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Neg Film
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Having found a pile of old family negatives of the 'box brownie' size, I tried several ways to scan them into digital format without great success at first until I studied my 35mm neg scanner in action and had a sudden 'Ah ha' moment. Negatives need the light from above on a flatbed so this was my experiment.

I managed to get an old flatbed scanner at a car boot sale for pennies so little would be lost if I broke the thing. I removed the top cover to expose the workings and simply disconnected the internal light source and while I was in there I gave the insides a coat of mat black paint to stop internal light reflections. Mine is an LG Scanworks 30a with a simple plug to the light and the blue interior was shinny enough to create reflections.

Next task was to cut a black card the size of the glass plate leaving no gap for light to get through the edges and then cut out a  2 1/4 by 3 1/4 inch hole for the negative size making a neat mask. I cut my hole at the top so I can adjust the scanner to only scan the top half of the plate to speed things up. You can even cut two or more depending on your needs.

Leaving the lid open, you can scan normal density negatives with just the daylight near a window but for thicker density negs you will need a light source above the negative. I found a slide viewing light box to give the best even light over the whole negative and by trial and error all you need to do is adjust the height from the negative for the best results.

Save the scan and load it into Photoshop or the equivalent and INVERT the image and there you have it. You can then play around with it as much as you like to get the best result.

It might be slower than a proper negative scanner and the results are not as good but have you seen the prices of a medium format negative scanner? All the negatives I have to scan are old, scratched and stained so the results are pretty much OK for my needs.

Photo Tip: Do you take Black and White landscape photo's?  To 'see' the picture contrasts try looking at the scene through a piece of  MID GREEN celluloid like the type that is used in stage lighting and spotlights or a green lens filter. Although the scene will be all green you can see the different contrasts in the image.

Lots more things for kids to do outdoors can be found on my web site at http://www.outdoorkidsfun.com From Shelters, Shacks and Shanties thro Treehouses and Club Houses to Boating, Fishing, Fire Lighting and Kite Making. Don't let your kids stagnate inside when the Great Outdoors is there for free. Outdoor Kids grow up healthier and have a lot more common sense than those who sit and watch TV for a pastime.

Another hobby to get them into while young is photography. That will take them outdoors and stay with them for life.

Photograph Negatives Explained

The concept of photo negatives can be confusing. You see them in film developing centers, cameras, and photo envelopes, but you may not understand them. So what exactly are photographic negatives and why are they used? Hopefully this article will shed some light on the subject, so to speak.

A photo negative image is an exact copy of a normal image, but the colors and tones are reversed. I'm sure you've seen the reddish film strips that come with developed photos in envelopes. Those are negatives. If you want more copies of your photos you take them from the negatives. Look at them and you'll notice that the bright and dark tones are reversed and the colors are opposite as well. What should be blue is yellow, what should be purple is green, and so on (based on the Red Green Blue color model).

Negative images are created by the film's chemical reaction to light. The unexposed chemicals wash away and the negatives become opaque, or seen through. To make a copy of a photograph from a negative, another negative is made off of that, actually creating a positive. This might remind you of algebra, where two negative numbers multiplied by each other become a positive. This is considered the two step process in photography. There are other processes such as positive, or slide, but the negative is the most common chemical based process.

The most common color negative film is called C-41. The negative is made up of different colored emulsions layered onto an acetate or polyester base. Each layer is sensitive to certain colors and underneath each layer are collodial silver or dye filters. When exposed each filter removes light and exposes the layer beneath it. When developed, the dye couplers inside of each emulsion layer produce the colors.

So why still use photo negatives when we now have scanners? Convenience and quality. Typically when you scan an image you'll lose detail, whereas with the negatives, you have entire original albums intact in a small envelope. If you have photograph negatives lying around that you'd like prints of, your best bet is taking them to a photo lab. You can scan negatives yourself though if you own a properly equipped digital camera or photo scanner. Most regular flatbed scanners won't do this, but with a fluorescent lamp and a high resolution scan you can manage it. Of course with the popularity of digital cameras photograph negatives are needed less and less. But it's still good to understand the basics of photo negatives.

About the Author

J.F. Borno enjoys writing about photography, specifically early American tintypes and Civil War photographs.

how do you get the neg info around the border of 120 film?

i have seen photos w/ sloppy borders and the neg info around them...how do you do that? im shooting with 120mm (mamiya645e) negatives and slide film....thanks!

It's just there. Kodak (etc) imprints this brand information during the manufacturing process. Look at your negatives and you'll see it. You'd have to ask for this to show in a print, though, as it is normally cropped out. In a slide, it's hidden under the slide mount.

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