Need help with Flipping Slide Scans (mirror image)

[robemich]

A friend of mine was nice enough to scan all my Dad's old slide with a Nikon slide scanner. The scans are great, but I am finding that a number of slides were scanned with the emulsion side reversed of how they should have been scanned. The quality is great, but I need to flip the pic horizontally to correct it.

Here is what I have found so far:

1. iPhoto 6.0 is incapable of making this change, or at least from what I have found.

2. Preview is capable of making this change.

3. I can set iPhoto to use Preview for the editor, and I can change the image in Preview, but it does not write the change in such a way that iPhoto can detect it. I have researched some, and I guess Preview only makes some changes to the meta data, that only Preview can display properly. I could have my specifics slightly wrong here, so don't flame me too hard.

What I need is to flip these scans on the cheap and then re-write the file, so that it can be further edited in iPhoto. If Preview had an export option, I think I might be in business. I would rather not purchase Photoshop to do something this simple.

Any ideas would be welcomed. I searched this forum on this topic, and I think I probably did not search on the right key words, because I did not come up with anything, so sorry if this has been discussed a million times already.

-mike

 

[Lovesong]

You have the "Save as" function in preview. Just open them there, edit them as you wish, then save them to another folder. When you're all done just copy that folder to iPhoto.

 

[robemich]

No Dice

I just tried the suggested work-around in Preview and it did not work.

I rotated horizontal and thenperformed a 'Save As' and then imported the new file into iPhoto. When I viewed the file in iPhoto, iPhoto displayed the 'unflipped' image.

Maybe I did something wrong?

 

[Lovesong]

Are you using the images from your iPhoto library, or are you just editing straight out of iPhoto. Go to the Pictures folder, and get to the iPhoto folder. Inside there should be a folder entitled "originals."

Find the file that you're trying to flip, open it with preview, flip, and save. You may have to re-import the image.

If that doesn't work, I'm stumped.

 

[robemich]

First off, thank you so much for your suggestions.

Your second suggestion is actually what I tried to do first and that did not work.

I can probably get some time on a machine with photoshop if I have to, but I was hoping it would not come down to that. If anyone has any ideas, please shout it out.

Darn Preview should have an export option that re-writes the files. Or better yet, iPhoto should have the feature built in.

-mike

 

[harlonpepper]

I actually just had this exact same issue...just a year later. Any figured this out yet? Thanks!

 

[jampat]

I am pretty sure that GIMP can do mirror image, and it's free.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Using Preview I can flip and save a photo. When I reopen, it shows up the flipped way as desired....but I'm doing this before importing it into iphoto. After I import the flipped photo into iphoto, it shows up flipped as desired.......so try flipping your photos before you import them into iphoto

 

[Rivergull]

Flipping Photos

I just discovered how to flip a photo that was emailed to me.

BEFORE importing the photo to iPhoto:
choose the photo you want by clicking on it and highlighting it;
click on File, then Print, and then on Layout.
When the layout screen appears, look toward the bottom for two check boxes. One check-box is for "Reverse page orientation" and one check-box is for "Flip horizontally" Use that one. It works. Now you have to use the PDF drop down menu within that same screen and 'send the pdf to iPhoto' Once it appears in iPhoto it appears flipped, as you want. Now you can crop or do whatever you want with the iPhoto tools.