Scanning colour negatives have been a thorn in my side for a number of years.
Hello, World!
I have quite a frugal set up when it comes to film photography. I buy my B&W film in 100 foot bulk rolls, I develop all my B&W and Colour film and also scan at home.
I use a modest setup, an Epson V600 flatbed scanner, its fit for purpose when scanning medium format negatives, but generally so so for 35mm, with a passable use for instagram. I am in the process of upgrading to scanning with my DSLR, but that is for another blog post, a work in progress.
B&W scans I have somewhat nailed, I am very happy with the workflow, its almost faultless.
Colour, on the other hand has been a little bit more of a slow burn.
There seems to be quite a migration to Negative Lab Pro, with some big hitter YouTube film photographers giving it the full endorsement. I have never quite gotten on with it. Whilst the software has the appropriate algorithms, I find the GUI to be a little unsophisticated, with the outputs generally based on the old ‘eye ball’ test.
I have found much more success using Silverfast. I love their use of Negafix, which to put it simply is colour file stock profiles. They work really well.
I recently was asked by a IG friend about scanning and rather than send them a detailed longwinded email, I thought I would do a video screen capture.
I also thought that it might be good to upload these to the YouTube, for general consumption.
Therefore here are two guides, using Silverfast to scan in 35mm and 120 colour film negatives, whilst they are broadly identical, there is a very small differences, with the resultant outputs bearing the fruit of the change.
I hope these come in useful and save you a lot of trial and error. It’s always good to share the wealth.
Until next time, keep snapping, or in this instance keep scanning.