Digitizing Film – My Method

I am a practitioner of both film and digital photography. Both work for me and I use them for different reasons. However there has always been one problem with film for me and it is the reason there has been a dearth of film images on my website. I have always struggled with digitizing film to look good enough to share online. The problem is even further compounded when I try to print my film images and need even better files. Fortunately, I think I have established a workflow that will meet my needs.

First a little intro on the problems I had. Traditionally, I was relying on either getting scans done at the lab that processed my film or using my Epson V600 to scan film. The lab scans always came back looking harsh and oversharpened to me. And even when I paid for the top level scans, they lacked the image latitude I like to be able to do fine level adjustments. I also noticed results could be wildly inconsistent from one roll to the next and sometimes even in the same roll. The V600 was functional for medium format film but never really generated files that I would consider portfolio grade. For 35mm, it incapable of making images I was happy sharing online, let alone printing. Finally, it won’t even scan my 4×5 and 8×10 work.

I thought about getting one of the better Epson scanners — something like the Epson V850 — but it would require a substantial investment up front and the best results that I have seen online from the V850 require a lot of time and care plus further investments in custom film holders and fluid mounting supplies, etc. Because of all of that, I never pulled the trigger.

Drum scans would be another option and the results from competent drum scan operators can be nothing short of jaw dropping. However, such scans are expensive and would be something that I could only justify for only the very, very best of my work. Ideally, I want to be able to digitize a much larger portion of my film work.

Enter Negative Lab Pro, the brain child of Nate Johnson. Negative Lab Pro has been available for awhile and I had downloaded a trial version late last year. It seemed promising when I tried it but never devoted a lot of time to getting to know it. Two things have since occurred, though. Nate was a guest on an episode of the Classic Lenses Podcast and a worldwide pandemic has left a lot of us, me included, at home with some time on our hands. With that time, I decided to sit down with NLP and really try to learn it. I read all of Nate’s materials, watched his video and then tried it out.

Wow. That’s all I can say. The results are exactly what I have been wanting for a long time. I didn’t even finish my 12 trial images before I clicked the “buy” button and got my license. Truly outstanding.

Here is the process that I’m currently going with, though I’m sure I will be tweaking it as I digitize more and more negatives and find the little nuances to produce the best quality images:

