Up next in 10
How I Scan My Film Negatives (Epson V550)
Apr 27, 2020
Today Matt Moloney walks us through his process for scanning film negatives (with borders) using the Epson Perfection V550 scanner. We'll go over color negative 35mm and 120 film, and also will take a look at how to change your settings for black & white negative film! Read our full article for scanning film with the Epson V550 here: https://filtergrade.com/scanning-analog-film-with-the-epson-perfection-v550-photo-scanner/ Buy the Epson Perfection V550 Scanner Here: https://adorama.rfvk.net/adYBQ (affiliate link) Download Epson Scan 2 Here: https://epson.com/Support/Scanners/Perfection-Series/Epson-Perfection-V550-Photo/s/SPT_B11B210201 Check out some more of Matt Moloney's work on his Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/matt_moloney/ Background Music : 'A Caring Friend' by Bad Snacks - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBCI_QCAMe1hx8UNyvJlM_Q 'Lullaby' by Yung Logos - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAAi5wqJHz73Xid1IjVgW7A 'Manhattan' by Dyalla - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs5ib8kDfUmFBrL1BiEivEA 'Sleeplessness' by The Brothers Records - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOoKFMFX1SescccH4LAIeMQ 'Species' by Diamond Ortiz - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8IxuOt9Z4Fr0EOff4wSx_Q 'Sunshower' by LATASHA 🎥Find MORE of Matt's videos to Watch! 🎥
View Video Transcript
0:00
all right so scanning film negatives has
0:02
always been one of those things where
0:04
I'm constantly experimenting and trying
0:06
new things because software updates and
0:09
just because of that my preference for
0:12
film to be honest so I'm always kind of
0:16
taking new approaches to it whether I'm
0:18
using different settings whether I'm
0:20
going for less in the scanner and more
0:23
in Photoshop and things like that so
0:26
it's it's always kind of just a
0:28
give-and-take so today I'm going to be
0:30
walking through how to scan film
0:32
negatives at home with the apps on
0:33
perfection g550 I'll take you through
0:37
color and black and white and also how
0:40
to get your film borders just in case
0:42
you want those in the photos as well so
0:45
we're going to go ahead and start by
0:46
opening up apps on scan go ahead and
0:50
make sure make sure your scanners on
0:52
first then any quick refresh
0:55
[Music]
1:03
okay so now that you have apps on skin
1:06
murdered up this is epsilon skin - they
1:09
recently updated it I think around the
1:12
start of 2020 and it's in my opinion
1:17
it's not as good as the first software
1:19
they had there was a lot more advanced
1:20
settings that you could use to make sure
1:23
your whole roll was scanned at the same
1:25
kind of color tone but that's beside the
1:29
point we're just gonna go over how to do
1:31
it in epsilon scan - let's go ahead and
1:34
start with some black and white film
1:39
we'll go ahead and start off now let's
1:41
start with color film I'll take you
1:44
through the color 35-millimeter process
1:47
and to start I usually like to make sure
1:51
your your white background is taken off
1:54
and then I usually like to wipe down the
1:58
scanner just to make sure there's
2:01
nothing on it
2:02
once I do start scanning today I'm going
2:06
to be scanning all to film negatives
2:08
that I've already taken so there's not
2:12
going to I'm not going to need to cut
2:14
the photos or anything like that but
2:17
normally my process would be after I've
2:20
cleaned on the scanner I cut my my
2:22
negatives and then load them up onto the
2:25
scanner but so to start I'll show you
2:27
how to scan it with the borders usually
2:30
you'd be using one of these which helps
2:35
line everything up on the scanner and
2:37
also just make sure your photo is right
2:39
in the middle but just as a preference
2:42
thing I usually like to scan the borders
2:44
with the photo so I'll go ahead and just
2:47
place it on the scanner but that way you
2:49
can get the full negative
2:52
to see which way you need to go you'll
2:54
need to find go ahead and put it against
2:57
the white back the backdrop and you can
3:00
see you know Kodak torture and if you
3:03
can read it then you're looking at it
3:05
the wrong way so you'll need to turn it
3:06
the opposite way face that down
3:09
so that when the scanner scans it from
3:11
this side it looks up and it scans at
3:13
the proper way rather than scanning the
3:15
mirror image so I'm gonna go ahead and
3:17
stand by lining it up in between these
3:20
two lines so that it stays right in here
3:22
it's easy with 35 millimeter cones but
3:25
for 120 film it's usually a bit harder
3:27
because it it takes up about the wick so
3:30
you get more on off to the edges and
3:33
things like that so it doesn't need to
3:37
be perfect but I'm a smelly the retinas
3:39
Center and so moving into the software
3:43
you're gonna need to select what I have
3:46
