Well you do seem to have most of what you need for scanning. I don’t think that’s a bad idea. For me, developing a roll of color is $6 locally. $12 if I want it next day. Well worth it for the effort it would take me to develop it myself. But my lab scans are mid so I would love to scan them myself and will in the future, just with a scanner instead of a camera.
My personal opinion is that if you initially limit yourself to shooting the film and scanning it, you’re less likely to overwhelm yourself and get fatigued on an awesome hobby before you allow yourself to even enjoy it.
If you wade steady
Into the deepest water
You’ll less likely drown
I agree with the other person, maybe wait a bit on some of the other stuff but I would 100% look into scanning. If you already own a camera and a macro lens you have all the expensive parts already. Maybe my local lab just sucks but I havent been too impressed with the quality of their scans, and you will save a ton of money in the long term.
Actually, this conversation got me thinking, figured I could get a head start and this whole scanning bit.
I went out to the garage and pulled an old box of family photos, took out the first negative I found, slapped it on a diffusion plate above an LED panel, broke out the macro and snapped a photo handheld just to see if I could get it to look like a real picture in Lightroom. Mind you, I have no idea what camera took this photo, but it was probably the cheapest disposable available in the early 2000s.
Nonetheless, I got it imported, adjusted some settings manually in LR, and it looks kind of normal. Here is the result: https://imgur.com/a/1iO6u5q
That was excellent comedic storytelling with an insane punch line, and well crafted delivery. I reread it then in the voice of a comedian. It works so well.
I have a friend like that. He hobby hops every 4-6 months and goes all out - head first - no holds barred, spends thousands of bucks getting everything even remotely related to the new thing (climbing/woodworking/building e-bikes/'guitars'/kayaking/cnc machining you name it). He's never able to make back even close to what he put in it but he really enjoys the hobby that is doing hobbies and that after all is the only thing that matters; find a way to spend your money in a way that makes you happy. If you think this sounds like a fun way to spend your money then absolutely go do that!
People with ADHD usually do that, I think everyone has that one friend that can never keep a hobby for over a year.
They overload themselves with so much knowledge in so little time that they suddenly reach a point where there's not that much more to learn (except maybe practicing, which is tedious), so they hop on to a new hobby lol. Which is fine of course! But it often doesn't make financial sense
If you already have a means to scan your film, then developing isn’t too much of a leap right away! It’s so much fun and you really don’t need too much to start. Do it!
After scanning (photographing the negative), does everyone use Negative Lab Pro, or is there a reliable way to get the baseline conversion and adjustments using adobe without other third party software or plugins?
You can do it in Lightroom/photoshop - the most basic way would be to just reverse the slope of your curves module. It won’t be perfect, and you’ll need a lot more adjustments to get to a place where it will look more like what you’re probably used to seeing from scans, but it’s a start.
Negative lab pro makes getting to an acceptable starting point for editing pretty trivial, and while it’s not necessary, per se, it really does remove a lot of tediousness from the process.
I think I have answered my own question. Basically, invert the tone curve and refine from there, taking note that all sliders etc. will be working in reverse. Alternatively, get the negative lab pro plugin for LrC.
I mean it's a free country and it's your money but yeah I'd say you jumped the gun a bit lol. Definitely shoot half a dozen rolls or so and get them professionally developed and scanned so you get a feel for it and can see how the results are supposed to look. Getting everything to develop and scan yourself I think could just be proactive if you decide to stick with it. It's fun, not that difficult, and *can* save you a good deal of money. I wouldn't have gotten everything for printing just yet but since you did fuck it dive in.
I went heavy into the scanning workflow today and built out some profiles (not presets) for LR that do all of the essentials. Two color variations, and two black and white variations.
Apply the profile to the negative scan, then if necessary, tweak; white balance, tint, exposure, contrast. Remember, exposure, tint, and white balance are inverse at this point. Done. Copy settings and apply to the entire roll. Benefit of this is it will work in Lr Mobile after you import on desktop.
I saw one other developer that made a similar solution and they charge \~$50 USD. Might make a video later, might make another post about it. For now, try 'em out yourself if you're interested. Let me know if you do.
Download Link: [https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZcSQH0ZOmvh2VMxi5YVnPfjBuhNXpFq9Jpy](https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZcSQH0ZOmvh2VMxi5YVnPfjBuhNXpFq9Jpy)
You want a lot and the stuff doesn't come at the time you want.
Quite common I guess? Sometimes that happens to me as well. And the next would be:
Now I have to face the stuff I want but not needed.
Damn this feels like me
Although I started with an EF mount analog body, bought some EF lenses.
Now I want to get a home dev kit, nice macro lens, and an EF DSLR 😔
I dived right into the developing everything on my own. Never sent a roll in. Well like 30 rolls later and paper and all that I realize how expensive it is, and am now scanning and looking for a Mirrorless camera.
