That bit I don’t understand. Do you mean you want to batch process all images or do you want a quick method to filter and choose which frames to keep? If the latter, use your tablet/laptop/window as a lightbox and view with a loupe and if it’s negative film use something like Helmut Film Scanner app (Android only I think) to view as positive.
Just some side-notes here: using your tablet or laptop or phone as a lightbox is not something I’d recommend. The screen will either produce polarized light (in case of LCD) or is not uniform in wavelength (LED most of them). That can (or will) have an effect on the color reproduction of your negative.
There are specialized lightboxes that do a better job, or your window with the sun outside. The “Film scan with DSLR” tutorial post gives the right idea. Though, never touch your negatives with your bare fingers… that’s bad for the long term preservation.
As for the post-production. You’re probably always going to need some, just to make you happy, especially if your negatives are little older. And in any case if you digitise your slides with a DSLR and shoot RAW, you will need to edit anyway. RawTherapee can help you process through presets. But that’s something you probably know already
The screen will either produce polarized light
(in case of LCD) or is not uniform
That is correct. At the beginning I experienced this problem.
Then I found a software “Using your smartphone/notepad as lightbox” (something like that). Sorry, I can’t remember exactly. Then the notepad became a lightbox without those problem. Wonderful !!!
And in any case if you digitise your slides with a
DSLR and shoot RAW, you will need to edit anyway
Yes, it is correct.
Before running “Raw Therapee” I used GIMP/Photoshop, Darkroom, etc. to do the job. I’m searching a solution to escape this step after scanning. The scanned images need not be retouched?
In case I couldn’t find a solution then I would purchase an Epson Perfection V800 flatbed scanner to start my work.
That’s definitely not possible using software only. You cannot simply “improve” the light source of your phone/tablet/laptop without making hardware modifications. In other words, buy a proper light source suited for this purpose if you care about your color reproduction.
And,
Like I said, you will probably always want to do some processing afterwards. Buying an expensive Epson scanner does not guarantee that you get a digital file that you’re happy with. There’s a lot of factors to consider. How old are your negatives? Are they high quality negatives? Do you need 6.000 ppi scan resolution? Just to name a few. Please read this thread too for some thoughts.
Personally, I have had great experience with my D750 camera with a macro lens, a good copy stand like this, and an Artograph LightPad. I digitised my family’s collection of around 500 positive slides quickly and quite efficiently. An example you can find here.
In other words, buy a proper light source suited for this purpose
if you care about your color reproduction.
Yes, agree.
Most likely I won’t follow this route because I haven’t got a macro camera. It was only a test to capture the film negative with smartphone. However it worked but I need to retouch the images on Raw Therapee.
Any suggestion on macro camera? Also I need to buy a stand. I wonder whether my tripod stand can do the job? It is a nice tripod, made in Japan, which I bought about 30 years ago. It is still in very good condition
I prefer to go flatbed scanner route. My old Epson Perfection 3490 flatbed scanner is still working strong, Maybe it is time for it to retire. I wonder Epson Perfection V800 flatbed scanner can do a better job
My old film negatives are at least 25~30 years old, packed in boxes but they are still in good condition. They are Kodak and Agfa color film negatives.
Do you need 6.000 ppi scan resolution?
The images are mainly used for posting on website, not for printing.
I always wonder whether I can skip the retouching step because I have a large stock of film negatives to handle.
Darktable has a function to offset the color of the film. Remember, negative film is usually orange and needs to be offset.
My old film negatives are at least 25~30 years old, packed in boxes but they are still in good condition
I hope you can confirm the good condition after your first scan. Mine was of similar age and the cast was quite terrible, and that where the better ones.
I need to make sure I understand: by “retouching”, are you talking about the inversion of the negative and removal of the orange cast, or the usual editing such as contrast, or dust/scratch removal?
If just the former, there are numerous tools and methods to use in batch processing; the latter will probably require human intervention to make it right across a bunch of images.
I ran command line converting the negative image to positive image but still needing to edit contrast, dust etc manually. It’ll take me lengthy time to finish converting all old film negatives to digital
The best my scanned film negative ever looked without post processing involved a non-free software called VueScan. Its quite nice and can render a good looking file.
@satimis Batch processing to remove the orange mask is easy. But the real challenge is the image processing, if you want optimum results.
For colour negatives I get best results with ColorPerfect. The results are – in most cases – better than those with VueScan or even SilverFast.
The main issue remaining is the removal of scratches and dust. If your scanner supports an IR-channel, this is the way to go. If so, I could give more details on my workflow.
What I read in the internet is, that you can get very good results with a digital camera and a macro lens. But it does not allow to remove dust and scratches with IR cleaning.
I have tried VueScan before. Its features are similar to XSane, Open Source software. Still I need to edit the images on it (on VueScan). Both VueScan and XSane integrate some photo editing functions on the software.
I have another thought with the money, for buying Epson Perfection V800 flatbed scanner, to purchase a macro camera. My old Epson Perfection 3490 flatbed scanner is still working without problem.
Please recommend what I have to purchase;
Macro camera and essential accessories
Camera stand (If I can’t use Tripod to replace it)
Light box
(I haven’t got a digital camera neither I have preset budget)
The best thing to do is to stick with what you have first. You would be surprised what you could achieve with very little. Once you have gained experience and tested the limits, consider expanding your horizons.
Restoration or retouching is always required when transferring your film to another medium and format.
Source of wisdom: I was pretty much in the same situation. Old negative film, heavy cast, loss of color (blue goes first). I was looking for one value/setting that I can do in the scanner and then do the whole role. That didn’t work out and I tried lots of scanner settings. Basically every new frame needed a different setting.
So in the end I scanned without any scanner settings (except ICE, the infrared dust removal) and did all the ‘developing’ in software. Scanner in my case was a Nikon Coolscan LS-5000ED