up here you have to photo mode I don't
3:48
have anything for scan settings but make
3:52
sure this is on transparency unit not
3:54
scanner glass and make sure your
3:56
document type is color negative phone
3:59
with 48 bit color and then you can scan
4:04
it whatever resolution you'd like today
4:06
I'm gonna just scan it steps under to
4:09
make it kind of a bit quicker and then
4:12
you can go ahead and change these I'm
4:13
gonna go ahead just show preview before
4:15
I changed up the image format and file
4:17
type and things like that
4:21
all right so now you can see the
4:23
negatives and this button right here is
4:25
going to delete the old squares you got
4:28
cut out for the last ones and I'm gonna
4:31
go ahead and just click and drag a
4:34
square over it and you can kind of
4:37
manipulate your photo from here but I'd
4:39
rather zoom in and see it so I'm gonna
4:42
go ahead and zoom in right here so from
4:50
here you can see the scan isn't perfect
4:52
all the colors aren't there and
4:54
everything and for me this was always a
4:57
big problem when you move it if you get
5:00
rid of some of the black some of the
5:02
colors will change actually so this can
5:05
kind of just play with your head because
5:09
you don't know what exactly you need to
5:10
do to get it perfect so a lot of people
5:12
I know when they come in they just start
5:14
by clicking and dragging around
5:16
um the best way for me is actually to go
5:18
up to advanced settings then click
5:20
detailed adjustments and then I I like
5:23
to use the histogram adjustment some
5:25
people prefer tone correction which I'll
5:28
get into but this is again and I like to
5:30
push it to the farthest point over here
5:33
and then I also drag this one down to
5:36
the furthest point here that way you get
5:38
a flat look and then the middle slider
5:40
is what you'll find used for almost as
5:45
an exposure tool and then in image
5:49
adjustment you can change colors and
5:51
things like that
5:53
which I'll actually go ahead and
5:56
brighten this up it looks a little
5:57
darker and then you can also come in to
6:04
tone correction and this is where you
6:07
can get right hast more color to not
6:20
actually good nice vintage tone right
6:22
there so let's go in it I'm gonna go
6:27
ahead and just change this to I like to
6:38
skin everything at TIFF just use a
6:40
higher quality and let's go ahead and
6:42
fold it in
6:48
all right so let's go so there's the
6:57
full full scan at 600 DPI resolution so
7:03
it looks really nice I think it's really
7:05
good but the color tone to me still
7:07
looks a bit off so I'm gonna go ahead
7:09
and kind of rework it a little bit when
7:13
you don't have the borders in it it will
7:15
definitely help you out with your color
7:17
tone the blacks and the yellows
7:20
definitely take into a big effect so
7:23
what I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do is
7:25
just go ahead and scan it with the
7:27
regular scan settings that they had put
7:30
on once I laid the file over the
7:34
negative and I'm gonna go ahead I'll
7:37
make a few color tone adjustments just
7:40
because I think it could be a bit warmer
7:50
[Music]
7:59
Gotham tonight so I'm gonna go ahead and
8:01
scan that
8:08
awesome so the next one is skinned and I
8:11
think the color tone on this looks
8:13
definitely better you can see definitely
8:17
this looks way flatter almost looks like
8:19
it hasn't been color graded or anything
8:22
yet and then this looks definitely more
8:25
vivid more bright so there's definitely
8:29
some pros and cons to capturing the film
8:32
order so definitely keep that in mind
8:34
you can also play with this in Photoshop
8:37
so that you would be able to get this
8:39
photo basically with this kind of border
8:42
that just takes a little bit more time
8:44
in post-production but that's good for
8:46
the color negative let's go ahead and
8:48
also scan a120 a medium format photo
8:54
with the scanner as well and I'll show
8:58
you how to scan the borders for that too
9:02
[Music]
9:06
so again make sure your your photo is
9:09
based down on the scanner so that it's
9:12
not mirrored when you go to scan
9:20
[Music]
9:24
let's go ahead and check out the preview
9:27
[Music]
9:30
all right so it's it's not perfectly
9:34
lined up as you can see but I think it's
9:36
definitely good enough to get to
9:39
negative nine even with the film order
9:40
so let's go ahead and see this as well
9:44
just to get some better detail
9:48
[Music]
9:50
all right so now you're zoomed in and I
9:53
can see that it's definitely overexposed
9:56
partially because it was black that I
9:58
have left out so I'm going to just drag
10:02
that in it'll help with the color tone
10:04
right off the bat and next I'm gonna
10:06
just pop the details adjustments open
10:09
and kind of play around with these
10:11
settings a little bit more you see that
10:15
adds a bit more contrast and bring some
10:17
