Color Negative Film scans

Color negative film was first introduced in the 1930′s and has been the most popular type of film since then.

Unlike slide film (positive film), color negatives were never meant to be viewed directly. Negative film produces an image with inversed colors, during printing the colors are reversed by the photographic paper to make a print with the proper colors. These days most printing is done digitally but for the greater part of the 20th century most printing was done with negatives. While “direct positive” printing was available with slide film, processes that utilized negative film were much more affordable and easier to locate.

Generally it is better to scan the negative over a print. The negative is the original and offers more detail, in addition color negative film is more color stable then photographic paper. If kept in a cool, dark and dry location color negatives can last over 100 years.
Negatives are most common in strips of 4 or 5 images but are sometimes found in full rolls or single frames.

Scanning negative film requires more skill on the part of the scan operator. Colors need to be inverted and most negatives have an orange base that needs to be removed. In addition negatives show more variety then slide film making it harder to come up with reusable settings that work perfectly each time. That is why we generally recommend order custom scans when send us negatives. Traditionally corrections were made during the process of making photographic prints.

Negatives capture a higher subject brightness range (dynamic range the scene photographed) than slide film but compress the image into a smaller density range on the film. This means the scanner has to be able to pick up on much more subtle changes in the film, without introducing false data (scanner noise) into the image. Our scanner is renowned for its low noise levels a key advantage of our negative scans. Another advantage is that scan is made and corrected on a pallet of 68 billion colors rather than the 16 million color pallet that some of our competitors use. 16 million colors is fine for a corrected image but in order to preserve all of the tones and gradients in your negatives the actual scan corrections need to be done in a higher an environment with more color integrity.

Our scanner has an actually physical optical filter that compensates for the orange masks and optimizes image for the spectrum of the CCD, this greatly increases the integrity of the scan by putting image right in the middle of the 68 billion color pallet.

The other important thing is that the film is handled with care by professionals and that all automation equipment is 100% safe for the film. We load negative strips into the holder by hand; the entire holder is moved on the scanner to advance to the next frame. We do not use a dangerous strip feeding device that can destroy your negatives. Our roll attachment allows us to scan entire rolls of film in a batch; this attachment is quite sophisticated and is guaranteed to also be safe for your film. We are able to make custom corrections to all scans including “batch scans”. Color correction is mostly subjective in nature and the skill of the technician is an important factor. Our staff has experience mastering many high end film scanners including our drum scanner so correcting your negatives is a walk in the park for them. It is unusual to have such talented operators working in the consumer scan sector… Most reserve their time for “Fine Art” clients, or magazine work.