I want to digitize my negatives

[AArdvark]

Without spending money on other people doing it for me.

This is a project, a hobby.

There will be documented updates as I go.

( I'm fishing for advice from any photography enthusiasts )

The plan is to take pictures of the negatives with a dslr and macro lens ( which I do not own) and import them into Photoshop where I can invert the colors. I will need a light box and tripod and a suitable workspace, all of which I can build.

I looked at those devices that digitize negatives but that's too easy and theres no skill involved

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Okay, you're gonna want a working tripod for your tripod.

[Tdarcos]

what would a desktop scanner get you?

[AArdvark]

Well I had a scanner with a negative attachment in the lid, someone gave it to me. I tried a few different software solutions with it but they always looked like crap. The official software that you could dowload for the scanner was more interested in getting you to buy stuff from their company than giving good photo results. I ended up tossing the scanner in the trash because I had a better, smaller one.

The macro photo method seems more adjustable on the front end rather than trying to adjust everything after the negatives are horribly scanned in the pc

[Jizaboz]

This is a really cool project, Vaark.

I spent about 2 hours tonight looking for a good way to use "AI" to colorize B/W pictures of the old local mall for backgrounds in my game. I'm not an expert with photography but I gather if you have the original negatives they are easier to colorize?

Oh and here is the tool I ended up using at least as a base. This developer is very friendly for doing this for free (as of this post anyway): https://palette.fm

[AArdvark]

Update:

Ok the camera has arrived, along with the macro lens.

(Canon 2000D, in case anyone is interested.) I bought a lower end camera and it does everything but make coffee. Has wifi, NFC sharing and can bluetooth to my phone if I grab the app from teh playstore. I have to play around with it for a bit to figure out all the settings and doo-dads.

I picked Canon because I already have a Rebel film camera and I wanted to be able to use my lenses. Now if only I could find my zoom telephoto. I think it got lost in the move 8 years ago. I'll keep looking.

I have an old phone that I am going to use as a light box. I just need an hour with some cardboard, scissors and tape to make the negative frame holder. Eventually I'll get a tripod but that's for when I get the hang of the process.
Another accessory will be a telescope mount so I can take pictures of Uranus! Kidding, going to take real close up pix of birds in the back yard

THE
PHOTOGENESIS
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

How's that tripod coming?

[AArdvark]

First dip into the process....
This is a picture of my brother's second car, a 1976 Chevy Vega. He was 16 at the time making me 14 or 15. I took the picture with my very first camera, a Kodak X-15f. It used 126 film with a flip flash. I still have it downstairs. This is the raw negative image



I'm starting to see some degradation of the negatives so this project is very much needed

[AArdvark]

This is the picture with colors inverted and some tweaking




And more tweaking


I haven't seen this photo in 40 plus years. The date on the photo bag says October of '83

I'm going to move the images via flash drive as they are wont be automatically resized over the wireless connection

[Jizaboz]

Hey that’s cool

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Tripod work looks great!

[AArdvark]

I will order a tripod as soon as I get everything settled into a work-flow process.

Sort through the negatives and find the photos I want. Not all of the images are worthy of digitizing, a lot are schlock.

Get everything in it's place so I don't have to stand up, sit down, stand up, ect. All the equipment must be within arms reach

....

[AArdvark]

Update: using an old phone as a lightbox is less than satisfactory. Imma make one. If that dont work out I will buy one.

[AArdvark]

Tubing in the early 90s on Conesus lake.

I think the blur factor is a combination of old crappy negatives and my noob digitizing skillz. I'm working on it. I read something about using a small aperture and longer exposure time. Might get that tripod sooner than later

[AArdvark]

See how the edges are all out of focus? I think that's an intentional feature of the camera. I tried using the portrait setting. It didn't do that when I used full manual control

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Yes, the portrait setting picks a setting of the camera's aperture for you! I think every picture I have taken in the last 5 years has been under manual control. You love it!

[AArdvark]

The ice storm of 92




I download phone apps to convert negatives and tweak the photos (Negative Scanner and Snapseed) I don't even need to move the photos to my desktop anymore. What a world we live in.

And yes I bought a tripod!

[AArdvark]

The new light board arrived. It made a huge difference in terms of overall light saturation.


This is Singer Castle in the 1000 Islands

[AArdvark]

These are some piranha that I had back in the late 80s. Kinda getting the hang of tweaking the images. I'm going to start saving them in tiff format, mostly because jpgs squeeze down the file size too much. It feels like a lot of the image is lost

[AArdvark]

Now here's one I did in high school. This was in March of 1984. There was a specific list of photos that we had to go out and shoot, develop and print for a grade. The negatives have degraded over the years because I didn't store them properly.
This is me on the flagpole in the courtyard at Jefferson high. The courtyard and flagpole are gone but the picture remains.