Here's what you'll get after reading this article...
Ready? Fire up your scanner... load your negatives... and let's go!
Take out a negative strip. If you look closely, you'll notice an "ISO" number. The more expensive the film, the higher the ISO number. A higher ISO number meant that you could shoot in dark and bright areas and get good quality photos.
But here's the problem when scanning...
ISO means more film grain. This is great for photo printing. The grain helped show more detail in low light situation. And your photos didn't turn out all dark.
And the higher the ISO number your negative film is, the more grain your scans will have.
But there is a way to fix this. Here is a the step-by-step guide to fix film grain, noise, and dust using GIMP...
It doesn't matter how old your negatives are. Or how well you kept them safe from light and the elements.
Take a look at your negative...
...your scanner will also scan the light coming off the negative film surface.
And what's so bad about that?
This extra light will cast a weird, filmy look over your scans. And it will make the colours look dull and flat.
Let me show you...
This "colour cast" will make your photo scans look faded (left image).
So how do you get the colours back to their original luster? Check out...
Another problem with negative scanning is sometimes your image will come out too dark or bright. Have look...
Below is an over exposed negative scan (left) and the same scan fixed (right). You'll notice the left image is too blown-out.
Below is an under exposed negative scan (left) and the same scan fixed (right). You'll notice the left image is too dark.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to fix negative scan exposure using GIMP...
Here are the steps again...
Which of these scanning troubles do you want to overcome?
Hey, my name is Konrad. I've been scanning professionally since 2005. I've helped multi-billion dollar companies, pro sports teams, pro photographers, artists, museums, book publishers, etc. I've scanned over 930,000 slides, negatives, photos.
The reason I'm telling you this is because no matter what challenge or frustration you're having, I know exactly what you're going through. So, to help you RIGHT NOW, I've put together a super simple scanning guide to get you started.