people will actually get bored waiting for a lengthy download, and may just move on to the next item. We will cancel auctions with excessively large scans (greater than 750 pixels width and larger than 100K. For further details on how to scan slides click here.

Thumbnails

Our registered users have told us that the "thumbnail" image is an important part of the auction, and one that they expect to see. For that reason, we have eliminated the fee for thumbnails. The operating system used by SlideTrader.com is designed to thumbnail your images automatically. Therefore, there is no need to prepare seperate thumbnail scans for your auctions. For some non-standard photo-editing and/or MacIntosh applications, our system is unable to generate a proper thumbnail. In the rare instances when this occurs, a full size image is placed on the main listing page, which then results in layout problems. If you are using a Mac, or any unusual photo-editing software, please check your thumbnails after upload. If they do not appear in the correct size, please advise us so that we can remove your auction from the system. You will have to try again when this happens.

Slide Quality

Some people have asked about restricting the website to only high quality slides, in optimal conditions, regardless of the subject matter. Frankly, it is not our place to decide what is a good slide, and what is not.  Even our own personal criteria will often differ depending on the subject.

We all have slightly different interests, different quality criteria, and are at different stages of collecting. The quality, and value of an individual slide is highly subjective, and it's outcome will be decided only by the user's of the website.

Finished scanning? Your slides are ready for auction. Click here for selling tips!