120 scanning question by super-newbie

hi!

 

i'm really new to photography and have been shooting with a holga. i got my 120

negatives processed and now i want to scan them. i know this sounds naive but

can i just scan them on a flatbed or do i need some special sort of film holder?

i have both color and b&w negs. also, can i use photoshop to import the

scanned photos, and what settings do i need to use to make the photo go from

negative to regular?

 

thanks.

You need to have a scanner capable of scanning transparencies. You can scan them directly on the flatbed, although the focus of the scanner in the transparency set-up may not be optimized for that height. Depends on the scanner. On my Epson V700, the scans come out fuzzy if I place 120 directly on the glass. They come out a lot better using the 120 film holders. When placing negatives directly on the glass you will also encounter <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_rings">Newton's rings</a>.* The film holder prevents them as the film is not in contact with the glass. Most scanner software will convert negatives to positives, so you don't have to worry about that.

cool, thanks Evan. in general, if I want to move forward being able to scan both 35mm and 120, what should I use? a flatbed or is there some special sort of negative scanner?

 

and for scanning just 120 on a flatbed, how much do those holders usually cost?

Well, if you have a flatbed that can scan transparencies, it will usually come with the negative holders. You can buy aftermarket holders from places like <a href="http://www.betterscanning.com/">Better scanning</a>. I am sure there are some others, but they escape right now without Googling for them. You could build your own too from balsa wood or some other easily worked material. I saw where someone used <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00KGJ1">popsicle sticks</a>.<P>Look through the <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1701">Digital Darkroom</a> forum. There are a lot of posts regarding the various types of scanners, both flatbed and dedicated film scanners. There's also a lot of knowledge going around there.

One other thing. I have seen some images from Holga negatives scanned as a reflective (like a print) on a regular flatbed (one that wasn't capable of scanning transparencies). They were then inverted in Photoshop to a positive image. From what I remember, the tonal range was really small, and the images were muddy. But, if you have a regular flatbed, give it a whirl and see what comes out.

Hi Emily,

 

Evan's comments are right on. I just bought the Epson scanner that came before the V700 (the 4990), which comes with the same 35mm, 120, 4x5, and 8x10 transparency holders. It cost me less than $500, and does a super job with 120, and a quite respectable job (for a flatbed) with 35mm. See the following two threads for other discussions about it (which show some of my sample scans):

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00JxV2

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00K0cm

 

The first describes a color 35mm neg scan and the second, a B/W 120.

 

The 4990 isn't equipped to handle the higher-quality "fluid mounted" scanning that the V700 can. But other than that, it is pretty much the same scanner (for slightly less)!

 

Hope this helps!

 

Sincerely,

 

Dave

If you don't want to spend too much an Epson Perfection 4490 Photo scanner does a nice job with 35mm and 120, B/W and color, slides and negs. I als0 rigged up a light housing to place over my 4x5 negs which does a nice job. This unit is about $200.

If you got your negs processed at a lab, go back and have them scanned to CD, and remember next time to have them scanned... go ahead and spend the extra $2 on the higher resolution scans so you wont be kicking yourself when you try to make a print! Eventually a scanner may pay for itself, but not if you are just playing around with a few rolls for fun.

http://epson.com will answer all your questions and under $100.00 free shipping on some models.

 

Larry