Question about film scanners and negatives

bellalee · Mar 23, 2010

I'm new to APUG and relatively new to 35mm colour film photography so please excuse if this is a stupid question to ask and/or in the wrong forum xD

I am interested in purchasing a film scanner but wondering what the process is for scanning the negatives? how do you get the negatives in the first place?
Does the film canister have to be taken to a shop and be processed? Or can you do it all at home with the film scanner?

I sent an email to a company and they said you could do it straight from the camera to printer but I want to clarify this because I was lead to believe film is light sensitive- thats how it works right.

Thanks,
Bella

Ektagraphic · Mar 23, 2010

Well welcome. All film will need to be processed wether you set up your own darkroom or bring it to a lab. DO NOT(!!!) Just open up a film cassette because you will ruin the images within....The film scanner is simply a device to get the images into your computer so that you can work with them that way. You amy want to start out by having a lab process and print or process and scan your first few rolls.

Patrick

bellalee · Mar 23, 2010

Thanks Patrick
Also another question,
Is just getting the negatives processed at a lab cheaper than getting the standard 4x6 prints as well?

flashgumby · Mar 23, 2010

bellalee said:
Thanks Patrick
Also another question,
Is just getting the negatives processed at a lab cheaper than getting the standard 4x6 prints as well?

Hi Bella,

The relative cost difference between process-only and process-and-print is really dependent upon where you get them done. At some labs, the extra cost of the prints is insignificant, but others might charge quite a bit more.

One thing to be mindful of though, is that it is often cheaper to get prints made at the time of processing, rather than going back later for a set of prints.

Good luck with it - and have fun!!!

Regards,
Gordon

markbarendt · Mar 23, 2010

bellalee said:
Thanks Patrick
Also another question,
Is just getting the negatives processed at a lab cheaper than getting the standard 4x6 prints as well?

Welcome bellalee to the wonderful world of film.

Yes the film processing by itself is less expensive. My local Wal-Mart will develop a roll for under $2.

As to your scanning question APUG is not the best place to ask, it's "off topic".

APUG.ORG is an international community of like minded individuals devoted to traditional (non-digital) photographic processes. We are an active photographic community; our forums contain a highly detailed archive of traditional and historic photographic processes.

http://www.hybridphoto.com is APUG's sister site and scanning is on topic there.

elekm · Mar 23, 2010

A film scanner is similar to the copier in an office. But instead of copying a printed piece of paper, it copies the negative or slide (if you're using slide film).

And instead of then sending out a sheet of paper that's a copy of the original, it creates a file for your computer.

Then, you open that file in an image editing program (such as Photoshop) and work on it: Adjust the tone, contrast and colors, crop it or whatever you like.

Time-consuming yet a lot of fun.

Good luck.

Prest_400 · Mar 23, 2010

bellalee said:
I'm new to APUG and relatively new to 35mm colour film photography so please excuse if this is a stupid question to ask and/or in the wrong forum xD

I am interested in purchasing a film scanner but wondering what the process is for scanning the negatives? how do you get the negatives in the first place?
Does the film canister have to be taken to a shop and be processed? Or can you do it all at home with the film scanner?

I sent an email to a company and they said you could do it straight from the camera to printer but I want to clarify this because I was lead to believe film is light sensitive- thats how it works right.

Thanks,
Bella

Welcome to APUG and film photography.
As Patrick said, you must process the film before you can get any image. Film is light sensitive and any other exposure to light out of the camera will ruin anything in it.
When you expose the film in the camera, a latent image is formed on the emulsion (not visible). Processing does a chain of chemical reactions that convert that latent image to a visible image.

Well, Hybridphoto is the place for talking about scanning processes; but I guess there isn't anything wrong in answering your questions.

A scanner is just a sensor with a light that "captures" the reflected light and makes a file from it, paper is scanned this way. For scanning film, instead of reflected light, you need a backlight that illuminates the film.
There are Dedicated film scanners (Nikon, Minolta) and flatbeds with a transparency device (Epson V500/600/700).

dbonamo · Mar 23, 2010

bellalee said:
I sent an email to a company and they said you could do it straight from the camera to printer but I want to clarify this because I was lead to believe film is light sensitive- thats how it works right.

Thanks,
Bella

Welcome.

I am glad you found APUG as the advise given above by the company is wrong. I suspect they may have thought your were shooting digital instead of 35mm. As others have said the film needs process first. Good Luck and have fun....

nolanr66 · Mar 23, 2010

The film scanner will scan an already developed negative into a digital file. You can then process the file in a photoshop type program. The film scanning process is time consuming and many people do not like it. I would recommend at least for a while that your take your C41 film to CostCo or a similar store and have them process the film and make a CD for you. You can then fiddle around with those files in photoshop and after a while if your still inclined you can shop for a film scanner. My own preference is to shoot E-6 and have a CD made at a pro lab. It's kind of expensive but I do not have to use my epson scanner which suits me very well. I do not enjoy film scanning.

perkeleellinen · Mar 23, 2010

Welcome to APUG Bella!

