Advice needed on scanning old photo negatives to digital format

hoffalives · Feb 16, 2014

Hi, I'm brand new to the forum. I know absolutely nothing about photography except how to push a button and take a picture. My purpose for joining this group is to get some advice on scanning some old photo negatives from over 60 years ago to digital format. I'm so uninformed that I don't even know what kind of negatives I have - I just know that they aren't 35MM.

I have a flatbed scanner hooked up to my iMac that I've used for scanning hundreds of photos, but not negatives. I tried placing the old negatives on the flatbed with aluminum foil behind them. Dismal result. I might be interested in purchasing a dedicated scanner for this, as there are lots of old negatives. It's just that I have absolutely no idea what I need.

So, I'm here to ask if anyone has suggestions or advice. Thanks in advance for any responses. Once again, I'm out of my element with this stuff, so I'm gonna sound pretty dumb - mostly because that's how I am, ha ha.

480sparky · Feb 16, 2014

What format?

dxqcanada · Feb 16, 2014

I would suggest that you physically measure the negatives ... which would give us a better idea about the format.

hoffalives · Feb 16, 2014

Format would be JPEG

Negative sizes are pretty close to:
2 7/16" X 3 7/8" - 1 image on negative
2 7/16" x 4 13/16" - 2 images on negative

480sparky · Feb 16, 2014

hoffalives said:
Format would be JPEG

Negative sizes are pretty close to:
2 7/16" X 3 7/8" - 1 image on negative
2 7/16" x 4 13/16" - 2 images on negative

"Format" meaning film format, not digital file.

I digitized over 1100 film negatives ranging from just about 35mm size up to 4x6" with the following method:

Place a white sheet on the floor. Aim a strobe or speedlight at the white sheet. Put a box on either side of the white sheet, far enough apart to span between them with a sheet of glass. Tape the glass on both ends to the boxes. Take another sheet of glass and place it 90° to the first, and take some duct tape along the far end to 'hinge' the two sheets together.

Put your camera on a tripod, and aim it directly down at the glass, adjusting it so it will focus on the glass but not the white sheet below it. Take two more pieces of duct tape, and place them on the bottom of the lower glass that corresponds to a corner of your viewfinder.

Now, 'open' the top piece of glass and place a negative in the corner near the duct tape. 'Close' the upper glass to flatten the negative and fire the camera / flash. Check your exposure (shoot manual, and turn off AF!!!!) and adjust until your histogram is good.

Now it's off to the races. You can merely assembly-line process the images as long as you want to.

When done, import the files into your computer, and batch process using whatever software you use to 'invert' the image (make black white and white black) as well as desaturate the files.

Presto!

hoffalives · Feb 16, 2014

Thanks for the response. I wish I could tell you what sort of film negatives these are. I don't know - all I can tell you is that it says Kodak Safety Film along the edge and I'm sure that doesn't tell you anything.

480sparky · Feb 16, 2014

Of the 1,100 or so I did this way, I probably had about 20 different formats. I just left the camera in the same position and cropped them all in post.

hoffalives · Feb 16, 2014

480sparky, thanks for the tip! I'll see if I can figure out how to follow your steps.

480sparky · Feb 16, 2014

I wish I had taken a photo of the set up. But I think once you start putting it all together, it will come together for you.

I also used a laptop and tethered the camera so I never had to touch it.

In post, I Inverted the image, desaturated it (it will have a color cast!), adjusted the black & white points (no curves adjustment), Auto-Rotate (many negatives were so curled up they rotated as I lowered the glass onto it) and Freehand Crop. Saved as JPEG from that.

Gavjenks · Feb 16, 2014

A softbox facing upward (ideally one with two or more diffusing screens in it) will light more evenly than an angled flash (tried both). Otherwise, this is exactly what I do. Make sure that the softbox or the paper is far enough from the lens that it is totally blurred, so you don't imprint the texture of the fabric or paper in your image.

Formats:
* Is it about the size of a postage stamp? That's 35mm. This method isn't so great for 35mm. it will work but give you noticeably lower quality than a legit film scanner like you could buy or they'd have at a store.
* Is it about the size of a post-it note (with slightly varying dimensions)? That's medium format, and should work fine. Or anything larger than that. ("large format" begins at 4"x5" btw)

hoffalives · Feb 16, 2014

Gavjenks, you're dead on about the negatives being the size of a post-it note with varying dimensions. I guess what I was really hoping for was that someone would recommend a type of scanner that I could just purchase. I just don't have the facilities in my home to be able to do what 480sparky is saying. Thanks for your response.

480sparky · Feb 16, 2014

hoffalives said:
Gavjenks, you're dead on about the negatives being the size of a post-it note with varying dimensions. I guess what I was really hoping for was that someone would recommend a type of scanner that I could just purchase. I just don't have the facilities in my home to be able to do what 480sparky is saying. Thanks for your response.

I didn't have 'the facilities' either. I just built an ad-hoc system using stuff around the house. I set it up in the living room for about a week, got 1100 negs digitized, then everything went back to where it was.

dxqcanada · Feb 16, 2014

Your negs appear to be 120 format. A negative scanner for medium format is not cheap.
Plustek OpticFilm 120 Film Scanner 783064365642 B&H Photo Video

You could go cheap: Pacific Image ImageBox MF 4-In-1 Slide, Film & IMAGEBOX MF

Or DIY with a flatbed:
How To Scan Negatives Using A Standard Scanner | Popular Photography

Light Guru · Feb 16, 2014

hoffalives said:
I tried placing the old negatives on the flatbed with aluminum foil behind them. Dismal result. I might be interested in purchasing a dedicated scanner for this, as there are lots of old negatives. It's just that I have absolutely no idea what I need.

Umm yea that's not going to work. Look into getting a Epson v750