Getting GREAT images from your Camera Scanning User Guide and “Tips and Tricks” Introduction Applicable to all Camera Scanning tools, systems and
techniques and anyone interested in Camera Scanning of 35mm and 120 film. As I’m the creator of the Essential Film Holder, all
examples and tips will relate to the Essential Film Holder. That should not
be a surprise! However, those starting out with other systems will find
many useful chunks of information in here too, so read on. And if you have not yet opted for a proper film holder and
are still at the experimental or ‘cardboard’ stage, then I’d encourage you to
look at the home page for the Essential
Film Holder, here. So, What’s the Essential Film Holder all about? The Essential Film Holder is a tool to facilitate digital
camera ‘scanning’ of film. It’s “just” a film holder that holds your film while you
take a picture of it with your digital camera. It’s been thoughtfully designed to perform the “essential”
functions of a film holder for both 35mm and 120 film formats at an
affordable price. Yes, the Essential Film Holder DOES have a few bells an whistles. It’s configurable and adjustable to suit your
particular set-up , accommodates BOTH 35mm and 120 format up to 6x9, includes
a high quality light diffuser and with its metal- and glass-free
construction, it will never scratch the surface of your light panel. But there’s always a downside... No, it’s not as pretty as a film holder from Negative Supply, but it does not cost
£1,000+ which is, arguably, significantly over-engineered. If you are looking
to spend that sort of crazy money then click here
for the ‘works’. Their web page is as pretty as their product. However, if you are looking for a solid product or ‘tool’
that simply does its job in an unassuming, workman like way, then the sub-£100 Essential Film Holder is what you
need.
Essential Film Holder Background It’s origins are quite simple to
explain. As a photographer of many years, I’ve picked up a few
image awards using both film and digital cameras. Whilst digital images are ‘clean’ and often of a far
higher technical quality, the “feel” of film is sill only available from film
itself. Being highly familiar with a digital workflow of Adobe
Photoshop and Lightroom, and having reached an
acceptable standard (to me) of film developing at home, I wanted to get my
film images into the digital domain as easily and as quickly as I could. The
magazines call this a “hybrid work flow”. I used, and, to be honest, I still occasionally use my
Epson v600 flat-bed scanner, but the time it takes to scan a roll of film,
especially 36 shots of 35mm film, is very significant indeed. So, I started to try out camera scanning and, whilst the
initial results were encouraging, I had issues with my set-up and kit being
used. Using bits of cardboard for a home-made mask and film
holder gave interesting enough results, but nowhere near the quality, or
stability of set-up, that I was looking for. The challenges I had were the obvious ones... ·
keeping the film flat ·
getting the camera properly aligned and keeping the entire set-up in
one position for long enough to capture a roll of film ·
getting the backlighting right so that it didn’t product horrible
‘blobs’ on the image. And, let’s face it, I wasn’t
going to pay £1,000+ to solve those apparently simple challenges! I wasn’t EVEN going to pay £350 to solve those challenges.
(Although I
should declare at this point that I did buy a ‘solution’ from a Far East
company, got stung by import duties, VAT and shipping costs, and nearly got
burnt by the blistering heat that thing gave out... and I had a strip of film
badly scratched by their cheaply made film holder. £325 toasted! And so the EFH came into being, and the output of my
camera scanning went up exponentially, both in terms of quality and speed. I was, at one stage early in the marketing process,
considering the tag line “90% of
the functionality at 10% of the price” ...but I haven’t used it yet. Mainly because I’ve come to
realise that the EFH does 95%+ of the functionality of the £1000+ solutions
at LESS THAN 10% of the price! ...and that tag line sounded a bit “spammy”. Camera scanning is, of course, not the same as conventional
scanning, in a flat-bed scanner, for instance, like
the Epson Perfection range. However, if you are reading this page, then you will have
a digital camera that is likely to be capable of taking images of frames of
film that are easily good enough to rival the quality of such consumer-grade
flatbed scanners. You will soon be able to judge for yourself how capable
camera scanning is. If you are using a latest generation high-end DSLR such as
Canon 5D Mk IV, DS DR, or a Nikon D800, D810 or D850 then the results you
will be able to produce will be astonishing. Even mid-spec cameras can product stunning results. As can
mirrorless too. In fact, almost any camera with 12Mpixels resolution or
above will be able to rival the quality of a mid-priced flatbed... ...and be able to scan a roll of film in a fraction of the
time it takes to do this with my Epson v600 scanner ! I’ve even experimented with using my iPhone
to capture film images! The film can be either negatives
or positives, strips or uncut rolls, curly or flat! (Note that the EFH happily accommodates mounted slides.
