Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a great week! This week is a continuation of last week about scanning your photo negatives to get them into your computer and into Lightroom or Photoshop. First let me start off as saying I am not a professional at scanning but I do it pretty well for me.  If you are an avid photographer you probably already have the tools you need to do this. So lets start there, what you'll need.

1. Film Negatives
2. Digital Camera
3. Tripod or stand
4. Light Box

I'm sure you already have these things if you're reading this .  The digital camera can be any modern digital
camera . I'm using a Sony A7C that is a 24 MP full frame camera. But it doesn't matter if it's crop sensor or full frame sensor. Megapixels doesn't matter all that much either but more would be better but whatever you have will be fine. For lenses almost anything will work I'm using a Macro lens set up but a 50mm
prime will work too. Some sort of tripod or stand . I have converted an old black and white enlarger stand that I didn't use anymore into a copy stand but tripod will work.  Light box of some kind. I'm using an old iPad that I don't use anymore and googled white and saved a white photo. Cranked up the brightness on it and it seems to work. I did put a diffuser on it that I had laying around. I would suggest defusing the light if you can. But you can buy light boxes from Amazon for under 50 bucks. And really that's the basics of what you need. 

The how to's.  First set up your tripod or stand and set up your light box underneath.  Try to make sure that your camera and your light box are level. You don't want to distort your photo by having your camera tilted one way or the other. Place the negative in a negative holder or flat on the light box. Use black construction paper
to frame the negative so your camera will only be focusing on the light coming through the negative. Focus and take photo. Care must be taken on keeping dust and particles off of the negative. Negatives create static and are magnets for dust and stray particles. The cleaner you keep the negatives the less work you will have in Lightroom or Photoshop removing all of the dust.  Also leave a little of the space between each photo in when you take the photo. That clear space is perfect for getting the correct white balance. And that's it for the scanning now to the computer!

Now load those photo's onto your computer. I do most of my editing in Lightroom but you could use photoshop just as well. Once you have them in you have a scanned negative but you don't want a negative you want a positive. There are two ways to do this. The manual way and the easy way. I have done both. The manual way is basically going into the curves section of your photo and reversing everything. This will make a positive but the colors will need to be tweaked and basic panel can also be tweaked. But remember everything is backwards! So if you try to increase exposure with the slider you have to darken to lighten and vice versa. The easy way is to get some sort of plugin in Lightroom or action photoshop. I have used both in the past. The one Im using now is "Negative Lab Pro" in Lightroom. This is my workflow now.  First after I get into Lightroom I create a virtual copy of the negative and stack them. I edit the copy that way if I screw it up I can get my original scan without having to actually re-scan the negative. One I have the scan I take it into the develop module. I make sure it's oriented correctly . Sometimes they are backwards and you can just flip horizontally. Then I get the white balance picker and choose the space between negatives. Then I crop. I then bring up the plugin . I have many choices to choose from but for this I just choose basic and hit the convert button. It converts the Negative into a Positive photo and your colors should be close . I then look for spots and specs of debris that was on the negative and remove with the healing tool. If I need to sharpen. Old manual lenses and old eyes sometimes it's not in focus. I'll take to Topaz AI Sharpener. If you have grainy photo's that's just the way film looks and a de-noise program will not work because those spots your seeing are not noise its grain in the film. And you are basically done. You can print or send to social media.  It's pretty awesome and is fun to do. It can be a little time consuming but worth it in the end and you did it your self. The whole process to go from film to Negative to Scan cost approximately one or two dollars per roll. Compared to the 12-20 dollars a roll to a professional lab that will send you back your negatives. A big savings and the results can look great! And the more you do it the better you will become.  You can practice on old negatives you might have in your closet in a shoe box somewhere. There are all kinds of tutorials on Youtube where they will take you through the manual process of converting Negatives to Positives. It's pretty easy. Now this is a basic set up to get you started you can improve your photo's by using better lightbox than an iPad. One that has a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 90 or better. I did and my scans did improve. So until next week get out and shoot! Some film!

