Can you scan negatives to the computer and treat them as digital photos?

Question

I took a black and white photography class and I now have about about twenty-five rolls of film worth of negatives that I cannot print, as I no longer have access to a darkroom. Also, printing them is expensive and time-consuming. Is there a way to scan these and then treat them like digital pictures? Will I need a special negative scanner, or can I use my regular scanner? Also, will I need a special program to deal with the negatives, or will a basic editing or organization program do? (I have GIMP and Picassa).

Thanks!

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Yes you can buy a scanner for a couple hundred bucks, or if you dont plan on shooting film anymore you can just take the negs to your local one hour photo place or anyplace that prints pics practically and have them scan it. Costco or Walmart even.

Most one hour places will send the film negs through a daylight darkroom sorta machine to make them negatives, then scan them to make the prints anyways so most can do it for you. They will charge you by the roll though and it can be costly. But if you plan to do this alot more it would be more cost effective to buy a scanner and do it yourself.

Gimp can handle negatives. At the top of your pic click Colors>Invert and you have it. But usually any good scanner will come with the software for it.

Answer 2

get a dedicated film scanner and go for it, some software will come with it and gimp or the other will be fine

a

Source(s):

have a dedicated film scanner, they scan positives and negs

film is digital - after a scan....

Answer 3

Of course you can.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/little_pook…

Get a film scanner. A real film scanner--NOT a flatbed scanner.

Answer 4

You sure can treat them as digital photos. In fact, the really particular photographers trying to get the ultimate in quality do just that.
A negative scanner is the best way to scan them as light passes through the negative, but a quality scanner can work, too.
If you scan to a TIFF file, I think GIMP should work just fine. If you are looking for top resolution and DNG file would be preferred (I'm not sure if GIMP supports DNG though).

Source(s):

Digital input/output class and experience.

Answer 5

you can scan them, if you have a scanner with overhead lamp, that allows back-lighting, some have slide and negative holder,
Epson Perfection 4490 Photo ~example:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consu…

there are also specialized film scanners only for negatives and slides,
Polaroid SprintScan 4000 Plus example
http://www.polaroid.com/global/detail.js…

if you have regular scanner, with no backlight, you could attempt to jerry rig a back light with fluorescent tube lite through opaque dispersing cover filter , bright but no heat,
example,
http://www.bathroomcity.co.uk/product.as…
http://www.germes-online.com/catalog/93/…

scan at ~600 ± resolution in color mode, if no negative option, invert with program, use gimp to import twain from scanner and save as jpg, adjust levels and check channels, save originals and edit further with copies,

lamp from scanner,
http://www.instructables.com/id/Scanner-…
..

Source(s):

not directly related
http://www3.sympatico.ca/mark.kaye/equip…
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-ms…

Answer 6

HP can scan negative and slides as well.

Answer 7

You can. Something like a Canon 8800F. Don't bother with a film scanner for home use. REAL film scanners are called drum scanners and the purchase price is prohibitive for home use. Just scan the negatives with your Canoscan and the ones you really like and wish to blow up you can get scanned professionally at a lab. A Nikon Cooscan 9000 is NOT a proper film scanner.