Both 50mm (2¼ inch square) mounts and also 70mm slide mounts for 120
transparencies are supported with a additional optional mask) About this guide This guide will help you get those amazing results from
the Essential Film Holder (EFH) There are a few DOs and DON’Ts that you should be aware of. Plus there are a number of myths that the “experts” like
to thrust upon you, in the same way that, in any field, there’s almost a
protectionist approach to the sharing of information. Being generous, let’s call them “perfectionist” rather
than “protectionist”. In this guide, I’ll point out where a particular aspect,
method or equipment might generate a result that is more practical than perfectionist.
In this way, you’ll be able to better judge the quality of your own results. How the EFH works It’s simple. The EFH is delivered to you in MY recommended ideal
configuration. Once you have become familiar with its parts and how to
use it in your set-up, you may decide to take it apart and re-assemble it in
a different way. And that’s perfect! Once assembled in your chosen configuration, the EFH sits
directly on, or over, your light source. This could be anything that emits a
white light, such as a tablet or LED light panel. Don’t worry about scratches to your light panel – all the
parts in the EFH are made from plastic that will not scratch or damage your
light source in any way. At a size of 180 x 110mm the EFH is perfectly sized to sit
on top of an A6 LED light panel or an iPad Mini. Above the EFH, you align your camera. If you have a
macro/micro lens, that’s great. If not, then an extension tube works
fine...more on all this later on. Your film (strips or entire uncut roll) then passes
through the EFH dual layers. In the “v3” product version, these layers are set at a
0.5mm gap with a “guide layer” to allow your film to be aligned perfectly. Then move the film to align with the aperture in the EFH,
and with backlight on, take the shot. Done. Then on to the next frame – reposition the film within the
aperture without moving the EFH or your camera and take the next shot. Repeat until roll completed. After you’ve gone through a roll or two, you’ll be able to
digitize a 36-shot roll of 35mm within 4-5 minutes or less. Layers of the EFH The EFH is made up of a number of “layers”. Depending on
the exact version you chose, these act as masks to allow light to only hit
the film surface at the desired or allowable locations, meaning that the
camera shot will be perfectly frames and extraneous light will be prevented.
Layer 1 – Diffuser – this sits at the bottom of the
product, nearest the light source Layer 2 – Base for 120 formats [0.5mm Spacers] Layer 3 – Top for 120 formats Layer 4 – Base for 35mm format Layer 5 – 0.5 Spacer layer and guide for 35mm format
strips Layer 6 – Top for 35mm All layers are plastic. Layer 1 is the diffuser, it is cast acrylic, Perspex
SPECTRUM OPAL 1TL2 material, which is optimised for white light, and for
consistency of light transmission across the entire sheet .
The 1TL2 grade transmits 51% of light across the entire spectrum, from below
380nm to above 790nm - that’s the entire visible light range for humans. That’s what you need for a diffuser in a top-performing
scanning product. Note that some other film holders use the much cheaper
materials for diffusion and these can (and do) create colour shifts by
preventing certain parts of the light spectrum to pass through. That’s pretty
bad – you don’t want this sort of thing going on as it’s pretty tricky to
sort out at a later stage, especially if, as in one case, the light
colouration is not even across the diffuser!. Layers 2,3,4 and 6 are also cast
acrylic chosen for it’s stability, toughness and resistance to warping over
time. These are all in a non-reflective, matt black colour. Not a coating,
but the entire material. Layer 5 is just 0.5mm thick and is made from acetal. This is chosen for it’s
toughness when in thin sheets and for it’s ability to be made to very precise
thickness over wide areas. The shape of this layer has taken some time to get
right. It allows for 35mm film to be
fed into the assembly, guiding the location of the film strip and then making
sure it cannot move beyond an allowable 0.25mm width through the entire
channel. This makes sure that the 35mm frame will exactly line up with the
aperture. Update: in the latest “v3” version of the EFH Essential
Film Holder, a similar guide layer system is used for 120 film
too, making sure that the image area of the 120 film is perfectly aligned. All layers have been precision laser cut, meaning that
dimensions of all parts are super precise, with a precision of greater than
0.00005 meters. That’s 1/20th of a millimeter,
before you ask. Default assembly As delivered, the EFH is in its “default configuration”. This allows you to get started as fast as possible – for
35mm, just position over a light source, feed in your film and you’re off! For 120 film formats, simply remove the top 3 layers by
unscrewing the 4 plastic wing nuts, removing the layers and re-applying the
wing nuts to ensure the 120 layers are held firmly. Then it’s just a case of putting your film in and capture. Scanning different film formats There are many different film formats that can be scanned
in the EFH. 35mm and smaller using the 35mm layers The 120 film layers can scan 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x8 and 6x9
