scanning negatives

[Cancer]

I have always hated scanners, so I dont own one, but I want to scan my negatives and I know theres some special negative scanners, but... can you scan negatives with a regular scanner and then just invert the colors in some program?

 

[terri32 3]

Hi Cancer: Yes, you can, but you may not be entirely satisfied at first, so be prepared to do some final tweaking on your own. You'd be better served scanning prints when possible. Using a film or negative holder also helps with scanning in a flat bed, so if you're in the market, make sure it has one.

 

[Cancer]

yeah, Im planning in scanning prints actually, the "negative" scanning is just an extra thing, because when I take b&w pics I usually develop them myself and dont usually print them all, so... negative scanning is just an "extra" feature for the thing im looking for.

 

[jack]

cancer youre best off (if using c41 film)
just getting the negs scan onto cdr instead of prints.
post-produce these in photoshop.

 

[Cancer]

uh... I dont know what c41 is

 

[oriecat]

C41 is the standard color processing done at labs. You already said you do your own B/W processing, so it doesn't apply.

I recently got a new scanner as well and also thought of the negative scanning as just a bonus. Good thing, since it doesn't do it very well! Whenever I tell it to scan as a negative, I think it assumes it is a color negative, because it always comes out a weird red color and black instead of white. The slide scanning isn't too bad tho.

 

[Cancer]

well, thanks oriecat.

I was planning on scanning them "normal" and then just invert the colors... so... i dont know, I should buy a scanner first.

=) thanks to everyone who replied.

 

[voodoocat]

Scanning color negatives isn't as simple as inverting the colors. Every single type of film has it's own proprietary color of amber that will show up as a green color cast when you scan it and invert it. Black and white is easy cause there is no color to get in the way.

If you want good quality scans I recommend going with a dedicated film/slide scanner. Most software can automatically adjust the colors in the image based on that color of amber. Of course the most accurate colors are going to come from slide film.

Good luck.

 

[Cuervo79]

As I remember its not as easy as to scan and invert colors, most scanners can't scan film, because you have to backlight the film in order for the scanner to read it, I have a canoscan d2400v and it works nicely, and its both a film and flatbed scanner....

 

[Cancer]

ah, yeah, that makes sense cuervo

runs away sad


lol

and voodoocat, yeah, I hadnt thought about that either, the amber color... damn

 

[markc]

BTW, VueScan scanning software kicks major butt, and is better than any of the stuff that comes with the scanner (that I've used, anyway).

 

[Cuervo79]

Its also good to have contact sheets, so you remember the original color, sometimes my scaner changes the hue completely to the "correct" color... no worries man I've tried doing it manually with a light source and a normal scaner, it can be done, but its a little tricky since neon light gives a gren hue and incandecent gives an orange... so not only calibrate for the film but also for the backlight