So I brought out one of my old film cameras. I want to have a back up camera in case my main one goes south on me. I can't get another digital camera right now, so we go to film.

I took the Canon TX out and shot a roll to see how it looks. Well, let me just say that shooting with film is much different than digital. Mostly you don't machine gun pictures. One thinks about each shutter snap taken; exposure, composition, aperture, things as simple as winding after each shutter actuation and even lighting. Not only does it cost more to print a film image, the time it takes to see what I have done is soooo much longer. One cannot even see it on the back of the camera.

I hope that my ability to take a better photograph will be enhanced because of all the consideration I take when shooting with this old fashioned tech. At any rate, I am enjoying the thought process involved.

When I shot the first roll, I was lucky and got a shot of a rail road that came out pretty nice, but it is on a negative, so I cannot do anything to it right now. I asked one of my local photo store dealers to transfer it to a USB. He suggested I just do it myself. I thought I could use my computer screen as a light box and it would all be cool!

Not so much.

I figured I would just tape the negative to the screen and fill the field-of-view with the image of the negative. Then I would use the Invert feature in Photoshop.

I played around with lenses and stuff and finally got the thing to fill the frame using a kit 18-55 zoom. The image came out OK, I guess. It is hard to tell, what with it being a negative and all. But when I looked at the RAW file in Photoshop I saw a matrix of of black dots throughout the whole image. I guess it has to do with the way the monitor lights up the screen. The image was not usable. I am not going to go through the whole image and get rid of each Individual dot. So, I need to figure out another way.

I tried something else.

I have a case of bright white Office Depot copy paper. Now what could go wrong here?

Let me tell you.

There is something about beer and fine focusing that does not seem to work so well together. But that is a story line we can talk about later. After refuggiring(? right spelling here?)the right lens and correct distance from the display, I shot the negative.

Again, "Not so good."

It seems that the imperfections of the copy paper(filter) come through. In other words when I look at the image on my digital camera, I see swirls from the copy paper that effect the perception of the negative.

Bottom line: If I use nothing between the negative and the screen, I see the dots of the monitor. If I use a sheet of paper as a filter, I see the pattern of the fibres inside of the sheet of paper.

Short of buying a light box, does anyone out there have any ideas for a DIY light box?


olc

...So I brought out one of my old film cameras. I want to have a back up camera in case my main one goes south on me. I can't get another digital camera right now, so we go to film...

...I was lucky and got a shot of a rail road that came out pretty nice, but it is on a negative, so I cannot do anything to it right now. I asked one of my local photo store dealers to transfer it to a USB. He suggested I just do it myself. I thought I could use my computer screen as a light box and it would all be cool!

Not so much.

I figured I would just tape the negative to the screen and fill the field-of-view with the image of the negative. Then I would use the Invert feature in Photoshop.

I played around with lenses and stuff and finally got the thing to fill the frame using a kit 18-55 zoom. The image came out OK, I guess. It is hard to tell, what with it being a negative and all. But when I looked at the RAW file in Photoshop I saw a matrix of of black dots throughout the whole image. I guess it has to do with the way the monitor lights up the screen. The image was not usable. I am not going to go through the whole image and get rid of each Individual dot. So, I need to figure out another way.

I tried something else.

I have a case of bright white Office Depot copy paper. Now what could go wrong here?

Let me tell you.

There is something about beer and fine focusing that does not seem to work so well together. But that is a story line we can talk about later. After refuggiring(? right spelling here?)the right lens and correct distance from the display, I shot the negative.

Again, "Not so good."

It seems that the imperfections of the copy paper(filter) come through. In other words when I look at the image on my digital camera, I see swirls from the copy paper that effect the perception of the negative.

Bottom line: If I use nothing between the negative and the screen, I see the dots of the monitor. If I use a sheet of paper as a filter, I see the pattern of the fibres inside of the sheet of paper.

Short of buying a light box, does anyone out there have any ideas for a DIY light box?


olc

All these great ideas to re-photograph your film seem like a lot of work to me -- for less than best results. Consider the Wolverine slide and film scanner. It's only $106 from B&H. I got mine on sale at Costco of all places for $85. I'm working my way through thousands of slides and B&W film. It creates a high-res .JPG 5472 x 3648 pixels. I still need to do PP to remove dust specs and many of the same adjustments I now do with my digital shots. Here's several examples:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/allenteam/albums/72157658036187839

https://www.flickr.com/photos/allenteam/albums/72157657841606971