Do you have something negative from your past?
Do you have something negative from your past? Do you have something that others need to see? Are you confused? I am writing about film negatives. The 20th century was dominated by photographic film. Photographic film was valuable, and after Kodak invented the digital camera, they suppressed it to protect their film business. Looking back, that business decision by Kodak was Apple in reverse. Kodak experienced stunning and rapid financial losses.
I am a digital immigrant. I spent half of my life in the analogue world and the other half in the digital world. I like it better in the digital world, but my roots and understanding of photography go far beyond point and click. Before I was allowed to touch a camera, I had to learn imaging theory. In the analogue years, film negatives captured an image in your camera. The negatives required chemical processing. The negatives were projected onto paper coated with a light-sensitive material. People developed images by chemically processing the paper into the paper print that you, the reader, know as a photograph. Given the technology in the 19th and 20th centuries, the inventors of this process were ingenious.
Recently, I looked at a storage box and uncovered thousands of photos neatly packed away as negatives. A decade earlier, I scanned the paper prints with some success. Quality suffers from generation to generation, and most prints were too small to scan enough detail. Time affects paper prints.
Side note: Time affects digital device recall. The film may be readable in 100 years, but a digital drive may not be readable because the technology to invent it may no longer be commonplace or available. Always transfer to the latest digital storage.
Scanning
I bought my first negative scanner: KODAK Slide N SCAN Film and Slide Scanner (affiliate link). Regretfully, I had to return it after a day of use. You get what you pay for in life.
The scanner lacked the following:
- Calibration control;
- Lossless file output options;
- High-resolution imaging;
- Cropping;
- Negative positioning;
- Negative stabilization; and
- Image quality.
After research, I settled upon the Plustek OpticFilm 8200i AI (affiliate link) to scan negatives. The results are excellent. The Plustek scanner has features that the Kodak scanner could never offer. The Kodak scanner performed decently with black and white film but failed miserably with colour film, especially red tones.
Comparison of scan results
Kodak scanner with a black-and-white film image
Plustek scanner with a black-and-white film image
Kodak scanner with colour film
Plustek scanner with colour film
Getting organised
Once the feature and quality issues are resolved, you must manage and view a kilometre of negatives. A Dimmable A4 LED Copy Board (affiliate link) serves its purpose as a manageable light table. Kodak comes through with its Kodak Mobile Film Scanner App for IOS. No, the Kodak app does not come through for archiving negatives, but you can use the app to view several negatives on a light table while inverting the colours to positive. This conversion makes for easier identification.
One of the fantastic capabilities of the Plustek OpticFilm 8200i AI (affiliate link) scanner software is the ability to scan multiple images. In the example below, several half-frame images can be seen. The scanning software can scan multiple prints using a flatbed scanner, but in this case, you may simultaneously scan two half-frame images from a single frame.
A company sells a product at all costs
Upon viewing the negative using the Kodak Mobile Film Scanner App for IOS, you saw four nearly identical images of your author in 1993. I present to you a cautionary tale. In 1993, I came upon the Nishika N8000 35 mm Quadrascopic Stereo 3D Lenticular Camera (affiliate link) as the Nishika organisation was fraudulently offering that at all costs. The company offered these cameras as an award and resorted to scamming customers. Please read about it here LINK.
Side note: if a company asks you to pay to claim an award, it is a scam. Back then, the company’s crime was mail and wire fraud. Today, crime is the same, except criminals use the internet to commit crimes. Beware!
After consuming a roll of film and paying for faded lenticular prints, I promptly returned the product to Nishika. Thankfully, I was one of the few who received a full refund. Thankfully, the company is no longer around.
Turning a negative into a positive (from a scam product to a stunning digital image)
Today, these images on the negative can be scanned, scratches automatically removed, and saved in digital format. The four images transform into a stunning 3D animated GIF with some Photoshop work. It was worth the 29-year wait.
How else do you create 3d photographs?
There are several ways to create 3D photographs, including:
- Stereoscopic photography: This method involves taking two photographs of the same scene from slightly different angles, simulating how our eyes perceive depth. These images are then viewed through a device such as a stereoscope or 3D glasses to create the illusion of depth.
- Lenticular printing: This method involves printing a series of images on a plastic sheet with small lenses, called lenticules, that change the image depending on the viewing angle. This creates the illusion of depth and movement when viewed from different angles. This method is the technique used by the Nishika camera.
- 3D scanning: This method uses specialised cameras and software to scan an object or scene and create a 3D model. The model can then be rendered into a photograph that appears to have depth.
- Multi-shot photography: This method involves taking multiple photographs of the same scene from different angles and using software to combine them into one 3D image.
- Anaglyphs: This method involves taking two photographs of the same scene, one in red and one in blue or cyan, and then combining them into a single image. Viewers can then view the image through special glasses with a red lens on one eye and a blue or cyan lens on the other to create the illusion of depth.