Chances
are that somewhere in your family photo collections you have a
bunch of slides and negatives that you wish you could do more with. You
may want to include them in your family history, to publish them on the
Web, or simply to make digital copies so you can share them with the
family.
If you've ever tried to scan a negative or slide
on a regular flatbed scanner, you'll know that it doesn't work, and you
end up with a pure black scan.
In this article we'll
show you how you get your negatives and slides into digital format, and
what issues you may face along the way.
Benefits
Of Scanning Film There are some key
benefits to scanning film (we'll use the term to include slides and
negatives) in comparison to scanning a photo. When you scan film, you
can use the full area of the slide or negative, whereas a photo will
generally only display a cropped portion of the original. You are also
scanning the original source image rather than the color corrected and
tweaked version of it that the photo processor has provided you with.
The process of turning a negative image into a positive one involves
inverting the colors in the image and removing the orange cast from
the negative. This would be a complicated process if you were doing it
by hand; however, your scanner will provide you with software to do this
automatically, or you can purchase standalone software to do it.
Most cheaper flatbed scanners are designed to scan photos and
other images that reflect light when it is shone onto them. The problem
is that film is transparent and light passes through it rather than
being reflected off it. Many flatbed scanners have an optional
transparency adapter, which replaces the scanner lid with a larger box
shaped ob....
