There are several ways to go about scanning negatives to turn them into digital photos. Today, scanning negatives has become something that is no longer reserved for the abilities of professionals. Anyone can be successful at scanning negatives at home, and there are a few different ways to go about it. All of the methods for scanning negatives are relatively simple so that you can enjoy them in a digital format on your computer. Scanning negatives can help the preservation of your memories by turning old, degenerating negatives into beautiful pictures before they disintegrate and become unusable.
One of the easiest methods of scanning negatives is to use a scanner with a special attachment. The attachment is like a mirror box, which diverts light around to the back of the slide so that the scanner picks up transmitted light instead of reflected light. However, this method does not produce the best results; scanned pictures can look soft, unrefined, too dark, and often appear with white spots all over them, which is actually just dust that is being lit up. For scanning negatives, some scanner models have special transparency adapters that can be bought to use. These can be very pricy, though, averaging about $1800.00 for a decent one. Many people claim that the image results using the adapter are no better than the scanner that uses the mirror box attachment. Scanning negatives can also be done with an entirely different kind of scanner all together, instead of a regular one with attachments.
Using a digital camera is one way to go about scanning negatives, and although it is not the best way for scanning negatives, it will get you a picture copy of your negatives. It makes sense to use a camera to get a picture of a picture. However, although this way of scanning negatives can be a simple way to get results, it often proves to turn out some pretty disappointing photos. Missing hues, colors, highlights, effects, and blurry, fuzzy images are very common. For scanning negatives, there are devices exist that can link your camera and a negative/slide projector so that when a projector changes display images, the camera is set up to snap a picture of it. These can be frustrating and expensive, and the obvious downfall is that you must have a working projector to use the method. To help with scanning negatives, other devices are on the market that attach right to the camera and hold a negative to it; however, you can only insert and deal with one negative at a time, and the devices for scanning negatives are usually specific to a certain make and model of camera.
By far the most hassle free, low effort, cost effective way for scanning negatives is to take the negatives to a professional. Someone at a camera shop or photography shop will be able to work the gizmos, gadgets, equipment, and devices needed for scanning negatives to become perfect pictures. Prices vary depending on the amount of photos that you want out of scanning negatives, but many people find it is an invaluable service to have when they need to have digital pictures.
Storing film negatives can become a hassle quite quickly, and since today's photography is turning more and more digital in nature, you may want to find a digital storage option for your negatives and slides. Scanning negatives and turning them into a digital file is entirely possible, but you need the right equipment to do so.
Scanning Negatives at Home with a Flatbed Scanne
If you have a scanner with the right adapter, you can scan negatives and slides at home using a simple flatbed scanner. Keep in mind that simply putting your negatives on a flatbed scanner will not work. Flatbed scanners are designed to scan photos by capturing the reflection of the light shown on them. Because negatives are transparent, this does not work. You need a transparency adapter to scan negatives. The transparency adapter, when used in place of the scanner's lid, shines light onto the negatives from above, and the sensors can pick up this light and capture a digital image of the print. Without the adapter, a scanned negative or transparency will look like a big black square.
Scanning Negatives at Home with Film Scanners
If you plan on scanning negatives frequently, you may want to purchase a scanner designed to scan film. These scanners give you a better final image, because there is no piece of glass between the negative and the image sensor. Also, the light is more intense with one of these scanners. They also typically have a higher dpi resolution than flatbed scanners.
Another reason film scanners give a better final image has to do with the density of the image. Photographs have a density of approximately 2.0, and negatives have a density of about 3.0. Because flatbed scanners are designed primarily for documents and photographs, they are calibrated closer to the 2.0 range. This means that scanning negatives with a flatbed scanner will result in tonal loss. This is slight, as in a negative the tonal loss occurs mostly in lighter areas, but it does affect the final image quality a bit.
High Resolution Is Key
Regardless of whether you use a flatbed scanner or a film scanner, you will want to scan your negatives at the highest resolution possible. This will make the scanning process take a while, but if you intend to make prints off of the resulting digital photos, you will be glad you took the time to scan the picture at a high resolution.
Professional Help Is Available
While you can scan negatives at home, it takes quite a bit of time, particularly if you scan them at the high resolution necessary for images you wish to eventually print. To save yourself some time, consider sending your negatives away for professional negative scanning services.
Negative scanning companies will scan your images at an extremely high resolution using scanners specifically designed for scanning negatives, giving you high quality digital images that you can use for just about any purpose, from print to web to archival. In fact, the quality from a professionally scanned image placed onto a CD is so good that you do not have to hang on to those negatives any longer. You can dispose of them, using the CD as your record of the images. Hiring a professional to scan your negatives will save you time, and in the long run, it may also save you money, because you will not need to buy special equipment to get the quality images you need.
Both Kelly Renaul & Esteban are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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