More tips: The unexposed borders and exposed film leader represent very convenient black and white reference points when setting up the scanning exposure and white balance for each film. In the positive image, nothing is blacker than the borders, and nothing is whiter than the leader. Take average values over an area of a few hundred pixels. The greatest sources of dust (assuming no cat is present) are clothing and hair, so wear as little as possible, and at least have bare arms, and wear something like a plastic shower cap over your hair.
Thank you for this! I didn't even realize this was possible! This was awesome! I may want to try this someday, but I will probably need to rewatch your videos a few times before I try again.
Awesome vid!! Just one little tip when using negative lab pro you wanna make sure the preview button is clicked on and adjust the border buffer so that none of the border gets converted because it will mess with negative lab pros conversion since it basically uses every color it sees to convert you only want what’s in the actual picture so it can white balance better and have better colors!!
Perfect explanation. That Cinestill light box is literally the best of any one I've used no matter what cost, too. And that's over about 10 years of camera scanning experience!
Good, informative vid! One step I would suggest adding is using a spirit level to make sure your tripod-held camera sensor is on a parallel plane to the film in the film holder. You are probably doing that but thought it was worth mentioning for anyone who might want to try this method, which works great.
Well done! Love the cat! I use nearly the exact same process, which I switched to after a month of fighting the V600. I'm an old AV pro from the 1970s-'80s, so I got the idea from my days of copying slides on a pin-registered Nikon F3 and that same macro lens you have. Now I copy prints, slides, and negatives on a home brew copy stand that cost less than $100 to build out of iron pipe, a flange, some shelving, a Super Clamp, and a Neewer tripod ball head. I have a couple of Neewer LED lights for copy work, and a Viltrox L-116t light used with an Essential Film Holder. I use a 30mm Lumix Macro lens on an old GH4 camera. I'm also using Negative Lab Pro in LrC.
I like my V600 and it takes up very little room on my desk. It does have a batch scan feature where you can scan up to 4 medium format negatives in a single strip, and 2 rows of 35mm so around 10+ shots of 35mm. Granted it has to scan each one individually but I find once you have the settings nailed just set and let it scan. Not to mention I also scan old printed pictures for restoration so the flatbed works to flatten images and if I want to scan film with the borders, a piece of anti-newton ring glass works flawlessly!
I agree, when set up this way it’s actually easier and faster to me. I have a canon scanner I have been using for years. I have never had a buyer of my art tell me my scanning wasn’t good enough. You can pick one up used for about 150.00. Cheaper and easier than the digital camera method.
Excellent setup. I use and recommend exactly the same lens and also use a Sony camera. However, for those not willing to spend two hundred pounds on the Valoi - especially those who are mainly looking to copy 35mm slides and negatives - for half the price I recommend a Nikon bellows setup (it doesn’t have to be the the latest and more expensive PB-6, the PB-4 does very well too) together with the PS-4 slide/negative holder. The main advantage here is that as both the negative/slide and the camera are on the same rig, shaking doesn’t matter and both the sensor and slide/negative are perfectly parallel. As a light source, once set up on a tripod, again, for convenience not necessarily for stability, I tape a sheet of top quality photographic print paper (no grain patterns) against the window and shoot in RAW so as not to bother about colour casts. A final tip for you and to all is use a remote to trigger the shutter, it will save you many minutes of waiting for five seconds each time by using a delay 😀
Hi, I also scan with Sony. Their desktop app allows to trigger the camera from laptop, no need for self timer. You can also tether straight to Lightroom. For older cameras you gotta do it through Sony desktop app, but it’s still possible and very convenient. I used to do it that way before LR started supporting newer Sony cameras.
I have seen this method of digitisation negs quite a lot over the years but I still find myself using the scanners. I use VueScan with an Eposn Perfection in batch mode, which does mean that at least I can just hit the button and then go and do other things for 20 minutes or so, before returning to swap the negs out.VueScan also does a bang on job of converting the scans to positivies. I then use DarkTable to flip the orientation, and an S curve or whatever, and I'm done. The Epson 850 type scanners come with two negative holders, so you can also be loading the 2nd while the first is being scanned. Anyway, thats just how I do it. I am a bit of ludite - find changing methods tricky. I should really modernise.
