How Do I Convert Negatives to Digital Photos?
There are a few ways to convert negatives to digital photos, including three methods you can do yourself at home. The best way is to use a film and slide scanner, a specialized scanning device designed for this specific task. You can also convert negatives to digital photos using a regular flatbed scanner, but the process is more complicated. The final method is to illuminate your negatives or slides from the back and photograph them with a digital camera or your phone. If those methods sound like too much work, some services will convert your negatives for a fee.
How Do I Digitize My Negatives?
The best way to digitize negatives and slides is to use a film and slide scanner. These devices are similar to regular scanners, but they’re specifically designed to scan negatives and slides that need to be backlit to view. These devices typically also have a setting to invert the colors of your negatives after scanning so that you don’t need to edit them after the fact. Here’s how to digitize negatives and slides:
Can You Scan Negatives With a Regular Scanner?
While a film and slide scanner is the easiest way to scan negatives, you can also convert negatives and slides to digital pictures with a regular flatbed scanner. Some high-end scanners have a feature that allows you to scan directly from film negatives, but most scanners don’t have that option. If you have a regular scanner that doesn’t have a transparency option, you can still scan negatives, but you need to provide a light source. There are many ways to do this, and you will need to experiment with the tools you have available to achieve the best result you can. The simplest method requires a sheet of white printer paper and a desk lamp or other source of light. After scanning, you’ll also need to use an image editing app to invert the colors if you’re digitizing negatives. Here’s how to scan negatives with a regular scanner using that method:
Are There Any Other Ways to Convert Negatives to Digital Pictures?
In addition to scanning negatives using the two methods described above, you can also digitize your negatives by simply taking pictures of them with a digital camera. If that’s all you have, you can use your cellphone camera or use a high-quality DSLR with a macro lens for better results. The slides or images need to be illuminated from the back, which you can accomplish by placing them on a lightbox. Here’s how to photograph film negatives and slides to digitize them:
How Much Does It Cost to Convert Negatives to Digital?
You can buy an inexpensive film and slide scanner for less than $100, and converting negatives to digital doesn’t cost anything but time if you have a flatbed scanner and desk lamp. Flatbed scanners with a transparency feature designed to scan negatives tend to be significantly more expensive. You can find lightboxes for about $20, or you can use a phone or tablet screen with a pure white image on the screen, and the brightness turned up for slightly lower quality results. Instead of converting your negatives or slides, they typically charge per image, not per strip, if you opt to use a conversion service. If you have a film strip containing several pictures, you pay a fixed amount per picture. Prices vary, but you can typically expect to pay between $0.25 and $1.00 per image. Specialty negatives, like disc negatives, usually cost more.
