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05/05/2007 07:50:12 PM · #1 |
Sorting thru' my mom's stuff I came across a box of old negatives and decided to do a quick experiment.
I held one against my lens, shot in super-macro mode against a grey sky, then took it into PS and used invert. I did a bit of tinkering with it, but not much, as it's not GREAT to start with (the neg is about 65 years old, for one thing).
But, considering the setup (or lack of) I don't think it came out too badly, eh?
My questions;
What's the normal way of doing these? Or is there? Or is it even worth it to try?
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05/05/2007 08:17:32 PM · #2 |
film scanner, but they are pricey. There are places you can take to get your old negitives "digitized". just google it
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05/05/2007 08:20:23 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by BeeCee:
My questions: What's the normal way of doing these? Or is there? Or is it even worth it to try? |
Taking them to a shop that specializes in archival to CD/DVD?
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05/05/2007 08:29:34 PM · #4 |
| Or if you want to copy them your way, prop up a piece of glass over a light, diffuse the light with some paper. Put your camera on a tripod. Line up the camera so it's perfectly even with the film plane/glass and snap away. If you have a copy stand it would be even easier. In theory, I think this would work, but I haven't tried it myself. |
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05/05/2007 08:32:50 PM · #5 |
I've done something similar with slides. I mounted a small light on a wall (one of those small closet lights) and rigged up a shelf with a groove for the slide to sit in.
Then framing and copying is very easy with the use of a tripod.
This method could be very time consuming but a lot cheaper than having them done in a lab.
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05/05/2007 09:08:50 PM · #6 |
I imagine there are probably already prints of at least most of the negs in mom's many MANY albums, but I'd wanted to experiment with using some of the negatives for textures, collages, etc.
I figured I'd try my light table, which would give me basically the same as I got, but wanted to ask and see if there was some cool technique that I didn't know.
Thanks for all your responses :) |
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05/05/2007 09:34:10 PM · #7 |
A light table will work well. Just create a black shield with an opening just larger than the image size, to keep out stray light. I've copied hundreds of slides using the "backlit macro" method. If you decide to do a lot of it, here are some suggestions:
- Make sure that you can repeatably position the negative in the same spot. Cardboard strips glued to your light shield would work well.
- Set up your camera on tripod and with remote release if possible. Make sure the camera is perpendicular to the table (shoot straight on)
- Use your lowest ISO and sharpest f-stop
- Expose to the right; use the highest exposure that keeps you from blowing the highlights. Remember that with negatives, the dense areas actually become the highlights, so noise will show worst in highlights in the final image.
- Make sure you clean the dust off each negative carefully first. You'll wind up with dust in your images that you could never see without a magnifier.
Message edited by author 2007-05-05 21:34:49. |
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05/05/2007 10:54:51 PM · #8 |
| Thanks, kirbic, those are just the kind of tips I was hoping for! :D |
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