How to download negatives to your pc

This saved me hours and hours of work. I would then bring the memory cards to my computer and pull the images off. If you use memory cards your computer either needs to have slots for reading memory cards or you can purchase an inexpensive USB dongle for ease of importing the cards in. I scan to small memory cards which allows you to sit and do it anywhere there is an outlet. I set up a small table next to my couch with all my supplies.

Then I would scan in things while watching TV. I had several memory cards and would fill them up before taking them to my computer and pulling them off. As I said I had a wide variety of media and negatives in all shapes and sizes. Especially when your dealing with as many negatives as I was.

I began researching the issue and finally found a scanner by Wolverine that worked wonderfully. It scans in 35mm, mm and slides. It scans only to memory cards, which was fine with me.

Again, I could sit on the couch or anywhere there was an outlet and scan my negatives. The scanner comes with the tray for 35mm and slides. You have to purchase the trays separately.

Insert tray into side of scanner. Press to take a photo of the image on the negative. You can then take your memory card to your computer to pull the images off. My older, larger negatives proved a bit tricky.

They were anywhere from 2 inches square up to 6 inches. So back to the internet yet again to research. Believe it or not the quality was great. You could rig up your own light box such as this one but I used one I already had.

The only added work using this method is that you have to reverse the negative image manually in some sort of photo software after putting it on your computer. Lay your negative on the light box and then take a close up photo of it with your iPhone, using a tripod or holding it as still as possible.

Copy the photo from your phone to your computer and move to the next step below. To do that you need photo editing software. There is a variety out there including free ones such as Picasa and most will have the feature you need to reverse the image color. I just pull in my negative I scanned in and use that effect. I can then crop, align and adjust the image as needed. You can see the stages below from a screen capture I took.

Negative Scanner 2. Portable Photo Scanner 3. Light Box. USB Dongle for copying memory cards to computer. I open a blank wordpad on my computer I use a bit of blue tape to tape the negative to my screen With my digital camera , I focus in on the negative, making sure that the negative fills up the viewfinder I take a photo of the negative… making sure I take a couple extra just in case. I am doing a family history. I need to scan in some very old pictures.

Is there a way to separate the pictures without damaging them? Please help if you can. You can soak them in water until they are loose. It will not harm then and then lay on a paper towel until dry. Thank you for this info. I have the same issue with slides. Just curious. When was this article created? Bottom line, be careful of what you volunteer for and follow the above procedure; use my procedure if in a hurry.

You may try the auto feature as well I tried with a pre-scanned films steps 4 till end and the results are pretty impressive. This is not my original content but rather a comprehension of similar articles that I read on internet.

Reply 6 years ago. This sounded like a great idea so I tried it. Even if I just lift the lid to let light in. Any ideas? Any suggestions to get the perfect color back??? I am looking forward to digitize my childhood photo film, as I dont wanna fool around for printing charges Reply 7 years ago on Introduction.

A few of things I've found: - The frame edge is a good place to start for removing the negative orangeness or image blueness. Re-scanning 3 times using a red, green and blue screen as backlight is possible but recombining the 3 images is a pain. The author left out a step during the final editing portion on Photoshop or Gimp. After you invert the colors, you should see that everything is blue.

You need to select white balance and click on a part of the image you know should be white, then go to black balance, and click on part of the image you know should be black. Then everything will turn to color. You may see that there is a lot of yellow spots as well, because instead of evenly distributing the light, the lamp just causes one big overpowering bright spot.

I've tried so many things, but nothing gives very good quality other than a scanner that really has the capability for scanning transparencies and negatives, unfortunately. Is it similar to this method shown here? Now this is totally confusing for a newbie like me TMA is just a lamp that you place over the negative, like this instructable, but it provides a much more even light. More by the author:. About: Hey! Participated in the Hardware Hacking View Contest.

Last Updated: August 10, References. This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff. Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 17, times. Learn more As technology has progressed, digitization has taken over much of the art form of photography. Using negatives represents one of the earliest techniques within the field and there are several different ways to view these negatives.

The most common methods are by either using a flat-bed scanner, which many people commonly own, or by using dedicated film scanners, which generally only work with 35mm film strips and are much less common. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue.

No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Method 1. Open the scanning software on your computer. Leave the scanner in "standard" mode if there are no other options available. This means that your scanner is only equipped to handle regular scanning.

It's still possible to scan your negatives using this type of scanner, just follow the backlighting step later on. Select "professional" mode in your scanning software if available.

If there is a professional mode, this means that your scanner is equipped to scan negatives directly.