Hey Everyone! Hope your week is going well! This week I want to talk about how I develop my film. Yes I said film! There is something about film that I really like. It's like listening to old vinyl record albums . Something about the analog system. I won't get into many specifics of how but an overview. I have been developing film off and on for more than 40 years. I have developed black and white film and color slide film and now color print film. It's a lot easer than you think. If you can bake a cake you can develop film. It's all about following directions that come with the chemistry that you are using. Depending on the manufacture of the chemistry you're using the only thing that really changes is the time and temperature of the chemicals that you use. One of the reason that I am developing my own film is that its a lot cheaper than sending it off to a professional lab. I already have all of the special tools that you will need to process your film. So all I had to do is find all of my stuff get some chemicals and go. If you have been reading my blogs you can see that I'm doing a film project where I use a film camera and at the end of the year make a photo book of what I've captured. I have some film that I bought a few years ago before it got so expensive and I'm going to use it for the project. The last time I developed film was in 2019 before COVID.  I was really surprised how much the price of things have gone up! But that's another story. I'll also tell you how after the film is developed I scan the negatives with my digital camera to get them into Lightroom or Photoshop and make them ready to print. So that's a lot lets get started.

Tools you'll need. This will sound like a lot but you can buy kits with everything for under 150 dollars.

• -Developing Tank and film reels. This is a light proof tank that all of the film processing will take place.
• -Changing bag. This is the light proof place that you put the film onto the reels into the developing tank 
• -Chemical bottles. This is what the stored chemistry is kept in . You can reuse the chemicals for up to 20 rolls of film.
• -1000 ml graduated measuring cup
• -Thermometer to get the chemicals to a certain temperature.
• -Timer, You can use your phone
• -Disposable rubber gloves to keep the chemicals off of your skin

Any other items you'll need you'll have at home like scissors and a bottle opener . So here is the process to develop the film.

First you have to get the film onto the reels and in the developing tank in complete darkness. This is where the changing bag comes into play.  This takes some practice and I would try on a dummy roll of film if you have one before trying it on the real thing.  Inside the changing bag you'll place scissors, bottle opener, film, developing tank and reels. Close the end of the double sided bag and place your arms into the sleeves. You then open the film with the bottle opener cut the film leader off with the scissors then thread onto the reels and put inside the tank and secure the tank before taking your arms back out. When this is done you're ready to process the film that is inside the lightproof tank. You can now take everything out of the changing bag.

Mix the chemicals . For color print film the process that you use is C41 it will be printed on the film box of the film your using. This is the process that is used for most color print film. Black and white is a different process and slide film is even different than that. You mix the chemicals according to the directions that come with them. Making sure to clean your funnels and mixing stick between not to cross contaminate the chemicals. 

Next is getting all of the chemicals to a certain temperature. It is usually 102-106 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is easily done by placing all the chemical bottles in a larger tub full of water at the desired temp using the Thermometer. You will have to add hot water to keep the chemicals at the desired temp during the process to keep the temp in range.

Now down to business. Follow the instructions that came with your chemicals! These instructions are just what mine were yours may be different. This is where your timer comes into play or your phone.

1. Pre-wash film by putting warm water into the tank and let sit for a min. Then dump out.
2. Add Developer to tank for 3 min. Agitate every 30 seconds(this is to dislodge any bubbles) then pour developer back into storage bottle
3. Wash with water for 1 min. Change water 3 times
4. Add Bleach to tank for 3 min. Agitate every 30 seconds(this is to dislodge any bubbles) then pour developer back into storage bottle
5. Wash with water for 1 min. Change water 3 times
6. Add Fixer into tank for 5min. Agitate every 30 seconds(this is to dislodge any bubbles) then pour developer back into storage bottle
7. Wash film thoroughly at least 6 times. You can open the development tank now and see your negatives!
8. Hang film to dry with a weight at the bottom so film doesn't curl.