I just went into the camera collection that I inherited from my brother and there is a Nikon D7000 and a Nikon DX 40mm f2.8 micro lens. Would this be good enough to use for scanning 120 film? I'd need a decent tripod, on my list anyway, and that Cinestill light. I think the negative holder though is a bit pricey. Along with the D7000 was a Mamiya 645AFd and a Fujifilm 645 GA645Zi Pro and these are the cameras that piqued my interest in this. Develop + scan gets expensive to just play around with since I'm not a photographer by any stretch, but those 645 cameras are pro level. I'd do my own developing too. The alternative to the DSLR is to just get an Epson V600. It seems though the preference was the camera scan. I also have a Lumix G5 or an Olympus (don't remember which) with an array of lenses. I'd have to look to see if there is a macro lens but there was a bag with 6 or 7 of them. That's a smaller sensor but I see someone below saying they use a GH4 with M43.
I do similar except I dont have the fancy roller/feeder I just put two weights at either side of the frame to keep it flat. One thing I was not sure about was the exposure of the Digital image you take with your cameras. Do you use average/matrex metering and just expose to what the camera things is good, or do you under or over expose the negative sightly. When using negative lap pro after I convert I find I really have to tweak the contrasts/shadows/exposure quite a bit.
Hi Kris! Can you elaborate a bit more on why focusing on the grain is important? I have gotten some shots that look a bit out of focus and I'm not sure if I'm focusing on the wrong part of the film. I like that you are using a crop sensor camera and vintage lens to show that fancy equipment isn't necessary to get great results. I'm using a Canon EF 100mm 2.8 macro lens adapted to my Sony a6000 to scan my negatives. Looking forward to your youtube career!
The grain is the part of the film you are sure is in the right position to focus. The photo in the film is already taken, it may be slightly out of focus (or not), you can’t be sure about the shooting conditions. However, when you’re scanning, you’re not interested in that anymore, you’re interested in the film.
Wait- Huh! This is way less intimidating than I thought! And the holder thingy in your link isn’t nearly as expensive as I assumed 👀 ok, ok, maybe I’ll have to give this a shot!
I used a Nikon LS8000 scanner for a while, and stopped using it for a few years and when I tried it again it seemed like something had gone seriously wrong. I wonder if a capacitor had a major problem.
I came across your video as a suggestion. I used the Epson V600 for all my scanning needs until a few months ago. My Airbook sees that scanner, but the native Epson software drivers and tools don't play nice. I purchased a Plustek scanner along wide the provided software application. It is a great tool. Honestly, it is overkill for my needs. In any case, the Epson V600 is a nightmare for 120 and 127 negative scanning. It takes most of the afternoon to scan three rolls of film. I am going to try to use some semblance of your hardware scanning recommendations. I have several rolls of expired film just waiting to be scanned. In addition, the Epson V600 takes up half the table. Thank you for the video.
@@KristinaKameron I finally figured out how to work with my 120/127 negatives along with my existing photographic lighting equipment snd digital camera. Thank you.
I use a Coolscan 9000 with Vuescan and it's a _major_ pain in the ass for 120 film. I need to shift over to using a digital camera like this. Will concur, Negative Lab Pro is great.
@@cdl0 a digital camera will have a finer graduation due to software color control but it all depends on the glass etc. Scanner beds are plain, no frills, no coating but flat profiles. It becomes an endless hole but we can all agree, that it's all software issues. These hardware companies aren't gonna update the software or improve the efficiency because we as customers, know nothing better.
@@Teslien This is what I mean by "more accurate". There is also no Bayer filter, and demozaicing algorithm to interfere with the sampling. One can then process the raw, linear output of the scanner according to taste. I only use free, open source software for the image processing, which gets plenty of updates and improvements, so no proprietary brick-wall here.