1. Decide what size negatives I want to work with on a given day. The reason for this is that the distance between the camera and the negative will be different for different formats. Digitizing a 35mm frame to a full frame DSLR will require nearly a 1:1 magnification ratio (I leave a little room to be able to white balance from the mask) and the camera will be a lot closer to the negative than doing the same for a medium format negative. Changing between negative sizes does take some work, so I find it easiest to stick to one size for a given scan session.
2. Set up a light source to illuminate the negative. I am using a tracing light similar to this one that I got off of Amazon. I find the light very even and it’s easy to clean. Ideal set up for me means being on the edge of a table for easiest use with the tripod and also the most level surface I can find.
3. Put my macro lens on my D800. I’m using an old AI converted Micro-Nikkor 55mm f3.5. It may not be the latest and the greatest but it is very sharp and has a very flat focus field. Both are important for this kind of work. If I am scanning 35mm, I use the dedicated PK-13 extension tube. For medium format and large format the lens focuses close enough on its own without the extension tube.
4. Clean the negative as thoroughly as possible.Of course you can clone out dust in post processing but I find it is a lot easier to start with a clean negative from the get go. I generally use a rocket blower as much as possible. Occasionally, I will lightly use a lens brush. That combo works well for most of my newer negatives that I’ve taken better care of. I will probably have to work out a deeper clean process for some of my older negatives when I get to them.
5. Put a negative in the Epson carrier for my V600. This helps keep the film a little flatter. While I do not have any carriers for 4×5 or 8×10, I find that sheet film is generally stiff enough to lay flat on its own without a carrier and just set it directly on the tracing light. I backed Hamish Gill’s pixl-latr project on KickStarter and look forward to using it for my digitizing process when it arrives but for now the Epson film holders are sufficient.
6. Handhold the camera above the illuminated negative to get a rough idea of where to set the tripod level at. Once I have a rough idea, I get the tripod out and set it up to that height and mount the camera.
7. Use a bubble level to establish how level the surface of the tracing light is. Using the same level, match the camera’s level as exactly as possible to that measurement. This is a critically important step. Because the digitization process is happening in the macro range, it is easy to be a little off and different parts of the negative will be different distances from the image sensor. If that difference is too much, even stopping down will not yield enough depth of field to get the whole of the negative in focus. Additionally, if the camera is not parallel to the negative, keystoning of the negative will occur. Yes, you can fix this in post processing but doing so will rob image quality. This step is important enough that I plan to either get a good quality copy stand (which would be expensive and also challenging to store in our small apartment but far easier to use) or a Zig-Align system to establish parallel as closely as possible.
8. I use live view for establishing focus. I feel like this offers the best opportunity to get critical focus. Also, remember that using the focus helicoid of the lens will change image magnification. So it is best to establish how large the negative image will be with the lens helicoid and then establish focus by moving the camera position. This is most easily accomplished with a macro focusing rail but can also be done with the tripod’s center column if a macro rail is unavailable. For focusing, I open the lens to its widest aperture. This allows the most light in for the live view system and it also means that I’m focusing with the least depth of field possible. Stopping down after the fact will subsequently give me a tiny bit of wiggle room for minute focus errors or residual film curl.
9. Repeat step 7 to make sure everything is as level as possible after focus has been adjusted, especially if using the tripod center column for that purpose. If adjustments are needed for leveling, repeat step 8 to achieve critical focus. Then repeat step 7 again. Then 8 again. Until neither needs to be adjusted anymore. This is the hardest part of this and where a good quality copy stand would be invaluable. Once everything is established, though, it is pretty simple to swap negatives. As long as I don’t bump the tripod, I have noticed that everything stays in tolerance between negatives enough that I do not need to reset. Steps 7-9 are the reason that I said that it is easiest to commit to a given film format during a scan session.
10. Close down the lens aperture. I use f11 with my Micro-Nikkor. It gives me the best combination of depth of field for minor film curl and corner to corner sharpness without introducing high levels of diffraction. Your mileage may vary based on the lens you are using.
11. Establish a base exposure and then bracket for a couple of frames. Nate advises to expose to the right for best results. I do find that this needs to be treated delicately, though. It is easy to go too far and lose detail in the highlights of the negative (which will become the shadows of the final image). Bracketing gives me a few options when I bring the image into Lightroom and Negative Lab Pro. Also, I find that the D800 has enough shadow detail and dynamic range that exposing to the right is not as important as making sure no highlights are blown.
12. Once I know what my bracketed exposures will look like, I set the exposure delay mode to 3 seconds on my D800. This flips the mirror up 3 seconds before the shutter trips. It helps eliminate mirror slap induced motion blur. I also find that the 3 second delay is long enough that I do not need to use a remote shutter cable if I am careful. The ideal setup for this step would be a mirrorless camera with electronic first curtain shutter and a remote release. Someday when I upgrade to a Z7…
13. Import the files into Lightroom and proceed based on Nate’s guide. One note about this: I think the video is for an earlier version so some of the controls are slightly different. Following the written guidelines will match the v2.1 controls a little more closely.
14. Use the “Make a TIF copy” option in NLP to make an easily adjustable TIF version of the file. You can still adjust the RAW option in Lightroom but everything will operate backwards since the RAW file is still the image of the negative. It is a lot easier to generate a positive TIF and make any further adjustments to that.
15. Use Lightroom and Photoshop for minor edits like normal. For me, this includes dust spotting, dodging/burning, slight edge burn vignettes among other options. Basically things done at the local level. For any changes that would affect the whole image, I generally re-open NLP and do it there.

And that’s it! I know this is pretty long and it sounds complicated. It will only be so the first time or two, though. After that, it’s easy to get everything set up and grind through a bunch of film images. Negative Lab Pro costs $99 but you can download a trial copy of it and process 12 images. No limitations or ugly watermarks. If you are anything like me, though, you will not need all 12 of those trial images. I have not been sponsored to say that in any way. I am just a fan of praising good products and this is one of those.

Illinois is still under quarantine through at least the end of the month, so I am sure that I will be doing some more digitizing in the coming weeks. Many, many, many kudos to Nate for a product that will make that process far more enjoyable and finally gives me the results I was looking for.