Thats basically it. Keeping times precise and temperatures accurate are a must. Making sure your utensils and funnels to get chemicals back into storage bottles clean between chemicals is also important. I know it sounds like a lot but after you've done it a couple of times you'll be a pro. Just follow the directions. Really the hardest part is getting the film onto the reels and into the tank is the hardest part. You can develop 2 rolls of film at a time. All of this developing can be done at your kitchen or bathroom sink. I would suggest the kitchen because you have more room.  Now you have negatives of your film I cut into five frame strips and put in a protective sheet that has sleeves for the negatives. The next step is to Scan and get them into your computer. If you had all the equipment you could print with an old time Enlarger in a darkroom but that's a lot it's much easier and better on the computer. I'll have to explain that in another blog next week since this one has dragged on. So until next week get outside and shoot! Some Film!

Hey ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me doing great. This week I wanted to talk about an additional photo project I'm starting on top of the one I'm already doing on small towns in eastern NC. I'm an older guy who started my photography journey in the film days in the era of manual only! I have been watching a lot of Youtube videos on film photography. I pulled out some of my old cameras and started checking the meters on the ones that have meters to make sure they still read correctly. And they did. I had at least 3 cameras that still had film in them. Now I used to develop my own film and even printed way back in the day in a make shift darkroom that I converted my bathroom into. But the problem with doing that is that you have to do a lot of film stuff to make the developing part really worth it because if you don't you'll do a couple of rolls and then you won't touch for years and your chemicals just go bad. I just got rid of some chemicals that were dated 2018! LOL  Back then I was shooting more film and having fun. I could actually get film fairly cheaply. But when COVID hit and the lock down a lot of younger photographers got interested in film and shooting film became cool. So film stock , cameras and everything associated with shooting film Guitar Crosswalk got expensive and harder to find. So while rummaging through my stuff I found 12 rolls of film that I had bought rather cheaply a few years ago. So I got to thinking . Maybe I should do a film project and name it 12 rolls.  Shoot the 12 rolls and make a book out of the good photo's I get.  Not to become a full time film shooter but maybe take the camera with me when I go on a workshop or an outing and take a few shots with film until the 12 rolls are exposed . So which camera to use? I have a couple that I would be comfortable with using for the project. A 1961 Canon Canonet rangefinder and a 1982 Pentax MX SLR. I also have an Olympus Point and shoot just one step up from a disposable camera that my mother had. I decided on the Pentax because it has a meter built in (which I just checked to be accurate) . And I also have multiple lenses that I can use with it as the Canon has a 45mm fixed lens. As the title indicates I have 12 rolls of fujifilm color 200 35mm film. I do not plan to develop these rolls myself. I still have to research but I want a company that will develop my film and send me the negatives and downloadable scans would be fine. But I plan on using my camera to scan these negatives and processing them in Photoshop to get what I want out of them. I have done just a little research and most of the companies don't send back your Pentax MXPentax MX, My Pentax MX from 1982 Super camera works great! negatives and this is a must for me or I will just do them myself.

So what will I take photo's of ?  My photography life. If I go out to shoot wildlife with a friend maybe a shot of my friend with his camera setup with a in the wild background. If I'm shooting travel like our camera clubs spring trip to Savannah and the low country. I'll shoot iconic scenes and maybe shot of my friends. So it will tag along with me on all of my shoots. The only downside? I'll be lugging around extra gear. LOL I'm very excited to start this project. Film just has a look to it . It's hard to explain but it has a look. Can't wait to see the end Bell and Howell Canon Canonet 19Bell and Howell Canon Canonet 19,1961 Range finder Camera Fun to shoot! project and it will be good to use an old friend my film camera that I haven't used too much since digital came around. So now I have two photography projects going on at the same time should be an exciting year!

Until next week pick a photography project and get shooting!

PS. I have been checking photo labs and the prices are through the roof to get a roll of film processed at an average of 15 dollars a roll. I can get the chemicals to do 20 rolls of film for under 30 dollars. So I'll be developing mine again. Hopefully I don't mess them up too much. Other blogs will cover the process of processing the film and scanning the film. Cheers!