Photoshop can do anything you want, but the problem is, Photoshop knows *nothing* about film negatives. If you want to invert a color negative into a corrected color positive, Photoshop does have the tools, but it‘s a 100% manual process: You have to figure out and set everything correctly yourself, such as the setting the Curves end points for all three RGB channels to get the right color balance. That’s fine if you’re doing one frame. If you’re trying to do a lot of frames faster like she is, the advantage of NegativeLab Pro is that it has pre-tuned negative inversions and color curves for specific film types, and it has those film processor emulations. So you get the right look instantly. Those can save you enormous amounts of time when scanning film in bulk, so NegativeLab Pro will pay for itself quickly. Notice that NegativeLab Pro is a plug-in for Lightroom Classic, not Photoshop. Lightroom Classic is what I use too. It’s far more efficient for bulk corrections like a whole roll of film, and if she’s shooting in raw then she saves a step by editing the raw files directly in Lightroom Classic; raw files must be converted to be edited in Photoshop. When you compare Photoshop, NegativeLab Pro, and Lightroom Classic, Photoshop is actually the least preferred for correcting bulk film scans, at the bottom of the list. The main thing Photoshop is good for is when a few frames need extreme retouching or correction beyond what Lightroom Classic can do quickly.
@@brightboxstudio Wow! Thanks for all that! I mostly shoot black and white, but when I do shoot color, a lot of times there's a blue cast to the pictures once they're inverted (i.e., no longer negative). Seems like this would be a much easier way to fix that than using PS.
It’s for sure something that takes some patience and practice to scan your own film. But once you get it done the results are amazing! Even better than lab scans in my opinion
@@KristinaKameron In my opinion my lab does a great job . So if it's not broke don't fix it. And they use a chemical printing machine for prints not an ink jet or anything like that. I also get my slides scanned there as well as enlargements for art shows.
negatives are clear, how could you focus on anything but the grain? best method for digital scanning, tape negative to plain glass with emulsion side against glass (no newton rings) shoot image through glass. sharper than when I scanned with $8000 imacon scanner. this is best if you are more concerned about quality over speed.
They don't have the color balance of their settings labeled in Kelvin degrees? WTF? Why in the world are you not custom white balancing your camera to the light source? That is rule #1
I actually prefer flat bed scanning. Batch scan and start editing (if needed, of course) your images while they are scanning. Faster and easier to me and all my scans are excellent. It takes no where near as long as stated here.
More tips: The unexposed borders and exposed film leader represent very convenient black and white reference points when setting up the scanning exposure and white balance for each film. In the positive image, nothing is blacker than the borders, and nothing is whiter than the leader. Take average values over an area of a few hundred pixels. The greatest sources of dust (assuming no cat is present) are clothing and hair, so wear as little as possible, and at least have bare arms, and wear something like a plastic shower cap over your hair.
Thank you for this! I didn't even realize this was possible! This was awesome! I may want to try this someday, but I will probably need to rewatch your videos a few times before I try again.
Glad it was helpful! If you have any questions feel free to ask
@@KristinaKameron i just might. 🙂
Love your setting. Thanks for sharing
You are so welcome!
Awesome vid!! Just one little tip when using negative lab pro you wanna make sure the preview button is clicked on and adjust the border buffer so that none of the border gets converted because it will mess with negative lab pros conversion since it basically uses every color it sees to convert you only want what’s in the actual picture so it can white balance better and have better colors!!
Thanks for the tip!
Sounds good, I'll give it a try, thanks...
Perfect explanation. That Cinestill light box is literally the best of any one I've used no matter what cost, too. And that's over about 10 years of camera scanning experience!
Totally agree! It’s so good
Good, informative vid! One step I would suggest adding is using a spirit level to make sure your tripod-held camera sensor is on a parallel plane to the film in the film holder. You are probably doing that but thought it was worth mentioning for anyone who might want to try this method, which works great.