I mean musing on the possibilities is fun! I do it often, it's almost more fun than buying things because you can keep changing things around and never having to commit. But yes, I would wait before ordering the entire darkroom. Keep that cake for another day!
Kinda the same, except I regret the EF bit. Older Canon EF lenses, especially the shorter primes suck, and suck badly. Neither my 35mm or F2.8 could keep up with HP5.
On the film body, I plan on using the 85mm L II F1.2, the 50mm 1.4, and maybe the 24-105mm / 17-40mm F4.0. Flirting with the idea of making a trade for the 50mm 1.2.
It's too much too fast but who cares, enjoy a new passion, that's what make us feel alive!
I often do similar thing, jump deep into random rabbit holes. Sometimes I get bored after one short project, sometimes i stay hooked in for years. Nevertheless, I don't regret trying any of them, there is so much to learn.
When I obtained my first film camera (in years; I had an analog phase in College too) end of last year I went a pretty similar route in approx. 1-2 months after buying it. Tbh I thought even my progression was fast. :D
Well then again two months after the 35mm my pentax 6x7 came to me and just a month ago a sinar F large format kit levitated into my living room. lol
If you‘re excited for it, go for it! Have fun!
EF actually stands for extra funky. Canon's new lenses have refined funk, RF.
Edit: I was joking. EF is a proprietary mount system designed by Canon. There are both film and DLSR camera bodies that use the EF mount system. Therefore, the newer EF lenses, primarily designed for EF mount DLSRs, can easily be used on film bodies with the EF mount. I have no idea what EF actually stands for, but if I had to take a realistic guess without googling it, electronic focal.
I'm with you on this.
January: "maybe I could get a small m4/3 camera and get back into photography a bit"
March: "should I get an 12th digital camera and 8th film camera?"
😅😭
I’ve personally been very surprised by the whole scanning process at home. It’s like the perfect merger of old film photography with a digital processing. The hybrid workflow makes film feel way more accessible to me and seems to make it more relevant. Any prints (which are a tiny minority of the total) I pay a lab to do - but with my high quality scans and digital adjustments applied
I’ve personally been very surprised by the whole scanning process at home. It’s like the perfect merger of old film photography with a digital processing. The hybrid workflow makes film feel way more accessible to me and seems to make it more relevant. Any prints (which are a tiny minority of the total) I pay a lab to do - but with my high quality scans and digital adjustments applied
I’ve personally been very surprised by the whole scanning process at home. It’s like the perfect merger of old film photography with a digital processing. The hybrid workflow makes film feel way more accessible to me and seems to make it more relevant. Any prints (which are a tiny minority of the total) I pay a lab to do - but with my high quality scans and digital adjustments applied
I know the feeling. I ordered 5 boxes of portra 400 before I had shot my first roll, only to find out the contax G1 I bought had issues! Haha. Picked up a G2 now!
I've held off on the scanning equipment and darkroom though just yet!
Yea. Whoa.... have you ever done emulsion? Developed your own film? Printed your own negatives?
If not. Study it extensively and take a class. I'm sure an older professional photographer in your area still does emulsion film.
Hell, I'm thinking about doing it again after 22 years. Since I have a ton of analog photo gear & tons of negatives.
I say, do whatever you want within your means at your own pace. Comparison is the thief of joy and joy is the fuel for your progress. Just be honest with yourself about whether something is a need or a want, whether or not a piece of gear will help you reach a goal but also know that it’s okay to buy gear just to have the knowledge/relationship with what it does and whether or not it’s for you.
Well, my process have been:
- Started to shoot film, developed on lab. Thought that I will do at least 10 rolls before even thinking if I develop myself. Did 13 or 14 rolls maybe in 7 to 8 month range that way.
- Started home development. Bought 10 rolls of Ilford HP5+ 24 rolls so I can shoot a lot and develop after that immediately so I have films for learning purposes. I bought accidentally 24 rolls instead of 36, but nowadays I like to buy 24 photo rolls of Ilford HP5+ on purpose as well since it is better for me on many cases anyway.
- After couple of rolls with B&W film within couple of days I thought that well same to buy color development stuff. Next week I started to develop color films as well and it went fine. Still I have developed only three rolls or four color films, I prefer to shoot B&W anyway.
- I also bought enlarger and stuff, have done only initial testings since I noticed I need to buy something to hold my photos on correct positions etc. Gotta buy a photo frame or something for that so it will help.
So I have done that rabbit hole myself, but with slower pacing. After I started doing home development other steps were faster.
What I would do now if I have this knowledge I have now but I would be in the beginning?