for starters. Because of the geometry, scanning of 35mm with full sprocket
holes is also possible by using the 120 film mask layers. If you are the sort who will always want to scan 35mm sprockets and never want to scan just
the 35mm image frame, then it is possible to replace the 35mm layers with
ones with a wider light aperture to accommodate this – just drop me an email
and I will be able to sort you out. Alternative configurations Well, there are many options and choices – many of which
will be explained below in terms of optimising your scans. However, if you are only ever going to be interested in
35mm films you have the option of removing the two 120 layers and converting
the EFH into a 35mm only configuration. However, it’s not actually necessary to do this as the
design has carefully position the 35mm aperture over that of the 120, so
light can hit your 35mm negative unimpeded. One of the interesting alternative configurations is to
adjust the height of the diffuser above your light source and then to adjust
the height of the film above the diffuser. When I was finalising the design of the EFH, I did lots of
studying and testing and experimentation. My generalised conclusion? If the diffuser sits approx 1/3 to 1/2 the way from the
light source to the film, then that’s about optimal. The light at the diffuser
is evenly distributed with negligible fall-off at the edges of the diffuser
or colourisation effects and then the light falling on the negative is about
as even as can possibly be. I’ll illustrate this with a few test shots later
on. Of course, that is the feature of the high quality
diffuser material I chose for the product. If you get the urge to “play” withy our set-up and EFH
configuration, then your local hardware store will likely sell compatible
parts – just look for “M5” sizing. Note that I’d advise sticking to plastic
parts rather than metal as metal could cause damage to the EFH and/or your
light source. In Use In it’s simplest usage, pop your camera on a tripod, and
position a light source under the lens Then it’s simply a case of sliding in your file, aligning
with the aperture on the layer mask and then shooting. Yes, it really is that simple.
You can use either a tripod or any other sort of support
for your camera. A copy stand, for example of ideal
too. Remember that your choice will depend on whether you want
a fixed installation or something that is more portable, making use of some
of the existing photo kit you already have. In the picture, above, I use my old heavy metal Manfrotto 055 tripod with the centre column swung to the
horizontal configuration and with a Manfrotto 410
geared head. (Also seen is a LED light pad – more about light sources
shortly). Personally, I have always preferred geared heads as they
allow for smaller incremental adjustment, whereas a ball head is more suited
for wilder and wider ranging faster movements. However, that’s just personal choice. Use whatever you have and whatever you feel comfortable
with. Note that as the camera needs to be pointing at your light
source, most likely in a vertical position, please make sure your tripod is
adequately set up so that the whole thing can’t topple over!! It’s easily
done. Light source So, this is the first topic that will, undoubtedly get a
reaction from the purists and “experts”. Once you dig into this topic, then all sorts of
terminology will come to the fore...most notably “CRI”, lux,
colour temperature and heat. So, what’s the quick and simple guide summary and guidance
here.... 1. Use what you have If you have an iPad (3rd
generation or later) then use that. Set up a page that’s white (use email app
or anything that shows a mostly white screen), crank up the brightness to the
max, turn off any timeouts and you have a light source. Ditto, if you have a Samsung Tablet 7” and above will be
fine. Some of the later iPhones (7 or
later) will be fine. Earlier ones back to iPhone 5
are OK-ish. All these devices generate a surprisingly pure light that
covers most of the visible spectrum from around 300nm up to just under 800nm.
The problems with these devices is that the brightness can
be variable, the evenness of the light over the screen surface can be poor
and nailing all the time-outs can be like searching for a needle in a
haystack. 2. Buy something
cheap If you are going to want to have a permanent or at least
semi-permanent configuration that is either static or wheeled out when you
want to scan, then you may be better off getting a light pad. LED light pads come in many forms and in many qualities. At the very entry level are what are often called “tracing
pads”. You can buy a small one on Amazon for less than £8. These
will not have an integral battery and will need a microUSB
power lead. Some are supplied with a power plug, some not. In the picture above, this is exactly one of those Amazon
LED Tracing pads. Unbranded from Now, the purists will tell you this is a cheap and nasty
solution. And they might well be right. However, the major challenge with these pads is that the LEDs are widely spaced and can show up on your camera
scan shots. And that’s true. One of the reasons for this is that these LED panels have
a very very poor light diffuser (if they have one
at all!). Take a shot of the LED panel on its own and it will look
like this....