Thanks for the tips! I wasn’t doing that!! Now I will
@@KristinaKameron see if your camera has it built in. some do
Very helpful! Definitely worth a follow. 👏
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the follow!
This was REAAALLLYYY cool to watch😍😍
@@Eveebabee thank you for watching bestie
Excited for this RUclips journey!
Yay! Thank you!
Well done! Love the cat! I use nearly the exact same process, which I switched to after a month of fighting the V600. I'm an old AV pro from the 1970s-'80s, so I got the idea from my days of copying slides on a pin-registered Nikon F3 and that same macro lens you have. Now I copy prints, slides, and negatives on a home brew copy stand that cost less than $100 to build out of iron pipe, a flange, some shelving, a Super Clamp, and a Neewer tripod ball head. I have a couple of Neewer LED lights for copy work, and a Viltrox L-116t light used with an Essential Film Holder. I use a 30mm Lumix Macro lens on an old GH4 camera. I'm also using Negative Lab Pro in LrC.
I like my V600 and it takes up very little room on my desk. It does have a batch scan feature where you can scan up to 4 medium format negatives in a single strip, and 2 rows of 35mm so around 10+ shots of 35mm. Granted it has to scan each one individually but I find once you have the settings nailed just set and let it scan. Not to mention I also scan old printed pictures for restoration so the flatbed works to flatten images and if I want to scan film with the borders, a piece of anti-newton ring glass works flawlessly!
I agree, when set up this way it’s actually easier and faster to me. I have a canon scanner I have been using for years. I have never had a buyer of my art tell me my scanning wasn’t good enough. You can pick one up used for about 150.00. Cheaper and easier than the digital camera method.
This is perfect. Thanks. I want to go into this myself.
Loveeee! I need to definitely need to get one this, I've been debating on to getting a scanner or Not but this is way more efficient.
@@lilymartinez5219 the scanner is ok but this is for sure more efficient and the scans are a lot better quality too. Hope I could help
Great video
Glad you enjoyed it
Excellent setup. I use and recommend exactly the same lens and also use a Sony camera. However, for those not willing to spend two hundred pounds on the Valoi - especially those who are mainly looking to copy 35mm slides and negatives - for half the price I recommend a Nikon bellows setup (it doesn’t have to be the the latest and more expensive PB-6, the PB-4 does very well too) together with the PS-4 slide/negative holder. The main advantage here is that as both the negative/slide and the camera are on the same rig, shaking doesn’t matter and both the sensor and slide/negative are perfectly parallel. As a light source, once set up on a tripod, again, for convenience not necessarily for stability, I tape a sheet of top quality photographic print paper (no grain patterns) against the window and shoot in RAW so as not to bother about colour casts. A final tip for you and to all is use a remote to trigger the shutter, it will save you many minutes of waiting for five seconds each time by using a delay 😀
Great tips!
Glad it was helpful!
Siamese are the cooolest of coooool. Have a super weekend everyone
They’re the best!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼 thank you! Hope you have a good weekend too
TYSM for this! I’ve been going crazy from the flatbed scanner and the lab fees are not a vibe so definitely gonna try this technique.
So happy I could help!!
Thank you! I always wondered if an a6xxx could be used to scan 120.
No problem! It’s a great little camera
Do you have any issues with scratches caused by advancing the film in the VALOI? (Great video)
Hi, I also scan with Sony. Their desktop app allows to trigger the camera from laptop, no need for self timer. You can also tether straight to Lightroom. For older cameras you gotta do it through Sony desktop app, but it’s still possible and very convenient. I used to do it that way before LR started supporting newer Sony cameras.
I have seen this method of digitisation negs quite a lot over the years but I still find myself using the scanners. I use VueScan with an Eposn Perfection in batch mode, which does mean that at least I can just hit the button and then go and do other things for 20 minutes or so, before returning to swap the negs out.VueScan also does a bang on job of converting the scans to positivies. I then use DarkTable to flip the orientation, and an S curve or whatever, and I'm done. The Epson 850 type scanners come with two negative holders, so you can also be loading the 2nd while the first is being scanned. Anyway, thats just how I do it. I am a bit of ludite - find changing methods tricky. I should really modernise.
what tripod are you using?
