Negative Scanning

[dr_gn]

I've got a few old colour negatives I'd like converting to digital files.

Where's the best place to get them scanned for the best resolution?

I guess there are about 50 images in total.

Thanks.

[Simpo Two]

Scanning is one thing, getting the colours flipped round is another due to the orange mask. Are you going to do that?

[dr_gn]

Simpo Two said:

Scanning is one thing, getting the colours flipped round is another due to the orange mask. Are you going to do that?

err what?

[Simpo Two]

Hold the colour negatives up to the light. What colour are they?

[dr_gn]

Simpo Two said:

Hold the colour negatives up to the light. What colour are they?

The acetate film is orange. I had some negatives scanned years ago and I got a load of .jpg files on a cd, didn't have to do anything further with them.


I assume I could run them through the "negative image" thing in PSP and it would correct everything for me if necessary?

[Simpo Two]

dr_gn said:

The acetate film is orange. I had some negatives scanned years ago and I got a load of .jpg files on a cd, didn't have to do anything further with them.

I assume I could run them through the "negative image" thing in PSP and it would correct everything for me if necessary?

Thanks to the orange mask you can't simply invert the colours in Photoshop. What I wasn't sure about was whether the scanning people were going to present you with a colour-corrected result, or whether you would need the software/plugin to remove it yourself. If the scanners are going to give you true colour scans then no problem of course. But you can't just pop them in a home scanner, flip them and expect them to come out right.

[Mr Will]

If there's only about 50 then I'd happily run them through my neg-scanner for you, it'll do all the colour correction and spit out decent jpegs ready to print or do whatever with.

Drop me a PM if you're interested.

Alternatively, most labs offer similar services or you could buy your own scanner that comes with the relevant software. Finally, some people scan using a lightbox and macro lens. Its fast once you are set up but a bit of a faff to get everything correct.

[droopsnoot]

My cheapy-cheapy slide scanner from Maplins (£20 store opening offer) has settings for b/w negative, colour negative and colour slide, an automatically adjusts the resulting image depending on your choice.

It works reasonably well, though having listened to other peoples descriptions of their 'proper' slide scanners, it seems they are much better. Mine's basically a close-focusing webcam in a box with a suitable mounting. For my slides, it doesn't really matter as they're only reasonable quality to start with - if yours are much better, the cheap one might not be much use.

[djsmith74]

dr_gn said:

I've got a few old colour negatives I'd like converting to digital files.

Where's the best place to get them scanned for the best resolution?

I guess there are about 50 images in total.

Thanks.

I'm currently going through a fact-finding mission regarding scanning/printing negatives (taken with a Leica M3 - gratitous gear drop there!). I can recommend the following on-line scanning/printing servies, as they scan to CD for you (at chosen resolutions). If you just have a limited number of negatives, then these are fine:
DSL Colour Labs:
http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/scanning-2-cd.cfm

Peak Imaging:
http://www.peak-imaging.com/htmls/process_and_scan...

As I will be continuing to shoot with my Leica for some time, I have now bought a dedicated film scanner (Plustek 8100) of which I can scan negatives and load them into Aperture for post-processing. The supplied software isn't the most intuitive but, you can buy cheaper scanners and use VueScan software to process the images.

Hope this helps

Darren

[MysteryLemon]

Simpo Two said:

Thanks to the orange mask you can't simply invert the colours in Photoshop. What I wasn't sure about was whether the scanning people were going to present you with a colour-corrected result, or whether you would need the software/plugin to remove it yourself. If the scanners are going to give you true colour scans then no problem of course. But you can't just pop them in a home scanner, flip them and expect them to come out right.

The home scanners capable of actually scanning negs will have a second backlight underneath white backing in the hood. This illuminates the negative properly and the scanning software will do the necessary conversion of the colours.

If you were getting different results, I suggest you had the scanner on the wrong settings, weren't using the scanner correctly or have a scanner that isn't designed to scan negatives.

[Glosphil]

My Canon 5600F scans 5 negatives at a time and they are imported directly in to Photoshop with the colours already corrected by the scanning software.

[dr_gn]

djsmith74 said:

dr_gn said:

I've got a few old colour negatives I'd like converting to digital files.

Where's the best place to get them scanned for the best resolution?

I guess there are about 50 images in total.

Thanks.

I'm currently going through a fact-finding mission regarding scanning/printing negatives (taken with a Leica M3 - gratitous gear drop there!). I can recommend the following on-line scanning/printing servies, as they scan to CD for you (at chosen resolutions). If you just have a limited number of negatives, then these are fine:
DSL Colour Labs:
http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/scanning-2-cd.cfm

Peak Imaging:
http://www.peak-imaging.com/htmls/process_and_scan...

As I will be continuing to shoot with my Leica for some time, I have now bought a dedicated film scanner (Plustek 8100) of which I can scan negatives and load them into Aperture for post-processing. The supplied software isn't the most intuitive but, you can buy cheaper scanners and use VueScan software to process the images.

Hope this helps

Darren

Thanks. Peak Imaging apparently used to be Propix. They are in Sheffield and I've used them once before in the distant past. Since they're local I'll give them a try.

[Simpo Two]

MysteryLemon said:

The home scanners capable of actually scanning negs will have a second backlight underneath white backing in the hood. This illuminates the negative properly and the scanning software will do the necessary conversion of the colours.

Yes, I was assuming the scanner had the capability to use transmitted light; the issue is a colour/software one.