colors right out and then I'll just go
10:20
ahead and also play with the color just
10:22
a little bit I try not to mess with
10:24
diesel a lot because it definitely will
10:27
change the film a lot and I tried like
10:31
to be as natural as possible but I do
10:32
think it helps for surf so I think this
10:35
looks good right now so let's go ahead
10:37
and scan this
10:42
let's open that up and that looks nice
10:45
that's awesome
10:47
standing on 120 is definitely really
10:51
rewarding because you get to see all the
10:53
color times seeing the border and
10:55
everything with it after the whole
10:57
process is just really nice so let's go
11:01
ahead and I'll also show you how to just
11:03
scan some stuff like this one of the
11:08
just a film orders just in case you want
11:11
to use it on our unit projects you can
11:13
go ahead and zoom in on that as well the
11:16
zoom feature is one of those things
11:17
where you don't need to use it but it
11:19
definitely helps especially when you're
11:20
trying to get the colors right and
11:23
trying to get all these details so here
11:26
you can see this is a nice found border
11:29
that you can use for a lot of photo
11:31
projects anything like that looks pretty
11:45
cool though yeah and now you can see
11:47
someone
11:48
[Music]
11:50
the fabric in this think that looks
11:54
pretty cool you could use that as a
11:55
little film board or kind of thing so
11:58
let's describe it and so now I'm gonna
12:04
be going over how to scan some
12:07
black-and-white film so it's relatively
12:11
the same exact process the only
12:13
difference is that you're gonna have to
12:15
change your settings on your scanner
12:16
beforehand
12:19
let's just go ahead into the main
12:24
settings go ahead and click another
12:25
16-bit grits go and click on black and
12:29
white negative film it's gonna pop you
12:31
it back door
12:33
and then go ahead and get your black and
12:37
white film ready again make sure your
12:43
film is based on so that it's not in
12:45
your image
12:47
[Music]
12:51
let's get a preview perfect so it's
12:59
lined up and let's go ahead so this
13:24
actually looks just a bit overexposed
13:25
but other than that because it's black
13:27
and white the background isn't affecting
13:30
it too much that a little bit more now
13:35
you already get some more contrast and
13:37
detail in the highlights and I'll just
13:40
open up advanced settings of detailed
13:43
adjustments again
13:45
just to play with this to see the
13:46
effects it I kind of like that a little
13:49
contrast like hazy feel and then pulled
13:53
this down to get more detail on
13:55
highlights now you can see especially if
13:59
you look on her forehead right here you
14:02
lose track of the highlights if this
14:04
gets too far next that peak so I like to
14:07
keep it as low as possible and then it
14:10
might look a bit flat and dull now but
14:12
in photoshop that's what I'll bring in
14:14
kind of want rightness because I think
14:16
you get more or you obtain more
14:20
highlight details in that way but you
14:24
can also change the middle slider I
14:26
think has a big effect on the photo and
14:28
I like that easy look but I like the
14:31
contrast to so I'll go ahead and leave
14:33
it right there and let's go ahead and
14:36
scan this photo as well
14:37
[Music]
14:42
and so they don't look perfect so yeah
14:46
it does look a little dull and
14:49
definitely not as bright as it should
14:52
but in Photoshop that's what I'll do the
14:54
kind of brightening effects I think if
14:57
you do it here you definitely lose some
15:00
color and add some highlight detail but
15:05
let's go ahead and also scan this this
15:08
other photo just so you can get another
15:10
example of black and white okay so it
15:20
looks a little bit overexposed right now
15:22
but let's go ahead and move the borders
15:23
in and I'll bring this so this is just a
15:40
this is definitely a preference thing I
15:42
just want to show you how it kind of
15:44
works so that you can see what the
15:47
different kind of tools will do to your
15:51
film negatives
15:53
they're definitely kind of pretty
15:56
self-explanatory you just got to play
15:58
around with them a bit like I said
16:00
before though the one downside to all
16:02
this is that the apps on scan software
16:05
does actually update quite a bit so
16:10
you're kind of stuck with
16:13
you're kind of stuck with always
16:16
learning and adapting to their settings
16:18
rather than being on your own terms but
16:20
I think all in all scanning negatives
16:24
with apps on perfection v5 50 and apps
16:26
on scan - it's definitely a simple
16:28
process that anybody can do once you get
16:31
the scanner in the software just takes a
16:33
bit of trial and error so if you have
16:35
any questions feel free to leave a
16:37
comment below and I'll get back to you
16:39
as soon as possible but thanks for
16:40
watching guys have a good one
16:42
[Music]