...lay your film down on this sort of surface and you will
easily see this ghastly mottled pattern on your DSLR image. This is, however, not an issue with the EFH because the
performance of the light diffuser sorts out this nasty effect and ‘converts’
the discrete LEDs into a more homogenous light
sheet, like this (same image set-up, just with the diffuser inserted)...
Now, these cheap panels are not very bright, and that
means you’re in for longer exposures to capture your film image. However, you
have a tripod or solid stand and as long as your settings are appropriate,
this should not be an issue. 3. Buy a more
expensive LED panel You could step up a bit and spend far more on an LED panel
that is designed for, for example, viewing film negatives in the style of an
old fashioned light box. Kaiser offer a number of these
and on paper these are much better. Solux and SORAA
too, though these are getting pretty expensive. Usually, the only real difference compared to the very
cheap LED panels is that these will have an attempt at a diffuser sheet over
the surface and possibly better quality LEDs,
though not always! However, the positioning of the diffuser is inadequately
separated from the LED (it’s too close) to be really useful and you will
often get uneven light flares from the panel, with light going off in all directions,
bouncing around and messing your shot. If you get strange orange blobs on your camera scan shot,
then the positioning of the diffuser is most likely a factor. Again, the diffuser layer in the EFH can be the saviour as
this is a far better diffuser than you will find on even the most expensive
LED panels. These more expensive devices, such as from Kaiser and Solux (and others), will be far brighter than the
super-cheap panels and this will give shorter exposure times. 4. Go for a video
light Once common light source is to use a video light. There
are many unknown brands of light from CRI is the colour rendering index and is a calibrated
range to international standards. There’s a load of information you can look
up yourself on the background and meaning of the CRI number, but for what we
are doing, a CRI >90 is going to give you noticeably better results than
any of the previously mentioned light sources. What does a CRI of 95 mean? It means the colour spectrum
is wide enough to encompass pretty much all the visible range in a way that
is even, so no colour hot-spots. It means the power output of the light is
sufficiently high to avoid dark patches and it means the light “purity” is
going to be mostly consistent over time...i.e. it’s not going to fade and
drift. Think of it as a kind of “goodness rating”. I’m sure the “experts” will be able to give you far more
(superfluous) information if you search the web or Facebook groups. Again, these are LED based products. Again the EFH
diffuser will significantly add to the quality of the light hitting your
negative. One of the downside of these sort
of lights is that they can get warm. Leave a video panel on for an hour or
two and the body of the light unit will be warm to the touch. That should not worry you unduly, as I’ve found it easy to
achieve a scan of a 36-shot roll of 35mm film in under 10 minutes. Do note, however, that there are a couple of LED lights
that can, and regularly DO cause some challenges. One in particular is the Aputure M9 light (and similar clones). This light
consists of just 9 huge LEDs that are spaced at
1-2cm apart and the chances of getting hot-spots and uneven light are pretty
high Whilst this is a challenge for the Essential Film
Holder (and any other film holder for that matter), by increasing the
light-to-diffuser distance, you can still get great results, but you will
need to experiment. If that’s not for you, then despite the attractiveness of
the M9’s small form-factor, you may well be better off with something like a Raleno 116 light. 5. Proper lamp As the experts will say, if you want the high quality
light you need a proper bulb. The mythical (and mystical) CRI measurements to
“proper” bulbs will hit 98 of more... i.e. almost perfectly pure light. I’m not going to profess to knowing
too much in this area, as in all my camera scanning time, I’ve always been
happy with one of the earlier solutions. BUT, the common bit of information is that wherever there
is a ”real” bulb in a box, it’s going to get very very
hot if you leave it on for more than a few minutes. Some all-in-one film holders from the Darkroom and/or enlarger bulbs are a great example of
this. Use an enlarger lamp and you get a pure light source that can be
blindingly bright. But the damned things get so hot you need to consider them
a fire risk
Stray light Stray light can be a real problem when camera scanning. The design of the EFH affords a huge amount of protection
as the layer mask extends around the film aperture by a sufficient amount so
as to reduce this stray light. That’s by design. However, there are some things to note. If you are scanning during the daytime, then you may well