Maybe if you told us whereabouts you live, some members may be able to help better with lab recommendations.

Chazzy · Mar 23, 2010

Bella, welcome to APUG. You will be able to find lots of help with your film processing questions here. However, scanner questions are not allowed unless you are specifically trying to scan images for submission to the APUG gallery. APUG is as analogue as we can make it.

stillsilver · Mar 23, 2010

Welcome to APUG Bella. As with everything, there is a learning curve. Come here frequently with all your film questions and they will be answered. Sometimes with as many answers as there are replies.

Good luck!

Mike

SuzanneR · Mar 23, 2010

Welcome to APUG. As others have stated, scanning questions are off topic for APUG, but our sister site is the perfect place to ask about scanning. Any wet darkroom work or processing question you have, you will find lots of answers for. You can link to HybridPhoto at the top of the page, or with the link below.

http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/home.php

bellalee · Mar 24, 2010

Maybe if you told us whereabouts you live, some members may be able to help better with lab recommendations.

Thanks Steve, I live in Melbourne, Australia.
Thank you everybody for answering my questions
Where are some cheap film processors in Melbourne? (not printing, just the processing part)

bdial · Mar 24, 2010

Welcome Bella.
There are many members in Australia, and probably some recommendations in the Australian sub-forum. If not, it would be a good place to ask the question; (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

fotch · Mar 24, 2010

Welcome to APUG Bella.

RidinRev66 · Mar 26, 2010

CostCo will process and make you a CD for under $5.00. Ask if they will do a "high resolution" scan. Then you can open the files from the CD on your computer and treat them as if they were images from a digital camera. It works quite well. Their scanner is probably better than what you would buy, and the time saved is well worth the cost of having them process and scan.

SMBooth · Mar 26, 2010

Bellalee some good film developing places in Melbourne are Prism in Nth Melb, Micheals in City, Vanbars in Carlton and Nth Melb. These of course are not the only one but are good ones. Most shopping centres still have a shop that will process your film but the quality needs to be checked. I know a nice little shop in Moonee Ponds still does a good job, and i think Photographic warehouse in Bentleigh does film too

TheSohnly · Mar 26, 2010

As for specific scanners you can buy:
The top of the line scanners are, hands down: Nikon Coolpix scanners.
They have all been discontinued as of late so fleabay, Craigslist, or refurbs are your best bet there. They are "dedicated" scanners, meaning: they ONLY scan film and nothing else. This is why they produce better image quality.
They also cost alot of money.

The middle of the road scanners after most dedicated scanners are:
Epson Perfection or Epson Expression scanners
They produce the best quality per price ratio.
The Epson V300, V500, V700, V750, 4490, 4990 are all great models.

The Canoscan 8800f is also good and is worthy of consideration

Dont get anything that you can not find information on. A POS scanner for $20 will give you terrible scans and will be a pain in the ass to work with.

pantelis adiavastos · Mar 27, 2010

welcome.

the dril is
buy film- expose to light (photograph) - process(develop acordingly) - enlarge. enlargment would also mean scan (digitalize negative)

if you decide to work on black and white film its better to buy some stuff for less than 100$ and process it yourself, it's fun creative and easy. i am sure you can find a lot of help here. developing BW film at labs takes the fun away, and could also in most cases result in terrible negatives.
Doing it yourself, is better, and cheaper and you have all the creative options about developers and stuff to decide according to your personal taste.

after that you want to see your negs. either you buy an enlarger, which is not so cheap and requires a darkroom (film development does not) or a scaner. of course enlarging and materializing your pictures is some hundred times more enjoyable and worthy. one main difference between us and the digital photogs, is that 99% of amature digital photogs never print their photos and only see them in a stupid screen. Well we can print, and we do it.

however a scanner comes handy in showing your work over the internet and keeping an archive. I use it for that reason. I have the 8800F scaner mentioned above, which is the cheapest of the bunch and can handle medium format too. its quite good for what it promises. of course dedicated scanners do a better job, but whatever. iif you want to print a negative you print the actual negative not the digital file.

having your film scanned by a lab could be awfull. i've done it in the recent past. they give you a cd with 1000pixel length jpegs. scanned extremely poorly and bad. I say if you decide to stay in photography buy a scaner to be able to see the fruits of your work, and when you feel ready go find a darkroom lab (some universities have labs, or clubs etc for free) and print your pics. Darkroom printing is like touching god in the photo world..

cheers, shoot much

SuzanneR · Mar 27, 2010

Since this thread has gone a off topic for APUG, I'm going to close it. More detailed information can be found on our sister site, Hybrid Photo. It can be linked to at the very top of this page, or here:

http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/home.php

Question about film scanners and negatives

bellalee

Ektagraphic

bellalee

flashgumby

markbarendt

elekm

Prest_400

dbonamo

nolanr66

perkeleellinen

Chazzy

stillsilver

SuzanneR

Moderator

bellalee

bdial

fotch

RidinRev66

SMBooth

TheSohnly

pantelis adiavastos

SuzanneR

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Question about film scanners and negatives

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