❤❤❤thanks
Do you have hi-res example photos developed with this metod? Thx.
Yes you can check out my instagram and I post all the photos I develop and scan there.
@@KristinaKameron thx Kristina, but Instagram quality isn't a good example. 🍀
I just went into the camera collection that I inherited from my brother and there is a Nikon D7000 and a Nikon DX 40mm f2.8 micro lens. Would this be good enough to use for scanning 120 film? I'd need a decent tripod, on my list anyway, and that Cinestill light. I think the negative holder though is a bit pricey. Along with the D7000 was a Mamiya 645AFd and a Fujifilm 645 GA645Zi Pro and these are the cameras that piqued my interest in this. Develop + scan gets expensive to just play around with since I'm not a photographer by any stretch, but those 645 cameras are pro level. I'd do my own developing too. The alternative to the DSLR is to just get an Epson V600. It seems though the preference was the camera scan.
I also have a Lumix G5 or an Olympus (don't remember which) with an array of lenses. I'd have to look to see if there is a macro lens but there was a bag with 6 or 7 of them. That's a smaller sensor but I see someone below saying they use a GH4 with M43.
I do similar except I dont have the fancy roller/feeder I just put two weights at either side of the frame to keep it flat.
One thing I was not sure about was the exposure of the Digital image you take with your cameras. Do you use average/matrex metering and just expose to what the camera things is good, or do you under or over expose the negative sightly. When using negative lap pro after I convert I find I really have to tweak the contrasts/shadows/exposure quite a bit.
Hi Kris! Can you elaborate a bit more on why focusing on the grain is important? I have gotten some shots that look a bit out of focus and I'm not sure if I'm focusing on the wrong part of the film. I like that you are using a crop sensor camera and vintage lens to show that fancy equipment isn't necessary to get great results. I'm using a Canon EF 100mm 2.8 macro lens adapted to my Sony a6000 to scan my negatives. Looking forward to your youtube career!
The grain is the part of the film you are sure is in the right position to focus. The photo in the film is already taken, it may be slightly out of focus (or not), you can’t be sure about the shooting conditions. However, when you’re scanning, you’re not interested in that anymore, you’re interested in the film.
That makes sense, thanks! I’m going to start doing this in my next batch.
Wait- Huh! This is way less intimidating than I thought! And the holder thingy in your link isn’t nearly as expensive as I assumed 👀 ok, ok, maybe I’ll have to give this a shot!
It's pretty easy!! I tried to explain it the best I could haha I hope it helps you out! Let me know if you try.
I used a Nikon LS8000 scanner for a while, and stopped using it for a few years and when I tried it again it seemed like something had gone seriously wrong. I wonder if a capacitor had a major problem.
I came across your video as a suggestion. I used the Epson V600 for all my scanning needs until a few months ago. My Airbook sees that scanner, but the native Epson software drivers and tools don't play nice. I purchased a Plustek scanner along wide the provided software application. It is a great tool. Honestly, it is overkill for my needs. In any case, the Epson V600 is a nightmare for 120 and 127 negative scanning. It takes most of the afternoon to scan three rolls of film. I am going to try to use some semblance of your hardware scanning recommendations. I have several rolls of expired film just waiting to be scanned. In addition, the Epson V600 takes up half the table. Thank you for the video.
macs built in tools like preview or image capture is more than plenty
So happy my video could help! And yes the Epson takes up so much room!! Hope you get yours scans done soon
@@KristinaKameron I finally figured out how to work with my 120/127 negatives along with my existing photographic lighting equipment snd digital camera. Thank you.
My father was a professional photographer and he would use his medium format film camera for making copies of old photos for restoration.
I just have them scanned professionally, it's worth the money!