have trouble. Your DSLR is so sensitive to light that it will pick up even
the smallest amount of stray light. Think about it. If you shoot the stars on
a dark night, your sensor is able to capture the pin-pricks of light in the
sky. So if you have daylight streaming in through the window onto your camera
scan set-up you should expect trouble. Similarly, if you have a large LED panel (e.g. an A4 or A3
panel) that is way larger than the plan area of the EFH (which is just a
shade off A6 size), then there is going to be more light bouncing around than
you want. The solution is to mask off the extra light. You can use a
simple black cardboard frame that you sit on top of your light source, with a
hole cut in it for the EFH to sit in. When I’m using a small LED panel (as in the picture
earlier), or my video light, I use black electrical tape to block the light
from the panel that falls outside the EFH. Why electrical tape? Because it does not leave nasty glue
residue when you remove the tape. You’re trying to get ALL the light coming through the EFH
diffuser layer, not around it! Then either do your scanning in the evening, or better at night,
with the room lights off, or simply draw the curtains. If you have a darkroom, then that’s always an option to
avoid stray light, though you might think that somewhat excessive! Lens Choice Now we’re getting into the tricky areas that will have the
“experts” foaming at the mouth. When I started camera scanning, I read that you needed to
have a high quality macro lens to do a “proper job”. I looked at all the “proper” macro lenses in the Nikon
range, including the latest 105mm macro lens at £900 and some 3rd
party lenses at not much less. Well, I did not have a macro lens and wasn’t going to buy
one until I saw the need. After all, for an investment of £1000 on a macro lens, I
could get hundreds of images drum scanned! So what to do... If you have a lens that can focus close, use that. Even if
your scan only covers half the frame. Do the maths – you have a 50MPx camera (say) and your 35mm
image if half the height of the frame and half the width. So that’s 25% of the
full frame area. Or 25% of 50MPx. So you will have your 35mm frame captured
as a 12MPx image. That’s not bad for a no-investment solution. The best I
can get from my Epson V600 flatbed scanner is around a 6MPx image equivalent
and that’s after spending hours tweaking settings and tone curves. Next up, get some extension tubes. These can be either
cheap and manual or expensive and automatic. Personal view here, don’t even bother with anything other
than the basic manual extension tubes. Extension tubes generally come in a set of three, giving
you 6 combination of extension distance. The basic manual ones are as
complicated as drain pipe. Yes, you can buy super quality branded extension
tubes (like the Nikon PK range) that will set you back £100 for the set, or
you can buy, as I did, a very basic set of 3 tubes from Alibaba
(or eBay) for less than £8. Manual tubes have no electronics. You lose all
“fly-by-wire” controls over the lens aperture and you have to change settings
on your lens by hand. This means that Nikon “G” lenses become rather tricky
to use. You can use them, but you’ll be running at ‘wide open maximum
aperture...which may not give you the best optical quality. Electronic extension tubes will convey the control signals
from your camera through to your lens. However, these sort
of extension tunes will be far more expensive. Whilst they will work OK, you
don’t really need them. What length of extension tube to use? It depends on many
factors. However, you’re trying to get the negative image to fill as much of
your DSLR frame as possible. Trial end error will tell you the right
combination of extension tube lengths to use and this will depend on your
lens focal length and your sensor size.. If you have a choice of lenses then longer is better. I
use a 105mm lens and this allows me to capture 35mm film frame with a 3cm
extension tube and a 6x9 frame with a 1cm extension. If your lens is 50mm you can still find a combination that
will adequately work. Any less than a 50mm lens will likely cause problems with
distortion and aberrations. Frankly the geometry of the entire set-up will
not do well with a wide angle lens. Please don’t have high expectations if you are trying to
camera-scan with a 28mm lens. So, for example, an 85mm lenses would be fine to, but I’d just
not bother with a 28mm lens. If you do want to get (or already have a macro lens) then
60mm, 85mm, and 105mm will be fine. Zoom lens v prime lens Well, the “experts” will tell you that a zoom lens is not
good for close-up work. It’s certainly
more difficult to use. However, that should not put you off. If you don’t have a suitable prime lens, then you’ve got
to use what you have. If that’s a zoom lens, then use it. Give it a go, and you might just be pleasantly surprised.
