Scanning negatives

amp

So like, I've got some negatives of pictures developed in the chemist but the photo's themselves are gone. Is it possible to use a scanner and photoshop to digititize them? Or am I talking arse?


[insert jokes about blackmailing people with negatives here]

Samson

Originally posted by amp
So like, I've got some negatives of pictures developed in the chemist but the photo's themselves are gone. Is it possible to use a scanner and photoshop to digititize them?

Yes, indeed it is.
If you have a flatbed scanner you can do it yourself, but you need an add-on called a "transparency hood", don't expect quality or resolution to be very good.
I use a dedicated neg/slide scanner and the quality/resolution far surpasses my (high end) flatbed.

Alternatively, you can bring your negs into most decent photo shops and ask them to scan them onto CD for you (don't know cost), they will be just straight scans though, so you will need to touch them up yourself in photoshop.

If you do decide to scan them yourself, make sure that your scanner software supports neg. scanning otherwise you will get a horrible orange mess that will take a lot more work than "invert" to get the colours right.

amp

Yes, the horrible orange mess. So time to check out the scanner software. Cheers Samson.

Saruman

you can always buy a negative scanner.. they are not too expensive and the quality is probably as good if not better than an actual digital camera.. if you used a good SLR for the negatives.. they have one on www.scan.co.uk

havok*

Not all flat beds are built for taking negatives, it'll be in the specs of the scanner weather its equiped to handle negatives or not.

Krusty_Clown

Do you know if this would also work with capturing those ancient slides you r parents used to use with a projector, and if so, what kind of quality you could expect?

Samson

Originally posted by Krusty_Clown
Do you know if this would also work with capturing those ancient slides you r parents used to use with a projector, and if so, what kind of quality you could expect?

All neg scanners (that I'm aware of) have the ability to scan mounted 35mm slides (if that's what you are talking about).

If you were going to use a flatbed, you would need to unmount the slide.
The reason for this is that the mount would actually raise the slide itself off the glass fractionally, the slide would not be at the optimum point of focus (flat on the glass).

apiou

The newer better scanners have neg facilities - and are great - if your scanner does not do the trick ask a friend and then get the photos engraved on a cdrom.......... result is really good

Samson

Originally posted by apiou
if your scanner does not do the trick ask a friend and then get the photos engraved on a cdrom.......... result is really good

That's a new one to me.
How does one print from this "engraving" ?

jaggeh

why not just bring the negatives to a photo development place and get another print done?

jArgHA

You can get negatives or slides scanned in photo labs and written to CD along with software to view them from the CD. They do a very good job of scanning the images but the service is not worth it (IMHO) as they charge approx 57 EUR per 36 images. You could buy a decent slide scanner for about 140 EUR.