November 27, 2022
You can digitize film with either a mirrorless or DSLR camera. You don’t need a dedicated scanner to digitise film because a mirrorless or DSLR camera will do the job and more, when done right. Tim Coleman walks through how to best photograph film with your DSLR camera or mirrorless camera.
Peace of mind, backup. Digital printing, editing and online sharing give you a new lease on life. Analogue photographers today need to digitize film. Unfortunately, digital has become the primarystay of photography by 2022. This means that there are fewer tools available for analog photographers to preserve film.
Nikon has ceased producing its excellent dedicated film scanners, alternatives from the likes of Plustek don’t come cheap either, while those that do like the nifty Kodak Mini Digital Film and Slide Scanners can lack the resolution for high quality scans.
Have no fear. A mirrorless camera or a DSLR can perform the same job as a scanner. This will ensure that you have the highest quality digital copies of your film stock. Even a smartphone could do the job. In this article we’ll walk you through how to get your film ‘scans’ done with a camera.
How to take film photos
For film photography, you must have the right lighting, lenses, cameras, and masks.
Light source
You’ll need to place a clear and bright light source – ideally daylight-balanced – behind the film to obtain the best quality picture of it using a camera. The light box is by far the most cost-effective and simple option. Kaiser Fototechnik, a company that specializes in light boxes for every budget and size, is one example. One of the smallest, most affordable light boxes suffices for this purpose. Lomography offers a custom-built film mask that includes a lightbox bed.
Lomography DigitaLIZA lightbox. Tim Coleman.
If you don’t own a light box but happen to have a portable studio light with continuous output – even many studio flashes do – then that’ll work instead. Flash works just as well for the task as continuous lighting. You’ll need to go about suspending a firm and flat diffused surface between light and camera on which to place the film. A white sheet of perspex will prevent unwanted reflections and hotspots. This setup may be more faff than it’s worth, but if you like a DIY challenge then this option could be for you!
Masks
Once you have the surface and light source in place, it is time to create a safe aperture to allow for film to be placed flat. You can also mask it to prevent flare-inducing light. The aforementioned Lomography’s DigitaLIZA kit is a simple solution for 35mm and 120 film.
If you’re on a real shoestring, why not make your own mask? Mount board is a secure material to cut out a mask for any film size; 35mm, 120 and 5×4 large format. It’s more fiddly than a purpose-built mask to secure the film (we’ll get onto that), but again a good option for DIY enthusiasts and all film-size masks can be cut within the same large format aperture!
You can also use the Nikon PB-6 bellows for film roll inserting, or a slide copy machine like the Nikon ES-2 from SRB Photographic to attach to your camera’s lens. Slide copies are possible with the Nikon ES-2 and SRB Photographic. The slide copier, bellow and other options need to be seen clearly with a bright light source.
Lens and camera selection
Both the resolution of your lens and camera is the most important consideration. The more pixels, the larger the ‘scan’ and enlargement prospects you have. Full-frame DSLR cameras or mirrorless DSLR cameras will have more pixels than those with crop sensor formats such as APS-C or Micro Four Thirds. However, sensor sizes are irrelevant since the film must be lit by a powerful light to eliminate noise from your photos.
Photography film and camera set up. Tim Coleman.
To make the most of your camera and its resolution, you’ll want a lens that can focus close enough in order to fill the entire frame with the film. For full frame you’ll likely need a macro lens, while a standard lens might well focus close enough with a crop sensor camera like Micro Four Thirds. Standard focal lengths between 50mm to 105mm are ideal for sharpness, minimising distortion and keeping the setup short. You can also use a smartphone to achieve the same effect, but the primary lens angle is too wide and may create barrel distortion.
How to digitize and photograph film
Assembling your camera, workstation and film preparation.
Set up a camera and a workstation
Many modern cameras offer image stabilization, but you need to attach the camera to something that can be used to photograph film.
For the best results, ensure that the camera is positioned squarely on top of the film. This will prevent any distortions caused by trying to shoot at an angle. A bubble-level will do, though a neat trick is to use a mirror on the same surface as the film and ensure the lens is centre-frame in your shot – this accounts for the level of both surface and camera simultaneously. You will need a support option such as a tripod. It should have a center column that is horizontally extended from the legs. This allows you to angle your camera down, square it, and not let the legs get in the way.