Set it at 50, 60, 100mm, or thereabouts, and get
those extension tubes out. The most common challenge here is that many zooms creep
when pointing directly up or directly downwards. If yours does, then you
either need to find a way to lock it, or you have to shot only at the
extremities. That may be OK, it may not be. You have to decide. If you feel the need to tape your lens to secure the
barrel, use electrical tape, not masking tape, not sellotape
or packing tape. The glue on electrical tape is generally designed to not
leave any residue when applied to hard plastic. Whatever lens you use, the aim is to capture a full film
frame on your DSLR at maximum possible size without distortion, utilising the
full digital sensor area. That will give you the best quality shot. Focus mode If you look at camera scanning tutorials (sic) on YouTube,
you will see many people using autofocus. I do not recommend this, although this is up to you,
clearly. If you have auto extension tubes (or a
autofocus macro lens) then you can focus as each shot is taken. However, think about the set-up here – you have a tripod
fixing the camera position and the EFH holding your film in the correct
position, so it all is solid, the distance from your lens (or more correctly
your camera’s sensor) will not really move. So why do you need to focus for each shot? With a bit of
practice and experience at camera scanning you will realise that you don’t
really need to refocus for each shot, just don’t change the set-up. And that means that you can rattle through an entire roll
of film without touching the focus ring. That’s means speed! Shutter Release You’ve gone to the trouble of locking your camera to a
tripod, use a stable film holder, managed the incident light and set up your
light source to the best of your knowledge. So it makes sense to ensure the camera is not rocking when
it takes the shot. And if you are setting up at home, with, for example, the
tripod on a carpeted floor, or perhaps a sprung wooden floor, or worst of all,
a carpeted sprung floor, then the settling time after a jolt can be
surprisingly long. You have two choices. Firstly, use a cable release. Line up your film in the EFH
window and click the cable release button. Don’t touch the camera body at
all. That will ensure most vibrations are avoided. Or use self-timer mode. You press the normal release
button, jolting the camera, it wobbles over the course of a few seconds,
finally coming to rest after, say, 10 seconds and then the time fires the
shutter. If you are manic about this, then you use both. Cable
release combined with, say, a 5 second timer. That’s what I do. Metering for the shot This one took me a while to sort out. See, I’m generally a landscape photographer and I tend to
meter quite carefully to ensure that the exposure is where I want it to be.
Not quite Ansel Adams Zone perfect, but something
along those lines for the digital era. Expose to the right, and all that. So, my natural instinct was to actually meter around the
frame then set my exposure accordingly. For camera scanning, that’s a waste of time! Nowadays, for camera scanning I set my camera to it’s most
advanced automatic matrix metering setting and trust that it’s going to give
a pretty good meter reading. And it does. Almost without fail. Camera Exposure Mode There are only two real options here. Aperture priority mode (or whatever you camera calls it)
where you set the f/ number on your lens or camera and the camera determines
the shutter speed. -or- Full Manual mode The choice will be determined by experience and your
confidence. Initially, I started out working in full manual mode and
would take a meter reading for each frame, adjust the shutter speed until the
EV of the exposure was ”right” and then I took the shot. Over time, and with a bit of experimenting, I found that
almost always that “right” was, for me, at about +0.75 stops over the matrix meter
reading. Combined with the use of best matrix metering, I set my
Nikon D850 to overexpose by 2/3stop and trust the matrix meter to get it
right. That 2/3stop makes all the difference. You do not want to underexpose when camera scanning. If
you don’t believe me, try it and check the results. You’ll see film grain and digital noise in the dark areas
as quite distinct phenomena. Aperture Choice This is quite a simple topic. You’re trying to get the best quality image from your
lens. You have a stable set-up with tripod etc, so choice of
aperture is not bound by having to snap your offspring playing football in a once-in-a-lifetime under-11 cup final. Typically, the “sweet spot” for most lenses is usually in
the range f/5.6 through to f/11. Across my Nikkor
lenses for both my digital camera (d850) and Nikon film camera (F100), the
lenses I use are best at somewhere around f/8. “Best” meaning sharpest, least aberrations and least distortion. So that’s what I use. f/8. Done! If the exposure time gets to more than a second or so,
then I need to change something in my setup. In this case, I opt to change
ISO rather than anything else. Read on... DSLR ISO Setting Use the base ISO of your camera unless you need to adjust
it. On my D850, that means ISO64. That’s quite low. Sometimes, I need to avoid the super-long exposures that
result from breezy light modern-style shots from film. Remember light scene on film = dark negatives, then when
they get inverted they revert to light. If the DSLR shutter speed get crazy long, then I have the
choice to moving from my ideal f/8 to, say, f/2.8 or jacking the ISO up to
400. I know my D850 is perfectly good at ISO400, whereas I know
that my usual lens starts to have some sharpness issues at f/2.8. So I opt for the ISO increase as the lesser of two evils. You will have to decide your trade-off based on your own
camera and lens performance. Full frame or crop sensor settings (FX/DX) Either is fine. One “trick” is to se a full frame camera in crop sensor
mode. In Nikon speak, use the FX camera in DX mode. That has the effect of changing the crop to 1.5x smaller. Think of that as turning, say, a 105mm lens into a 150mm
lens, though that sort of speak will get most people shot thee days. That might mean that you can avoid massively long
extension tubes and the resulting optical funnies. It does, however, turn a 50MPx camera into a 24MPx one.
You may well be better leaving the camera on full frame and cropping the
image in post production in Lightroom or similar.
