Ultimate Guide to Digitizing Prints and Negatives

Chris Marquardt talks with Jeff about everything you need to know about digitizing prints and negatives/slides using scanners and cameras.

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Episode Resources:

Tips from the Top Floor website: https://tipsfromthetopfloor.com/

Methods to convert color negatives:

Photoshop https://www.iamthejeff.com/post/32/the-best-way-to-color-correct-c-41-negative-film-scans

Color Perfect Plugin: https://www.colorperfect.de/colorperfect.html

Manually (layers method) https://www.filmshooting.com/scripts/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t;=24780

LED light table: https://amzn.to/2IgskKg

Negative holder: https://pixl-latr.com

Beginning Tips For Digitizing Prints

Chris, a while back you answered a question on your show about digitizing photos that really struck me.  I think at the time I had a few listeners asking a similar question in our Facebook group and this is something I don’t personally have a lot of experience with.  I loved the advice you gave in few minutes on your show and thought it might be good to have you come on Photo Taco and go into more depth on the question. I reached out and you were so kind to agree to be on the show, so thank you for that.  It took a little work to get our schedules to line up but here we are.

The idea of Photo Taco is to dive deeply into a topic, starting with tips and information for photographers closer to the starting end of their photography journey and then building forward to things that might help photographers a bit further down that path.  

With that in mind, what tips and advice do you have for photographers who have a digital camera and let’s assume a basic understanding of exposure for getting started with digitizing old photos or negatives?  Maybe a less expensive approach.

Chris: There are two ways to scan prints.  A flatbed scanner, which is fundamentally different from using a camera.  Then there is a much faster way using your awesome digital camera. So much resolution it works well, can even use a smartphone.

You need a physical setup.  A tripod to hold things still and point the camera straight down.  Be aware of the direction of light. Make sure there aren’t weird reflections.  Could be uneven light too, better to get away from natural light or other light sources.

Can use glass from a picture frame to keep the prints flat since they may want to curl.  Have to be very careful of the light. Use lights sources at 45 degrees on either side of the print, put some lamps there.  Do it in the evening to avoid having extra light reflecting off things like the ceiling.

You also want to go as close as possible with the camera, don’t want to waste any pixels and crop in post.  Fill the frame with the photo. Probably can use auto exposure.

Jeff: What about a tripod that goes straight down then?  A lot of tripods can’t do that, so what do you do then?

Chris: Makeshift setups are fine.  Use a chair, a stack of books. Really anything.  It is about the result and not how you get there.