Which camera settings are necessary to shoot film with?
We’ll keep camera settings to the basics; use the highest possible picture quality and raw format in case exposure is off in any way. Exposure can be tricky as you want the film base to look white. Over-exposing the film may cause it to become more dark. To maximise editing flexibility, it’s wise to shoot a flat colour profile and restrain sharpness in-camera.
Photography film: camera settings and white balance. Tim Coleman.
White balance is the most difficult to set up because it is affected both by the light source and the color cast of your film base. This scenario will make it difficult for auto white balance to work. To kill those two birds with one stone – create and save a manual white balance reading of a blank exposure of the chosen film against the light source. If you’ve shot in raw, further white balance adjustments are much easier in your chosen editing software where you can use the white balance picker tool from any blank area of the film to set white balance instead.
Film security
To prevent light spillage, we have already mentioned making a mask to cover the film. A ready-made film holder will be the fastest and most cost effective option. For medium formats, you can cut a 5x4in aperture from black mount board. Next cut a 6x7cm aperture. Finally cut a 36x24mm aperture. This will cover all major sizes of film.
For each cut-out, secure a ridge to the mount board’s underside. This makes it easy to slide through the frames of film rolls. To fix the ridge down use masking tape. If your film roll has a curve, magnetic or pressure plates can be used to non-destructively flatten and fix it.
Making a film
Smudges and fingerprint marks are the enemy of film scanning. So, before you press the camera shutter, make sure your working environment is as clean and dust free as possible and that you avoid handling film with bare hands – look for lint-free cotton gloves.
Film preparation. Tim Coleman.
You can then take a close inspection of the film by using a magnifying lens or loupe. Because blemishes are difficult to see with your naked eyes, it is important that you use a magnifying and/or magnifying glasses. Use a blower to remove any dust. You can skip the tedious process of cloning, healing and scanning film by following these steps.
File management
It is possible to photograph hundreds, or even thousands of frames. So before you begin taking pictures, consider these things:
Choose your words
You should be careful about choosing the frames that you photograph, as you move through each roll. Why digitize a frame if you won’t be able to edit, print, or share it with others? This moment is a pre-edit. A library management process and rating of pictures like Adobe Camera Raw are what you should consider.
When digitizing film, choose carefully what you want to scan. Tim Coleman.
Name files
You should consider the name of the film’s digital photographs. Although date and subject are obvious options, you might also want to keyword your files with information such as camera used.
The metadata included with your digital film files, including date, location and camera settings, all refer to when you shot the film. You need to be able to recall the date and location of film images.
The way your library grows will be determined by the file names you choose at the beginning of this journey. Consider how easy it would be to navigate these photos once you have hundreds of folders in your library.
Editing
When film negatives are photographed, they remain negative and must be inverted with editing software. Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop offers a shortcut by pressing CMD+I/CTRL+I. Other software that uses tone curves, such as Photoshop or Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop, can also do this job. Slides can be positive already and don’t require any special treatment.
File naming and editing of scanned film. Tim Coleman.
Try as you may, the reality is that it’s infuriatingly hard to remove all blemishes from film (and you aren’t enjoying the Digital ICE feature in dedicated scanners that does this job for you). The healing and clone tools will be your friend as you work through those archives. The healing tool works best for blemishes that are not very detailed, while the Clone tool handles more intricate details. The rest of the edits can be left to your artistic preference. Happy ‘scanning’!
Here are 7 top tips to digitize film using your camera
- For digitizing film with your DSLR, mirrorless or other camera, a light box and a film cover is the best option.
- For maximum resolution and minimization of distortion, align the camera so that it is square on to a close-focusing lens.
- You can save and make an in camera custom white balance reading using the film base or light source.
- Use gloves to handle film, and a blower for dust and dirt removal.
- Don’t photograph every frame – consider the photographing film process as a pre-edit
- When you manage large numbers of films, it is important to have the discipline and thought necessary for file naming.
- Film negatives need to be inverted, and the shortcut in Adobe software remains Cmd+I, or instead in Curves reverse the ‘Point Curve’
Similar reading:
Tips for film scanning and film photography
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