How can I get my negative scans to look like my prints?

You need to make the adjustments in the scanner software to see your negative.I use Vuescan but most any scanner software will enable you to adjust brightness and contrast and tailor the upper and lower curves to bring out the details that you want.
I find it very interesting that flatbed scanners are "extremely limited".That is a good one.
You can get a useable picture from negatives that yield no obvious detail to the naked eye with the proper setup of your scanning software.....yes,even a flatbed can do it.Ron G
 
So I got a holga and I've been shooting off some film.

It's nice but it tends to really overexpose the negatives -- they look black and sometimes the scanner has trouble recognizing them -- but if I hold them up to a light I can see details.

And the weird thing is the prints my lab made look great, but the scans of the negatives are terrible.

So how can I recover my pictures with a negative scanner (I have the Canoscan 8800F)?

When I scan it I get:

negative-scan-1.jpg

But when I look at the prints I had made it looks completely different:
negative-scan-2.jpg


How can I get my negative scans to look like my prints?

The first thing I notice is that you have the film in the scanner wrong side up...

Look at the letters of the sign... (Is the sign meant to be read from the roof-top, or from the water-front?) (Why did it take over a year for somebody to notice that...?)

The whole scene is flipped 180 degrees horizontally. On every film scanner I've used, you put the film in the holder so that the frame numbers are backwards. (So the 'front' is down.)

If that doesn't fix your problem, it should at least help.
 
For your scan, use Auto color or Auto Tone on Photoshop and you will have it corrected.

Good luck with your scan.
 
So I got a holga and I've been shooting off some film.

It's nice but it tends to really overexpose the negatives -- they look black and sometimes the scanner has trouble recognizing them -- but if I hold them up to a light I can see details.

And the weird thing is the prints my lab made look great, but the scans of the negatives are terrible.

So how can I recover my pictures with a negative scanner (I have the Canoscan 8800F)?

When I scan it I get:

negative-scan-1.jpg

But when I look at the prints I had made it looks completely different:
negative-scan-2.jpg


How can I get my negative scans to look like my prints?

The first thing I notice is that you have the film in the scanner wrong side up...

Look at the letters of the sign... (Is the sign meant to be read from the roof-top, or from the water-front?) (Why did it take over a year for somebody to notice that...?)

The whole scene is flipped 180 degrees horizontally. On every film scanner I've used, you put the film in the holder so that the frame numbers are backwards. (So the 'front' is down.)

If that doesn't fix your problem, it should at least help.

Wow, who knew this thread was still going? :)

The backwards text is the correct direction. The shot is across a factory and you're looking at the sign from the wrong side.

The other post was correct, I selected the "black" part of the negative, and adjusting levels allows me to get more realistic colors
 
The backwards text is the correct direction.
Yes. Which is why I said you had the film in the scanner upside down.

Your scan has 'normal' text. The print has backwards text. Therefore - you put the film in the scanner wrong. It might not matter much (I haven't actually tried putting the film in upside down just to see what would happen...), but for optimal results, I think it would be best to have the film in there right side up...
 
The scan will be the same whether the film is upside down or right side up.The scanner will never know the difference.You can usually flip the image in software with most scanner programs or any of the graphic/picture programs will do it if you happen to scan it upside down by mistake.Ron G
 

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