goldenyears Loc: Lake Osewgo

My negative scanner finally gave up the ghost. I rarely need to scan negatives any more. I may have some large (4 x 6?) negatives coming that I will want to scan. I thought I could experiment with making some sort of cardboard shroud for my camera, putting the negative on a lightbox I have with a piece of glass over it to keep it flat, and then taking a photo. I've see a few how-to videos of a different method than I've described. Will I be wasting my time to pursue the method I described? Any ideas on the best method for photographing negatives?

MSW

not sure, but i'm getting back into 4x5 and contemplating a scanner (but then they're cutting my hours at the mill, so money's gonna be tight - nonexistent) ...

so

i'll probably be going the shoot it with my digital camera route...

so i'm interested in how your project plays out.

please keep me posted :)

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

My only concern would be the light diffuser on the lightbox. Are there any imperfections on it that would show up in the resulting image? Or is the diffuser far enough away from the negative to be out of focus, thereby hiding the fine imperfections and dust and stray cat hairs etc.?

I don't have any negatives to scan but when I had negatives, they all had some degree of curl so they needed to be clamped between two pieces of glass to keep them flat.

goldenyears Loc: Lake Osewgo

The lightbox is uses LEDs so that will be an interesting part of the experiment. It appears the light is very uniform across the entire surface.

MSW

the lightbox i have seems pretty even as regards the light. Since it's b&w, i don't think that the color of the light will make a significant difference.

rmcgarry331

Check out pixl-latr at pixl-latr.com. They make negative holders for up to 4"x5" film and have a lot of great tips on their website and FB page on how to procede.

MSW

thanks - i'll look at it :)

appreciate the info

sgt hop Loc: baltimore md,now in salisbury md

i have a couple of xray viewers...i fix my 21/4 negs to them and photograph them.....photoshop after....

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Here's a fairly recent thread on the subject:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-662119-1.html

JBRIII

If you make something, be sure of alignment issues.

This sounds stupid in hindsight, but funny also. Years ago we had a device which shot slides of Powerpoint, resulting in a roll of film we took to be processed. One day, the images were all cockeyed. At least 4 PhDs sat there trying to figure out what was wrong. Being a jerk, I said maybe the camera's on crooked, then came the moans and ah ha's. No one ever had given a thought as to how the device worked, just used it. Essentially, a little monitor with a camera to take image, shoe box with camera attached!

Shutterbugger2 Loc: Chicago

The negative needs a light blue filter behind it to gray out the orange mask.

MrPhotog

Rather than holding your negatives (or transparencies) between sheets of glass, may I suggest you look for aluminum negative carriers from Beseler or Omega photo enlargers.

These hold negatives by the edges, eliminating 4 glass surfaces, and thus 4 additional surfaces needing constant dust removal.

You can use these flat, on top of a light source, or create a frame to hold them on edge, so you can work with them at eye level while seated.

With the demise of film processing, these are still available as new and used items.

The rest of the enlarger would be an excellent light source, except for its size and orientation. If you can accept the size, placing a sheet of neutral white cardboard at a 45 degree angle behind your subject can reflect the projected light from the enlarger evenly through the negative.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Yes, if you have a very-well diffused light box with proper baffling around the negative, You can use a macro lens or enlarging lens on bellows on a dSLR or MILC camera to "scan" (photo macrograph) negatives. I do it frequently, as I have many hundreds of rolls of negatives from my life that I need to revisit. 99% are 35mm, so my setup is:

Lumix GH4 mirrorless camera with 1:1 30mm f/2.8 macro lens
Rail with tripod mount
Enlarger negative carrier or slide holder
Light source (I use an iPhone 7 Plus with a "white" JPEG displayed at maximum brightness, with the AC charger plugged in and the screen set to never go off.)

I save raw files, and expose to the right of the histogram. I process transparencies in Lightroom Classic. I process color and black-and-white negatives in Negative Lab Pro, a software plug-in for Lightroom Classic that emulates both Noritsu and Fujifilm's lab scanner software. (It is excellent!)

You will need plenty of options for cleaning slides and negatives to remove dust and dirt and other things that cause spots. Blower bulbs, Staticmaster anti-static brushes, Photosol PEC-12 film cleaner and PEC Pads, Ilford Antistaticum cloths... All are in my closet.

Of course, you could look for a used Epson V600 scanner for negatives up to 2.7 by 9.5 inches, or get one of their better models like the V850 that covers larger sheet films up to 8x10.

Johnnyt Loc: keizer Oregon

I made a device that works pretty good. I used an iphone to use as a light box. I used a program called isoftbox to. I made a stand to mount on top of the phone. I used a slide mount from a scanner to put on the phone to make them stable. I then mounted the camera close to the rig. After I took the photo I cropped it. Then I used my ipad to scan b/w negatives. I turned the ipad to invert mode which turned the scans to positives. Then snapped a photo and cropped them.
Here are some photos of the apparatus.
Have fun!

MSW

cool. Thanks!