I want to digitize my negatives

[AArdvark]

This is my brother's first car, a 1963 Crysler 300. Still can't believe he traded it in for a Chevvy Vega


Edit: if this was March 1984 then the Vega picture has to be summer of '84

[AArdvark]

This is a flag my father-in-law brought back from Berlin in 1945. He climbed up a building and cut it down as a souvenir

It's a red and black and white flag about 8 feet X 15 feet with a particular symbol on it, popular in Germany in the 1940s

( I caved to the politically correct majority)

[AArdvark]

Ooh, here's a cool photo. My buddy the radiologist snuck us into his lab one night and we had fun taking X-rays and stuff

[The REAL Real Man]

Sigh. I fear I have arrived too late.

I tried digitizing my negatives. I wound up with a Word file that said "I'm short, self-centered, and assume people are way better than they are."

ROFLROLRLFLRLRROERLELRRORORRR

But, also, I am an avid photographer -- got back into film photography, oh, around 2019. I bought myself a scanner -- an Epson V550 (or maybe a V500, I cna't remember). It was something like $220 and I got an extra hundred bucks off signing up for the Amazon Prime credit card (a good deal, 5% on all the stuff we buy from Frobozz, Inc).

So, how many negatives are we talking? If it's not a crazy number, and you're not in a huge rush, you can mail 'em to me and I'll digitize them. I'm pretty happy with the Epson software. I mostly do B&W, but if you go to my Flickr page (https://www.flickr.com/photos/aarongold), then Albums, look at Film Then and Film Now. Everything in the latter and most of the stuff in the former (except the first few photos with funky borders around the pics) were done with the Epson.

I have heard of the macro-lens-scanning thing, some people swear by it, but i'm not concerned with best-possible quality.

Hugs and kisses,

The
Save The Day
Real Man

[The REAL Real Man]

This is a flag my father-in-law brought back from Berlin in 1945. He climbed up a building and cut it down as a souvenir

Great, 'Vark, just what Jonsey needs on the BBS. The site will now get labeled as a hate site, and next thing you know, we'll --

Oh, wait, hang on, there's someone knocking rather loudly on my door...

~~~NO CARRIER

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

You can tell that the gentleman cutting down swastika souveniers and photographing them had a real state of the art tripod. Three solid tripod legs, one for each Reich

[AArdvark]

Well if it's any consolation I dont have the...war souvenir anymore. I never did really, it belonged to my mother-in-law. She sold it to a local VFW many years ago. When I heard she was selling it I took a few pictures of it spread out in my backyard. Im sure there were airplane passengers landing in Rochester that looked out the window and felt suddenly uncomfortable.

[AArdvark]

Re: negatives.
Thank you for the offer to digitize my negatives.

Never having done it before I'm keen to try it on my own. Photography is a hobby that I was into for a long time until cell phones made all my equipment obsolete. A few months ago I was looking around for a particular picture and couldn't find it in all my shoeboxes of photos. That's when I realized my negatives were starting to deteriorate. I had a huge urge to document my old stuff before they become lost forever.

[raecoffey]

That's an awesome image Aardvark!

[The REAL Real Man]

'Vark, I cannot say enough nice things about my Epson! :)

TRM

[AArdvark]

I was just now checking out your albums, damn that's some good stuff!

[The REAL Real Man]

Thx! Really enjoying being back behind the camera, though truth be told I haven't taken pics in a few weeks and I've got a backlog of film to develop. Gotta get my butt into gear, photos may be forever but D-76 isn't.

[Jizaboz]

Hell yeah. Good pictures, both of you.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Thx! Really enjoying being back behind the camera, though truth be told I haven't taken pics in a few weeks and I've got a backlog of film to develop. Gotta get my butt into gear, photos may be forever but D-76 isn't.

I have a genuine curiosity about film. I am going to ask you a genuine question.

Is film sold mostly via the internet these days? Is that how you are getting your film? Is there film rolls sold locally? I want to buy film from a guy :(

[The REAL Real Man]

I buy most of mine in person, but I am lucky to live within a short drive of a place called Freestyle Photo. They're a well-known film/supply shop from Back In The Day. Other places have film but are more expensive, and in a place like Denver you should be able to find a film store.

[Tdarcos]

The main reasons film is desirable is (1) very fine grain images are needed; (2) effects that can't be done digitally; (3) the person doesn't have/can't use digital cameras or a computer to view them; or (4) needs to preserve evidence of something and doesn't have a phone. That's one of the conditions where buying a single-use camera makes sense. They used to be more useful for that during the period after digital cameras were available and phones didn't have cameras..

Oh, and I forgot, a movie showing a scene where someone takes pictures and runs out of film (or any other film-camera related problem) probably stories set before 2010 at the larest

[AArdvark]

(2).....?

[The REAL Real Man]

For me, it's all about the process. Digital photography is a little... boring.

[Tdarcos]

(2) effects that can't be done digitally;

(2).....?

There are certain photographic effects that only work with film, e.g. photos with very long exposure. There are overview photos of freeways in which the freeway is shown with long streaks of red on the right half, with streaks of white on the left, and perhaps a metallic outline around it. Where the typical image is taken with maybe 40-160 millisecond exposure tine, a photo like that is taken with an exposure time measured in hours.

These type of effects can be done on film with even a cheap camera, as long as you can lock the shutter open for extended periods, and the film is advanced manually. There are probably other effects like this, but they usually have to do with very long or multiple overlaying exposures, which I suspect can't be done digitally, except maybe very expensive cameras, if at all.

[Jizaboz]

(2) effects that can't be done digitally;

(2).....?

There are certain photographic effects that only work with film, e.g. photos with very long exposure. There are overview photos of freeways in which the freeway is shown with long streaks of red on the right half, with streaks of white on the left, and perhaps a metallic outline around it. Where the typical image is taken with maybe 40-160 millisecond exposure tine, a photo like that is taken with an exposure time measured in hours.

These type of effects can be done on film with even a cheap camera, as long as you can lock the shutter open for extended periods, and the film is advanced manually. There are probably other effects like this, but they usually have to do with very long or multiple overlaying exposures, which I suspect can't be done digitally, except maybe very expensive cameras, if at all.

While digital cameras still keep phasing out old methods, old methods do still have their place. For example, ultraviolet film can not only help with forensic analysis, but has also been used in some of the most interesting "ghost photographs" such as the lady in white in the big run-down cemetery in the Chicago area (I forget the name of it atm). To my knowledge there is no digital alternative to shooting pictures with UV film to get exactly the same effect.

Long exposure like the traffic lights you brought up as well. I don't know enough about photography to even know if it can be done on modern digital cameras. My uneducated guess would be "maybe? but I doubt you'd get exactly the same effect." Sort of like how modern video game emulators keep trying to prefect fake CRT scan-lines on modern displays. It's just not the same, man.