What Is Negative Scanning?

I've had a few e-mails over the past few weeks asking what exactly negative scanning is. I guess you take it for granted when you've been doing photography for a while. There are people out there who have no idea what it even means!

Basically, negative scanning is exactly what is says on the tin. Its the act of physically scanning the negative film that you have used in your Holga or other camera.

The film does need to be processed first and it is recommended that you scan using a good negative scanner like the Canon 8800F scanner.

You can hack your normal flat bed scanner to scan negatives but the results are fairly poor.

The Difference?

So the difference between normal scanning and scanning a negative is that when you scan normally you are scanning the print that has been made using the negative.

Negative scanning skips this step out and allows you to get the image directly from the film using a specialised negative scanner.

This can save you money as you don't need to buy the prints, and its great for people who develop their own negatives at home because they (like me) can scan the images in as soon as they have developed the negative film. Its cost effective and very quick.

You can shoot a roll of film and have it posted on the internet before lunch!

Other Notes

Negative scanning is becoming the number one way to share analogue photography because its becoming increasingly affordable and its also considered to be higher in quality than scanning a print.

If you love photography then I really recommend investing in one.

Labels: Help, Negative Scanning, Newbies, Scanner, Scanning