All of the film based images on this site were scanned using a camera (aka: camera scanning). This might sound a bit confusing at first if you’ve never heard of it. You’re essentially just taking a picture of your negative(s) with a digital camera, as opposed to using a more traditional flatbed, drum, or dedicated negative scanner, and then converting the negative image to a positive using a computer.
At a high level the process for doing this is pretty straight-forward but creating the workflow to make it manageable and consistent takes some time, as does figuring out the right equipment to use to get good results.
I’ll go into more detail on all of this in subsequent posts.
If you’re curious about equipment here’s what i use:
- Camera: Fuji X-Pro2 (24mp APS-c mirrorless digital camera)
- Lens: Fuji XF 80mm f2.8 Macro
- Misc Camera: Canon generic cable release + dummy battery adapter
- Negative Carriers and support: Negative Supply (35mm, 120, 4×5)
- Copy Stand: Negative Supply
- Light Panel: Raleno LED 95+ CRI
- Level: Starrett 135A Pocket Level
- Software: Adobe Bridge + Adobe Lightroom Classic w/ Negative Lab Pro
Here are some additional resources related to camera scanning if you’re trying to learn more about it:
- Scanning without a scanner (link)
- A good primer on this if you’re trying to figure out some more on this topic
- There are a bunch of good Facebook discussion groups on the topic of camera scanning with a number of experienced users sharing their experience and helping others. The best one i’ve found is, “Digitizing film with a digital camera”
- You’ll find a whole range of DIY solutions people have come up with to accomplish this in this group too.
- Check out Adam Pratt – he’s a frequent contributor on multiple forums and shares his knowledge and experience freely. He also has a business, chaostomemories.com, and scan scan everything for you if you want.
- Don’t forget to check reddit too. AnalogCommumity covers a lot of ground. Camera scanning comes up regularly
- The DAM Book (link) by Peter Krogh
- Digital Asset Management is actually what we’re doing here once the scans are complete. Gaining a level of understanding about this that goes a few levels deeper than: installing capture one or lightroom or Photo Mechanic etc will help you use those tools appropriately for your camera scanning project,and for digital photography in general.
- This book particularly is targeted at camera scanning (link)
- Great considerations on your scanning process, setup, and workflow – also by Peter Krogh (link)