Scanners typically work by optically scanning documents and converting them into high-resolution digital files that users can store, share, and even edit accordingly. Some of the documents that a lot of users typically try to scan are films. The market is typically saturated with a myriad of scanners from the standard single frame scanners to the more advanced and costly drum scanners that are fitted with a transparency feature that enables users to directly scan photos from films.
Most of the regular scanners are usually incapable of producing good quality film scans as they reflect light off them during the scanning process, and film typically requires illumination from behind.
There are scanners made exclusively for film, see our reviews of the Top Film Scanners for this year.
However, this does not mean that it is entirely impossible to scan film on a regular scanner. If you own a regular scanner, you can either purchase a transparency adapter or transform your scanner into a film scanner with the help a graphics editing app such as Adobe Photoshop and simple locally available materials.
Converting A Regular Scanner to Scan Film
The first step into transforming your scanner requires that you clean your films and separate each image from the film roll by cutting them individually. Once your film strip is ready, ensure that your film and the scanner’s glass edge are aligned and then cover it with a white letter-sized paper. The letter-sized paper should then be illuminated from above using a desk lamp or any other source of light with a bulb. The lamp should be placed about four to six inches overhead.
While illuminating the white paper, launch your computer application of choice and preview or scan the film adjusting the final image accordingly using the crop feature to ensure that only the film’s inverse image can be seen.
Once the film frame is the only thing in view, run the scanners software again to perform a proper high-resolution scan so that the image on the film appears as needed. Users can repeat this process as many times as they deem necessary until they are satisfied with the image they are seeing. If a user is satisfied, they can proceed to save the scanned image in JPEG or GIF format.
The saved file can then be edited using any graphic editor software. The software will allow the user to invert the scanned image or give it a positive exposure so that the photo displays in its true colored or black and white photo format.
Finally, a user can save the inverted film image on their computer.
Conclusion
Scanning film on a regular scanner can be daunting, particularly if one wishes to scan color print films. However, there are several techniques such as the one discussed above or even the triangular wedge cardboard adapter by Andrew Lewis that can be used to achieve the proper result when films are scanned on the regular scanners. Even then when working with regular scanners and films we would recommend that you don’t get your hopes too high as while the results are achievable, they are not as sharp as if you were using a high-end scanner with a transparency adapter.