Negative and Slide Scanning

[RickKr]

I've been searching the DP site for information on negative and slide scanning. Haven't found much. I found a review or two, but haven't found any discussions. One accessory I've come across is the Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter Set. It is intended for use on Nikon micro lenses, to I'm asking my question(s) in this forum.

While I've just gotten started with DSLRs and close-up work (can't say I've done any "macro" yet), I have decades of film and slides that I've been wanting to scan/digitize. I have a Canon CanoScan 9000F flatbed scanner from 2010 that I used for scanning photos and film for my father's memorial, that with the right configuration claims to be able to scan at 9600 dpi. My camera bodies are Nikon D7200 and D500 and I have a Nikon AF-S FX Micro-NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED lens.

I'm looking for some pointers on where to look for more information, on the scanning process, equipment and software. One big question is the color reversal step from negative to positive, particularly for color film. I'm happy to do the research, just need some pointers on where to look. There are lots of YT videos out there, which I'll watch some of. If there are any that anyone knows are particularly worthwhile, I'd appreciate knowing of them.

Thanks,

Rick

 

[grsnovi]

Not sure why you picked this forum for your question...

I don't scan mounted slides.

I do scan 35mm film (both color and b&w) using a Valoi Easy35. It works great!

For color negative film, the apparent "go to" solution is Negative Lab Pro which REQUIRES that you use Adobe's Lightroom. So, I selected FilmLab for my color negative to positive conversion s/w.

 

[Hesman]

Last year I bought the Plustek 8200i negative scanner. I scanned all the negatives I have from when I took pictures using film. It took my 5 months to scan all 2,609 pictures when I had the free time to do some scanning. I felt the scanner worked good. I'd recommend having a way to clean off dust before scanning. Also, all those photos takes up quite a bit of storage space on one of my external hard drives. Included in the purchase of the scanner, I was able to download a copy of the scanning software SilverFast 9.

 

[Newbie Phewbie]

I bought my macro lens (Laowa 65) with the intent to use it to scan slides/negatives, but found greater joy in macro photography I have yet to use it to scan anything.

Here's one of the videos that sold me on using my camera + lens & a relatively inexpensive set up to scan slides/film. If you search on Youtube, you'll find more. Also, tutorials on how to use LR or PS to color correct negative film.

 

[GKN]

I used a JJC Film Digitising Adapter (I chose the adapter with the included LED light which mounts to the far end) - this worked well and was much cheaper than the Nikon Es2 and it works with most macro lenses, so was easy to sell on after completing the scanning. Having the attached light made it very simple to get started ….. screw the unit to the front of the lens, flick the switch for the light and away you go …… no faff lining things up or getting the light in the right position.

I scanned approx 10,000 mounted slides and 2-3000 images in negative strips. A flatbed scanner works but can be very slow for a large quantity. I compared against an old Canon flatbed scanner and using the camera (instead of the flatbed) was as good or better for image quality.

For slides which are positive images, these were all good for editing. For negatives, Negative Lab Pro is probably the best, but I used Grain2Pixel which was free. You can use existing software like Lightroom but all the sliders will be back to front and it can be very difficult to get the colour looking right.

 

[Diswantsho]

I also use the JJC adapter for slides. It works well for Kodak paper and plastic mounts, but I had several boxes of Agfa slides, and glass mounted slides, which were both too thick for the JJC slide holder. I made my own holder from stiff paper for those slides to use with the JJC holder.

In fact, a holder like the Nikon ES2 or JJC is not strictly required. You can get by putting a camera flash or LED video light in a shoe box, cut an opening for light to come through and place the slides over that opening. Maybe paint the box black while you are at it. Then just photograph them at about 1:1 setting with a macro lens, assuming the digital camera is also 35mm(FF).

Before I purchased the JJC, I scanned hundreds of black and white and colour negatives. Scanning was good enough for b&w, and even for some medium format colour negatives, but for slides, I prefer the colour tones I get from my Nikon z7. Colours from my camera tend to be a little richer. Depends on the make and model of scanner you have, too. If you scan, try use tiff, as you can get better bit depth than jpg. Especially with colour negatives and slides. Similar to why we photograph in raw.

Older slides from the 1960s and 1970s can be affected by colour degradation and colour shifts. The original photographer's exposure mistakes can also be corrected by adjusting exposure in the re-photographing or postprocessing. Modern software can do amazing corrections, but sometimes the corrections enhance the film grain, giving the image a noisy pattern. If the original was good, some excellent results are possible.

The original film and original lens sharpness will limit how large you can export images. I export 35mm images to 8 inx10 in (or metric A4). Medium format can be exported larger before extra resolution do not lend more detail in the image. Scans from 6x7 negatives can give details to die for, if the original was good.

Shooting the camera tethered to a computer helps to check critical focus and alignment.

 

[Marceppy]

I have a Nikon ED Coolscan 5000 that will scan positive (Kodachrome and E6), BW and color negative. I believe the 8000 does larger formats. You can still find them on eBay and Amazon. I have mine hooked up to a windows 7 computer but you can get software for later versions. It works fine and easy to use.

 

[nail33]

You may find more information in the "Film Photography Talk" forum.

 

[RickKr]

You may find more information in the "Film Photography Talk" forum.

I did find some help there, thanks. It is heavily about using film, rather than scanning it into digital, so for my purposes, spotty.

I am sure there are other forums that I haven't found yet, but I have found very on target help from the Negative Lab Pro forum and some help from a couple of Facebook groups, Digitizing film with a digital camera and Negative Lab Pro Users.

For anyone not familiar with Negative Lab Pro plug-in for Lightroom, it is an absolutely phenomenal aid in converting both color negatives and color slides, particularly in color rendition. Without it, all I had found was to invert the tone curve and then manual adjust other settings. In NLP/LR the default setting produce far better results and it offers all sorts of adjustments for the conversions. The image below needs some postprocessing help, but NLP is a massive time saver.

Rick


Manual tone curves only


NLP Defaults