Just depends if you like to see a full image in your viewfinder or if you can
handle the prospect of “cropping in post”. Getting everything aligned For some reason this is yet another topic that seems to get
the “experts” all ‘testy’; I have no idea why. The object is to get the film as parallel as possible to
the DSLR camera sensor. If you are a purist, then you will spend ages getting the
pitch, role and yaw all within a hairs breadth of perfect. Whilst I fully agree that you do not want massively tombstoned images, there is a limit to how accurate you
just need to be. After all, these days, with Lightroom,
you can correct most geometric errors with the click of one or two buttons
and have a perfectly squared-up image. However, I do think it’s good to get to an “about right”
position as best as you can in a reasonably quick time. After all, one of the pleasures and advantages of camera
scanning is the ability to get through a roll of film faster than mucking
around with a flatbed scanner. The trick – use a mirror. With the EFH, place a mirror flat on the diffuser layer. Line up your camera to view the mirror through the layer
aperture, as if you were lining up to shoot a film frame. Using Live view, what you should see is the out of focus
image of your camera, pointing directly back up the lens. If you are using an autofocus macro lens, then your
reflection will be in focus. If you are using a manual lens with an extension tube,
then the image will be out of focus as you are now looking at the object at
twice the distance (it’s a mirror, right?!?) Either way, you can still see the centre of the lens. We’re assuming here that the EFH is all “square” – that’s
a fair assumption, unless you have opted for a whacky configuration. So, if the mirror is laying flat on the diffuser, then
when the camera is looking directly at itself, then you know that the EFH is
aligned with your camera. When you’re aligned, things should look a bit like this...
In this example, (including the dusty mirror!) you can see
that the camera is slightly OUT of alignment - add the two corner to corner
diagonals and they would cross to the right of the lens as pictured. So I’d
simple move my camera to the centralised position. In Nikon Live View, I can make visible the focus point at
the very centre of the image... this acts like a
target. When the image of the lens is centered on
this Live View spot, then I’m aligned. Yes, there’s some scope for errors with this method.
However, you will never end up more than a fraction of a degree out of
alignment in any direction. Dust As can be seen in the previous section, there can be dust
floating around. Dust can be an issue if the dust settles on your film.
Remember, you’re aiming for a high resolution, high
quality capture of your film surface and any dust will be captured too! However, there’s really no need to get paranoid about it –
there’s more than likely more of a challenge with blotches on your DSLR
sensor than there is of having marks on your negatives, even if quite roughly
handled! The “Experts” will tell you that you need an anti-static
brush made of Mongolian yak hair to clear your negatives of dust just before
you use your DSLR to capture the images. One film holder solution (yes, that £1000+ one again) even
has a brush system attached to their film holder to do just this. Even one of the more recently released film holders has an
optional brush that can be bolted on at the point the film enters the holder.
Frankly, there’s more chance of your negatives getting scratched by the brush
than there is of you being crippled by dust. In practice, a bit of simple housekeeping is all that’s
required. A quick wipe around the work area with a damp duster, 30
minutes before you get your negatives out, usually minimises the dust on
nearby surfaces. Then, I suggest using a Rocket-style air blower across
your negative before pressing the shutter if you are concerned about dust. Or simply don’t bother about dust and see what happens.
