Negative copier

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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soldevilla
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Negative copier

Post by soldevilla »

Thinking that it is easy to mount a macro between 1: 1 and 2: 1, I have been playing with my old negatives, both in color and in black and white. With cardboard mounting I have built a simple support of negatives, I have illuminated it by transparency and I have tried to photograph negatives. The result is fantastic, the best negative copier I've tried. Then it is very easy with the editing software to obtain a perfect image for a large enlargement, and all without dark room or smells of processing liquids. I think I'm going to recover many of my images that were left without paper in those old days.

Image

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

Great results and an even better plan. All the good film scanners are being pulled to bits for some reason! :D

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

How do you deal with the color negatives? I have a hard time matching the scans to a nicely-printed paper version, even when I use Nikon dedicated scanning software to convert the negatives. I can get good results, but never as good as paper.

soldevilla
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Post by soldevilla »

The color is a bit more complicated, and partly depends on which software you use.

The first thing I do is subtract the orange dominance of the support, taking a sample of color in the support, outside the frame.

Then, in a level window, I adjust white point and black point for each channel separately and this already gives me a pretty close color. Sometimes the automatic color adjustment works acceptably.

Then, if necessary, I slightly modify the CURVE of each channel to reach natural colors. And finally the classic settings of levels, curves, saturation and focus. Sure there are easier systems, but for now ... this is what I have. If someone thinks it can be useful, I can set up a small tutorial.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Thanks for that. But I don't see a step inverting the color/brightness. Have you left out some steps?

soldevilla
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Post by soldevilla »

I think not...

this is the negative
Image

Now, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+N, Ctrl+V
Take a sample of color from the bottom edge with the dropper, outside the frame, and paint the new image with the paint bottle tool.
And now Apply image, subtract one from another. The process should be a division, but my software has no division. Gimp yes, but I do not use it
Image

This is the result
Image

Invert (Ctrl+I) and try Automatic Color. For general purposes it work well
Image

Now adjust Levels, Curves and Saturation, and if there is any dominant you can remove it with the Curves on the Channels
Image

And I get this, which is not bad for a 30 years old negative.
:D

Image

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Thanks for the added info. There is indeed an "Invert (Ctrl+I)" that was missing in your first description. This version makes more sense. I'll be eager to try it!

mtuell
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Post by mtuell »

Funny you should bring this up. I just got an Epson Perfection V850 Pro - that thing is beautiful! I'm actually scanning some 35 mm color negatives as I type.

I mostly got it because it can do large format negatives (and positives), since I've started playing around with 4x5 (inch), but my enlarger only does medium format 6x9 (cm). I picked up an Epiphot that has a built-in 4x5, and a friend has a 4x5 rail camera - so it seemed like a good idea to have this scanner.

Anyway, if interested, I can post some details about the scanner or some examples of what I've scanned so far. It of course is a line scanner, so doesn't do the whole image at once, but can do > 9600 dpi if you are patient...

Mike

soldevilla
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Post by soldevilla »

I wonder if so much resolution is really necessary. I photograph my negatives with a simple Canon 1100D and I have already solved the photographic grain, so using more resolution will only get to better define the grains.
I have a 6 * 6 camera and a 9 * 12cm camera. When I go back to my house, I am going to try to photograph a 6 * 6 negative in parts and then join them with some soft to create a very large image. I already used this method to create very large format photographs, to cover large walls in museums.

mtuell
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Post by mtuell »

You of course are correct, for most instances. It is empty resolution beyond maybe 3200 dpi, depending on a few factors (diffraction and aberrations, for sure). In theory, regular film does have about 300 line pairs/mm, which is ~15,000 dpi.

While I haven't tried it yet, for high contrast, low iso imaging, one could imaging using holographic plates or film as an ultra fine grain photographic media. This is on the order of 3000 lp/mm, so 9600 dpi scanning wouldn't come close to seeing the grains... I'll have to try it some time!

Mike

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Mike, how does that scanner get 9000 dpi? The actual optical resolution of that scanner is not that high. Is that just the number of pixels per image-inch in the sensor?

RDolz
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Post by RDolz »

Soldevilla: Excellent work.

in case it serves as help for the calculations of the appropriate magnification, .. here an excellent article about the resolution of the black and white film.

http://photo.imx.nl/Film/Film/page35.html :wink:
Ramón Dolz

soldevilla
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Post by soldevilla »

I read once that the resolution numbers offered by the scanners and printers are indicating the accuracy with which the head is positioned. In the case of the mtuell scaner, it could be indicating that the mechanical position of the head is very close to one thousandth of a millimeter (it is very little, but mechanically achievable), although the confused image circle read can be much larger.

Excelent link, RDolz!

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