Scan Your Old Films For The Cost of A Happy Meal
If you've been around from before the digital age, chances are you have stacks and stacks of negatives and slides stuffed in a box somewhere neatly ordered in dedicated archival grade binders.
Those binder (or stuffed boxes) are not the best performers when it comes to finding photographs, making prints and most importantly, they are not back-up friendly.
For those reasons (and more) it is a good idea to scan your old film into digital format. If you shop around there are some pretty good film scanners for about $150, and the Nikon monsters that will set you back a few months rent.
But there is also another way that involves some toilet paper rolls, gaffers tape and old slide frames.
Photographer Claus Thiim built a negative scanner by connecting two TP rolls to an old broken polarizer filter.
Click the image above or at the beginning of the post for more details, or watch the entire set here.
Now slides can be "scanned" into any DSLR relatively quickly provided that there is a good even light source behind the film. You will not have the power of hardware based tools like dust-removing-ICE, but you will have Lightroom, Photoshop or your favorite editing software to adjust and manipulate the images.
If the focusing distance is not enough for you, you can add a third TP roll or use any hard tubing material.
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I myself made one from potato
I myself made one from potato chips tube (have to remove the base part, though, to insert a CFL lamp). The tube's cap made a good light diffuser, and the white wall inside do reflect light.
One thing, if you want to do this, better get a close-focusing lens. I used a normal lens w/ MFD of 45 cm on an 8 MP SLR and I must crop here and there and ended up with somewhere around 300x400 px.
So the best combo is, I think, high-res camera with a macro lens attached.
Congrats
Best and oftenly more creative ways to solve problems are definitely the simpliest of them, this is a great example.
There are a lot of ways to do this :)
A couple of months ago I did this but using a shoe box to scan the negatives, and so far works fantastic
You can check it out here (the original spanish version but you can see the images), http://atravesdelalente.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/digitalizar-negativos-d...
And then I share the same tip on english version in another blog that I wrote for :) http://nonphotography.com/blog/experimental/if-you-don%C2%B4t-have-a-fil...
Enjoy and you tips is very good :)
re: showbox
Thanks Raypg,
This is an awesome solution for the light issue. Thanks for sharing it. Of course, I would secure everything down with tons of gaffa tape and a good tripod.
Negative Duplicator with a DSLR
Very creative. Should also work well for slides
I like this idea so much I'm
I like this idea so much I'm going to use a variation of it this fall when I start shooting 35mm instead of digital on my model shoots.
TP roll DYI film scanner
Some DYI projects border on brilliant (see RAYPG's example). Others not so much. This one falls into the latter category. You'll get what you paid for here ... crappy (pun intended) dupes. No mention of color correction, light source, focusing, lens (s/b a 1.1 macro to reduce CA and distortion), all of which would influence the outcome. 120K dupes that might enlarge all the way up to postage stamp size before pixelation makes them look like modern art? Yikes! This isn't cheap, it's a waste of time. There are $60 film scanners out there for Pete's sake (whoever he is?). You'll spend less money at McD's but you're end up with something far more worthwhile than this DYI project.
RAYPG's DYI alternative is far more sophisticated. Her needs differ though in that she's duping 120 film, superior to 35MM on nearly all counts (higher resolution, less grain structure, better D-Min/D-Max, etc.) Her setup adds a flash with what looks like a remote trigger, both of which make her setup more expensive than the TP Roll DYI approach. The results, on screen at least, look pretty good though. Diffusing the light source is well thought out but there's still the issue of color balance (wax paper isn't neutral, even with flash). One suggestion though. Black out the areas between the diffusers and the film plane to even out the edge to edge light at the film plane. RAYPG's DYI project is what a worthwhile DYI project is about.
xD
Yes Well I started using the same principle but using a window and a tungsten light you can also use the same shoe box principle and instead using a strobe, you can use any light source.... its all about what you can build to get what you want :)
Negatives
How would you turn these images into positives once they are shot? Or is it just for referencing purposes?
Turn images into positives.
Mr Trickey
The most direct method is to use a photo editing program like Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paintshop Photo Pro or others. In Photoshop CSx (Windows), for example, once the image is opened click on Image>Adjustments>invert or press Control+I to invert the tones and colors. In Elements 7/8 click Filter>Adjustments> Invert or press Control+I. In Paintshop Photo open the image then click Image>Negative Image (there is no keystroke equivalent). Remember to save the inverted image with a new file name to preserve the original image.
Another, geekier, way to do this is through the curves adjustment in Photoshop CSx. Open the image, click Image>Adjustments>Curves. By default the curve endpoint begins at the lower left corner and ends in the upper right corner. Place the mouse cursor just inside the lower left corner of the curves window to reveal a 4-way arrow. Click on the small box at the endpoint and drag it up the left side to the top left corner. The image will turn white. Repeat these steps on the upper right endpoint but drag it down to the lower right corner. This reverses the tones and colors in the image. This method allows more artistic control since you can move the endpoints anywhere in the box and play with the curves to produce different results. You may also combine this process with the inverse command.
just built one myself
i just built one myself and it will definitely replace my mediax workscan! it’s alot faster and you don’t have to bother with that stupid scanner software anymore :)
i just took a small drainpipe instead of the toiletpaper roll to make the whole construction more stable. all i need now is a macro lense to get „scans“ with a decent resolution.
my first tries: http://www.applejuicechronicles.com/?p=1125
Those are terrific. If you
Those are terrific. If you can't afford a macro lens, do what I did and buy a reversing ring on Ebay for $12 and just flip a lens backwards.
Brilliant solution!
In reply to previous comments regarding color balancing and light sources I have described on my website how to backlight the slide or negative with any color you desire. I place my negative not in front of a window or light box or flash, but in front of my computer monitor! Using the monitor allows me to produce any backlight color I choose. http://www.johnamon.com/2010/08/how-to-copy-35mm-film-with-dslr-camera/
Turn Images Positive
I have converted my images to positives using Adobe Lightroom. I have never found a step by step repeatable guide to do this, so I wrote one!
There is a critical step in the process which involves altering the white balance of the image to get rid of the blue tint that you always get when inverting a negative to positive. The process can be mimicked in photoshop - or in The GIMP which is free.
http://www.johnamon.com/2010/08/invert-colour-negative-in-lightroom/
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