Different homes have a different baselines in their
dust and that depends as much on location and prevailing humidity as it does
on when the vacuum cleaner was last used! Film up or down? Always a common question when scanning film, no matter
what system you use. Again, “experts” have their views. Some agree with me,
some don’t! For camera scanning, you want to have the NON-shiny side
of the film pointing toward your DSLR. Here’s why. When you take your original shot on film you shoot onto
the NON-shiny surface. The light source is in front of the camera and the shiny back
of the film is black, usually against a pressure plate or similar. Now when you scan film, regardless of the method, the
arrangement is somewhat unnatural as you are shining light through the film
and capturing the image seen on the other side. When you are capturing that image on a DSLR you run the
risk of light bouncing around everywhere. By having the NON-shiny surface towards the DSLR lens then
any reflections that might come from the lens right back onto the film are
largely avoided from re-reflecting back to the DSLR. Another point of view is that the DSLR is capturing the
same surface that was used in the original shot. Either way. What’s clear is that there’s a fairly decent
majority consensus for having the NON-shiny side toward the DSLR. With flatbed scanning, using plain glass plates anywhere
in the system has the strong chance of creating problems, most notably Newton
Rings. That spurs talk of “museum glass”, “Anti-Newton glass” and lots more
beside. With the EFH, there’s no need to use any form of glass to
keep the negatives flat. In fact, there is no need for glass to be used at all. No
fringing, no ‘Newton Rings’ and no sharp edges to handle. The entire film holder is metal-free, and glass-free, so
no scratching your negatives or your light panel (or iPad)! Positives AND Negatives? Yes, of course. Positive film is no more difficult to scan with your DSLR
than a film negative. The subsequent conversion through to a JPG file can,
sometimes, be more complicated, however there’s absolutely no reason why the
final result should be anything other than spectacular! Sprockets and film borders One of the most often asked question pre-sale is “can I
include sprockets and borders in my camera scan image?” Yes, of course. I think it’s quite nice to have the option to include
sprockets and borders at the scanning stage – after all, they can be cropped
when you post process. So the design of the EFH allows for this, and full
sprockets and boarders are supported by design. Check out the sample images on the home page to see what
you can achieve. That said, there’s a note of
caution here. If you are trying to tame stray light, then sprocket holes are
one of the main causes of problems with 35mm scans. They act as injectors of
stray light across the film surface, some argue they
inject light THROUGH the film body too. Whilst it is sometimes nice to capture the mood of film by
including sprockets especially, directional light and stray light can, and
will cause you issues. So, if you are “going for it” close the curtains,
switch off the room lights, lights from phones and other devices and then you
should be OK. If you are the sort who will always want to scan 35mm sprockets and never want to scan just
the 35mm image frame alone, then it is possible to replace the 35mm layers
with ones with a wider light aperture to accommodate this – just drop me an
email and I will be able to sort you out. Converting your negative images into positive images? I’ll be adding more detail on this in the near future – I
might even set up a new webpage to cover this. There are plenty of different methods from inverting
negatives in Lightroom or Photoshop (or in many
other image editing packages). Cut to the chase... My recommendation is to get some
software to help you out Whilst there are now around 4-5 different software tools
you can use, some costing nothing and some costing more than your PhotoShop subscription, the most widely talked-about is
Negative Lab Pro which is a Lightroom plug-in,
currently costing $100 (around £85). I have no relationship with the makers of Negative Lab
Pro, so my recommendation is based purely on my own experience of having
tried-out pretty well all the methods of conversion and all the different
tools. Negative Lab Pro works very well indeed - it’s a nice,
stable piece of software that has a watermark-free trial mode so you can see
for yourself if it’s worth $100 to you. One of the things that makes Negative Lab Pro so popular
is that it allows you to emulate the look of lab scanners (like Frontier
& Noritsu), which is rather tricky to do by
hand. I strongly recommend you take a look. It’s more than
likely that you will end up using NLP, so you might as well just take the
plunge and save yourself loads of time and hassle. Really don’t want to spend the $100? Then I’d recommend
checking out Photoshop tools to do this. Many of the tools you might use are
already built-in to Photoshop...they are just well hidden. Equally in Lightroom, there are
some common techniques for flipping a negative into a positive, some more
successful than others. At version 9.2.1 of Lightroom,
there are no native tools to handle negatives...who knows
if that situation will change. Therefore, it’s worth spending a bit of time checking out
the methods that suit you best in Lightroom – I’d
suggest looking for articles, videos that talk about “Tone Curve Inversions”. Before I finally settled on NLP, I created my own process
for converting negatives involving a set of Photoshop actions that I have
created, that can be run from within Photoshop or as Droplets, on my desktop,
after I copy images from my DSLR to my computer. These action sets are also converted into custom LUTs – Look Up Tables – to translate colour and tone from
the negative into a positive image. These LUTs are then, in turn,
mapped into a set of Lightroom Profiles that I can
apply on import of images into Lightroom. This may all sound quite complicated, and in truth they
took a while to get the Action sets “right” for my workflow, but once
created, to apply them in Lightroom is now as
simple an selecting them from the “Profile” drop-down choice in the “Basic”
panel. Trust me, save yourself the time and hassle and just get
Negative Lab Pro. Feedback, Questions, Suggestions Do let me have your feedback, thoughts and suggestions –
both on this page and on the EFH itself. You can email me directly at EFH@clifforth.co.uk
and ask questions and I’ll help out if I can. I’m not one of those “experts”,
I’m just a keen photographer who loves working in both film and digital. Or better still, send me photos
of your camera scanning setup. Even better if it includes your EFH! Finally... Hopefully, this little guide will have shown that there
little to be afraid of in Camera Scanning, and that you most certainly do not
have to spend a fortune on new kit, cameras and backlights. You probably have all the equipment you need to get going.
Just add an Essential Film Holder
and you’re all set! If you’ve read this far and have already purchased your
Essential Film Holder, I again say a BIG thank you.
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