Copying color negatives with camera

zirtico wrote:

I've done this before. I find that even after colour correction, you may still need to adjust the curves and levels, since the final image is always a little low contrast.

My first step is to shoot the orange mask of the negative first as WHITE in the custom white balance. This lets the camera do as much of the mask removal as possible. Then you shoot your frames on that particular brand of film (since the mask is unique to the brand). Then the moment you pull your RAW files into your workflow and invert the image, the filmstrip around the frame should be black (since it was white to begin with), and the image should at least resemble the original.

Then you can adjust saturation/contrast to taste. This is the most consistent method I've found.

This was the general method I was hoping to use, and tried it for the first time over the weekend. I think it's a good starting point. It took me a little while to convince myself what part of the negative I should use to do my white balancing. I kept thinking I should use an area that would come out white in the print, but finally concluded that I need to use an area that would come out black (i.e. area in between frames).

Here's the evolution...

RAW import, and using camera's (wrong) WB setting.

Reset WB using area to the left, outside of frame, then saved as jpeg

After inverting colors of the jpeg in GIMP -- kind of washed out still

Increased contrast first, then used Curves to increase brightness, then added a little saturation (that's Lake Louise down in the valley, btw, with the Chateau on the far side)

This photo doesn't quite look like the print (it actually looks better), and I don't know how "real" it looks, but I definitely have enough "proof of concept" to start building a platform to hold the pieces.

One thing I need to figure out is how best to tone down my flash. Right now, it's about 2" behind the negative, and at it's lowest power I had to use f/25(!) to get the proper exposure. I guess the first step is just to increase the distance, though I was hoping to keep things compact.  I'd like to use f/11 - f/16 to give enough DOF.