How to make digital contact sheets from 35mm film negatives
Show Craig Bergonzoni Jun 7, 2015 5 min read
Although I started to get back into photography a couple of years ago I just started shooting film again earlier this year. I think it was December or January when I decided I wanted to mix film and… With labs charging from $8-$12 or more per color contact sheet, you can save the cash by doing them in your own computer darkroom studio. Moreover, this process gives you working digital images of entire rolls that you can inspect close-up on your monitor. As digital image files you can mark them up on screen, adjust orientation (horizontal/vertical), excerpt selections to send as JPEGs, and of course, adjust the image quality. You can also print them out and treat them like normal
For those of us still processing our black and white at home, but who have abandoned the chemical print darkroom in favor of digital scanning, this is the answer for making contact sheets. And it's also a great way to archive all your old color negatives that might have become separated from the prints. What You'll Need
Setup Procedure This will make life much easier than if you lay them out on the scanner individually, since you'll waste time aligning and realigning them. Don't worry about dust at this point. If you get your negatives back in long continuous sleeves from your lab, keep the sleeves on when you cut the negatives, if they'll fit into the pages. This will reduce dust. If you're using 120 film you can buy pages that will accommodate sleeved film.
Lay the negative page out carefully on the scanner. Place the turned-on light box on top, light side down. Adjust the scanner controls on your computer to handle negatives, transparencies, color or black and white, whatever you're using. I usually increase the contrast to halfway between default and maximum. I leave the color balance at default, though I often find that the color comes out much truer after the individual scan. If color is critical at the contact sheet stage, you may have to experiment to find the most accurate color for your combination of film and scanner. The light source of most light boxes and scanners is supposed to be close to daylight, but you still may have to make adjustments. Use the preview function to get the positioning just right, since you may not have a lot of tolerance on one side or the other, and you don't want to lose any part of your image. Where can I get old negatives digitized?The best option for negatives: FilmBox by Photomyne
FilmBox is a smart scanner app for iOS and Android that digitizes your old camera film negatives using just your smartphone. You can view, capture, and save film negatives, making browsing, organizing, and sharing easier.
Can you develop prints from negatives?We can scan and and archive your old color negatives. We work from many different sizes, 110, 126, 35mm, APS, 120/220 Medium Formats, as well as, 4x5 and larger sheet film sizes. 35mm negatives can be printed in as little as One Hour!
Can you digitize negatives?Scanning film negatives is another way to digitize photos. It's useful for sharing and duplication. And it's more efficient than scanning individual prints. Some flatbed machines can scan negatives as well as prints.
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