"Inverse scanning" JPEG --> film?

Not sure how crazy this is, but I want to transfer digital images to film. I have a large collection of digital photos from various digital cameras I've been using over the years. When browsing my archive, I sometimes wonder "how would this one look on HP5+??"

I know that the movie industry does this all the time, IIRC they use million-dollar film recorders to transfer digital video footage to film, but how would you approach solving this for a hobbyist?

Displaying a photo on a high-DPI high-res high-quality monitor and shooting it with a film camera is the only semi-affordable way that comes to mind. Anything else?

About 20 years ago, the lab where I worked had a film recorder. I do not know the price but at that time would have been less than $2500 (that was the cutoff for purchases that did not require bidding or purchase from a GSA contract vendor). The recorder used a special Ektachrome film recorder film. I do not recall the resolution, but it may have been as poor as VGA and probably required an analogue signal input signal. We seldom used it and surplussed the device.

Desktop film recorders were used to turn digitally processed images into slides for giving talks, submitting to magazine/journal articles for reproduction, etc. So not a household item, but more like a thousand than a million bucks. You could probably find such a thing surplus, but then you'd have to deal with the fact that it's a 90s-era computer peripheral, like an early film scanner. So needing software to drive it, SCSI interface (if you are lucky), etc.

There are people who make large digital negatives for contact printing with alternative processes. Bob Carnie probably does this commercially. There is an entire 'Digital Negatives' sub-forum on Photrio for it.

reddesert said:

Desktop film recorders were used to turn digitally processed images into slides for giving talks, submitting to magazine/journal articles for reproduction, etc. So not a household item, but more like a thousand than a million bucks. You could probably find such a thing surplus, but then you'd have to deal with the fact that it's a 90s-era computer peripheral, like an early film scanner. So needing software to drive it, SCSI interface (if you are lucky), etc.

There are people who make large digital negatives for contact printing with alternative processes. Bob Carnie probably does this commercially. There is an entire 'Digital Negatives' sub-forum on Photrio for it.

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Years ago, I was interested in getting a film recorder. IIRC, the big name was Polaroid, and again, IIRC, the long edge of a 35 mm slide was 2700 dots. Again, all from memory. As others have said, you will probably need a SCSI card. And there is no guarantee that the Polaroid drivers will work on anything newer than Windows XP, certainly on Windows 10 64.

This might be exactly what you want and the price is right. Note that it IS SCSI, and an old form of SCSI at that. Expect to pay $$$ for the cable and terminator. (Actually I might still have some old SCSI cables and terminators. PM me.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Polaroid-C...brand=Polaroid&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Bormental said:

Not sure how crazy this is, but I want to transfer digital images to film. I have a large collection of digital photos from various digital cameras I've been using over the years. When browsing my archive, I sometimes wonder "how would this one look on HP5+??"

I know that the movie industry does this all the time, IIRC they use million-dollar film recorders to transfer digital video footage to film, but how would you approach solving this for a hobbyist?

Displaying a photo on a high-DPI high-res high-quality monitor and shooting it with a film camera is the only semi-affordable way that comes to mind. Anything else?

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No problem, you have very good film recording services specifically for photographers around the world, for example:


NY: https://www.prepressexpress.com/pages/contact.html and I revall there is another one in Californi
Australia (Prices in Australian $, cheaper): http://www.prolab.com.au/services/Lab-Services/Film-Writer-LVT.php
UK: https://www.johnsalimphotographic.co.uk/filmrecording.html

Of course you also have that service in California, IIRC.

The John Salim service (says) "temporarily unavailable", I hope it can operate ASAP, just ask him. Not me, but I know people having used this service and they are totally happy with the results.


For the Genesis exhibition, Salgado recorded on film his post 2007 digital shots, on Delta 100, each 8x10" sheet contained 4 images. Those negatives were enlarged in the darkroom to make the prints for the exhibition and for colectors, a LVT Rihno machine has used.

Those services are "relatively cheap" and in general and they are quite proficient. A possibilitly is recording a mosaic of images with different settings to learn how you have to edit the digital image. Best is you learn what level in the pixels of your source image ends in what density on film, you have to speak with your recorder service to agree how you edit the image.

So if you you want to record on film... no problem, just do it.

138S said:

No problem, you have very good film recording services specifically for photographers

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That's perfect, thank you very much!

I have friends that own a film recorder. It is the size of a kitchen range, requires its own computer and gives acceptable results.

Bormental said:

Not sure how crazy this is, but I want to transfer digital images to film. I have a large collection of digital photos from various digital cameras I've been using over the years. When browsing my archive, I sometimes wonder "how would this one look on HP5+??"

I know that the movie industry does this all the time, IIRC they use million-dollar film recorders to transfer digital video footage to film, but how would you approach solving this for a hobbyist?

Displaying a photo on a high-DPI high-res high-quality monitor and shooting it with a film camera is the only semi-affordable way that comes to mind. Anything else?

Click to expand...

Bormental...
Might I suggest that you have the 'highest resolution' you can 'get'.. And print out onto Mitsubishi's "Pictorico OH Film" and contact print the highest resolution file you can 'get' (on the 'slightly frosted side' after a 'flipping the scan 'left to right'
I do it for my 'alt process' when printing with UV illumination

Ken

Polaroid Palette/ProPalette line. A bunch of them on eBay...

Bormental said:

That's perfect !

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Please let me add an additional suggestion: https://dominique-granier.book.fr/negatif-10x12

For a certain digital image you love, you may get both a film negative and a master print. Dominique Granier made the reference prints and collector's series for the Genesis exhibition, so he is not exactly a rookie in the darkroom. Obtaining a master print interpretation in FB paper can be quite a powerful thing. Personally, I learned what is a master print in that way.

https://dominique-granier.book.fr/