I use a Coolscan 9000 with Vuescan and it's a _major_ pain in the ass for 120 film. I need to shift over to using a digital camera like this. Will concur, Negative Lab Pro is great.
Is t it less expensive to get the film scanned when developed
epson scanners are faster than others like hp. try to portion scans to a select area. I still use my old 1650 from time to time
Yes, these are good, reasonably quick scanners, and probably more accurate than using a digital camera.
@@cdl0 a digital camera will have a finer graduation due to software color control but it all depends on the glass etc. Scanner beds are plain, no frills, no coating but flat profiles. It becomes an endless hole but we can all agree, that it's all software issues. These hardware companies aren't gonna update the software or improve the efficiency because we as customers, know nothing better.
@@Teslien This is what I mean by "more accurate". There is also no Bayer filter, and demozaicing algorithm to interfere with the sampling. One can then process the raw, linear output of the scanner according to taste. I only use free, open source software for the image processing, which gets plenty of updates and improvements, so no proprietary brick-wall here.
Does Negative Lab Pro do anything PhotoShop doesn't?
Photoshop can do anything you want, but the problem is, Photoshop knows *nothing* about film negatives. If you want to invert a color negative into a corrected color positive, Photoshop does have the tools, but it‘s a 100% manual process: You have to figure out and set everything correctly yourself, such as the setting the Curves end points for all three RGB channels to get the right color balance.
That’s fine if you’re doing one frame. If you’re trying to do a lot of frames faster like she is, the advantage of NegativeLab Pro is that it has pre-tuned negative inversions and color curves for specific film types, and it has those film processor emulations. So you get the right look instantly. Those can save you enormous amounts of time when scanning film in bulk, so NegativeLab Pro will pay for itself quickly.
Notice that NegativeLab Pro is a plug-in for Lightroom Classic, not Photoshop. Lightroom Classic is what I use too. It’s far more efficient for bulk corrections like a whole roll of film, and if she’s shooting in raw then she saves a step by editing the raw files directly in Lightroom Classic; raw files must be converted to be edited in Photoshop.
When you compare Photoshop, NegativeLab Pro, and Lightroom Classic, Photoshop is actually the least preferred for correcting bulk film scans, at the bottom of the list. The main thing Photoshop is good for is when a few frames need extreme retouching or correction beyond what Lightroom Classic can do quickly.
@@brightboxstudio Wow! Thanks for all that! I mostly shoot black and white, but when I do shoot color, a lot of times there's a blue cast to the pictures once they're inverted (i.e., no longer negative). Seems like this would be a much easier way to fix that than using PS.
I have my local lab develop scan and print. They can do a way better job then I ever could.
It’s for sure something that takes some patience and practice to scan your own film. But once you get it done the results are amazing! Even better than lab scans in my opinion
@@KristinaKameron In my opinion my lab does a great job . So if it's not broke don't fix it. And they use a chemical printing machine for prints not an ink jet or anything like that. I also get my slides scanned there as well as enlargements for art shows.
I prefer scanning with the epson tbh way less hassle
I didn't know about focusing on the grain. I never would of thought of that. tHanks for the video
No problem!!!
negatives are clear, how could you focus on anything but the grain? best method for digital scanning, tape negative to plain glass with emulsion side against glass (no newton rings) shoot image through glass. sharper than when I scanned with $8000 imacon scanner. this is best if you are more concerned about quality over speed.
They don't have the color balance of their settings labeled in Kelvin degrees? WTF?
Why in the world are you not custom white balancing your camera to the light source? That is rule #1
………sorry was this about photography?
I actually prefer flat bed scanning. Batch scan and start editing (if needed, of course) your images while they are scanning. Faster and easier to me and all my scans are excellent. It takes no where near as long as stated here.
It actually does take as long as she stated lol.
@ wrong. I’ll time it and show you. No where near. I have been doing it professionally for years.
Please, please stop the voice croaking. It's impossible to listen to.
Do this video again after you were successfully treated for your vocal cord problems.
??? Scanning negatives? You should be a model not scanning negatives...