These are family film negatives that are 40 to 70 years old - many hundreds of them, many different sizes and quality. How best to magnify or see them to identify the people and places in order to decide which ones to print? Is there an inexpensive machine I can buy and use at home that will help me really see and understand what I'm viewing?
2006-11-20 14:06:35 · 4 answers · asked by Farbles 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Photography
You need a light table. That is a table with a florescent light as a top.
2006-11-20 14:14:33 · answer #1 · answered by Sophist 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I will assume you mean that all other procedures I am currently using to remain the same. In that case I would pick color film. I use 120 format. I do not do my own processing, so that is not an issue. After processing by a pro lab, my negatives are scanned with a film scanner, or even a drum scanner when I want the absolute best quality. When the scan is made, I then have a digital file with which I can do as I please. By using channel mixer and some other techniques, I can do a very effective black and white conversion of any color scene. I like this method because unless I am shooting a specific series, I often need both color and black and white. I may be out and shoot some beautiful fall foliage, then on the way home see a great, grungy street scene that needs black and white. With the color film I have both. I just do the b/w conversion later in Photoshop. Some may view that as cheating, I just see it as a practical way of having my cake and eating it too. I DO use black and white film only in lomography cameras, but with that I am NEVER shooting anything of "beauty" anyway. steve
2016-03-12 20:53:28 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A flatbed scanner that supports film scanning might be best as these are negatives. It's hard to view negatives and make any decisions on content. Just get a cheap one for sorting them. You can scan in low res just to get an idea of what the picture is. Use imaging software to "invert" the pics.
2006-11-21 00:20:26 · answer #3 · answered by Bob 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I often use a flatbed scanner to make low res "previews" from old negatives. The technique is simple, put your negatives on the glass of the scanner with the emulsion (dull side) up and cover with a sheet of white plexiglass the same size as your scanner bed. Shine a bright light on the plexiglass as you scan the negatives to illuminate the images. Once scanned you can use photo software to reverse the negatives so you can view the positive image.
2006-11-21 14:32:29 · answer #4 · answered by tvhasben 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can use a slide sorter for both slides and negatives. Here's one example.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=32249&is=REG&addedTroughType=search
2006-11-20 16:47:03 · answer #5 · answered by Picture Taker 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