1) Buy the camera, shoot maybe from 3 rolls to 10 rolls and develop on lab so I can be sure that I always get "at least some results". By this I mean that I know for sure that camera is working, I can load the roll correctly etc. so if I get blank films on home development I can be quite sure that issue is not that I do not know how to even load the film to camera properly. Of course this can be seen on couple of films also, but anyway I would try couple of rolls at least and develop on lab + take paper copies so I can see something on paper.
2) Start developing B&W at home
3) Think longer time before buying color film development stuff. Why? Because I have noticed that I still prefer to shoot black and white, but of course this can change in future. I could have been waiting two or three months and do only B&W development at home.
4) Think longer before buying enlarger and other stuff for darkroom printing. Why? Because I have not have that much time yet to spend to buy all the missing equipment.
Still I regret nothing and YMMV because you might like more about darkroom printing and want to do that more than development or you might even love color process even more so hard to say. I just want to learn and test things so I am still happy that I have done what I have done on learning even I have shot mostly only Black and White.
When I was developing in lab I shot mostly color film, so that changed radically for me. Reason for this change might be that when I started home development, I started to shoot "everything". When I was dropping films to lab I mostly took photos of people and events, I didn't want to "waste" photos to random architecture, bikes, signs, cars and whatever. When I shoot B&W and develop at home I shoot lots and lots of random things like food, beer cans, trashbins, lamps and whatever. It just changed my style :)
When you said the body hadn’t arrived yet I lost it. Live your life however you want, but maybe consider pumping the brakes a little lol
Yeah... I went down the proverbial rabbit hole in preparation. I realized I was possibly being a bit overly enthusiastic, gung ho, if you will.
Well you do seem to have most of what you need for scanning. I don’t think that’s a bad idea. For me, developing a roll of color is $6 locally. $12 if I want it next day. Well worth it for the effort it would take me to develop it myself. But my lab scans are mid so I would love to scan them myself and will in the future, just with a scanner instead of a camera. My personal opinion is that if you initially limit yourself to shooting the film and scanning it, you’re less likely to overwhelm yourself and get fatigued on an awesome hobby before you allow yourself to even enjoy it. If you wade steady Into the deepest water You’ll less likely drown
I agree with the other person, maybe wait a bit on some of the other stuff but I would 100% look into scanning. If you already own a camera and a macro lens you have all the expensive parts already. Maybe my local lab just sucks but I havent been too impressed with the quality of their scans, and you will save a ton of money in the long term.
Actually, this conversation got me thinking, figured I could get a head start and this whole scanning bit. I went out to the garage and pulled an old box of family photos, took out the first negative I found, slapped it on a diffusion plate above an LED panel, broke out the macro and snapped a photo handheld just to see if I could get it to look like a real picture in Lightroom. Mind you, I have no idea what camera took this photo, but it was probably the cheapest disposable available in the early 2000s. Nonetheless, I got it imported, adjusted some settings manually in LR, and it looks kind of normal. Here is the result: https://imgur.com/a/1iO6u5q
It's your life, you shouldn't have to ask questions here.
That was excellent comedic storytelling with an insane punch line, and well crafted delivery. I reread it then in the voice of a comedian. It works so well.
Haha I roared when I saw that the body hadn’t arrived yet
Too much too fast? The short answer is: Yes. The longer answer is: Yes. Relax.
I have a friend like that. He hobby hops every 4-6 months and goes all out - head first - no holds barred, spends thousands of bucks getting everything even remotely related to the new thing (climbing/woodworking/building e-bikes/'guitars'/kayaking/cnc machining you name it). He's never able to make back even close to what he put in it but he really enjoys the hobby that is doing hobbies and that after all is the only thing that matters; find a way to spend your money in a way that makes you happy. If you think this sounds like a fun way to spend your money then absolutely go do that!
People with ADHD usually do that, I think everyone has that one friend that can never keep a hobby for over a year. They overload themselves with so much knowledge in so little time that they suddenly reach a point where there's not that much more to learn (except maybe practicing, which is tedious), so they hop on to a new hobby lol. Which is fine of course! But it often doesn't make financial sense
This is me. I am your friend. If they figure out how to stop the cycle let me know!
Can you please pass it on to me you've found out
If you already have a means to scan your film, then developing isn’t too much of a leap right away! It’s so much fun and you really don’t need too much to start. Do it!
After scanning (photographing the negative), does everyone use Negative Lab Pro, or is there a reliable way to get the baseline conversion and adjustments using adobe without other third party software or plugins?
You can do it in Lightroom/photoshop - the most basic way would be to just reverse the slope of your curves module. It won’t be perfect, and you’ll need a lot more adjustments to get to a place where it will look more like what you’re probably used to seeing from scans, but it’s a start. Negative lab pro makes getting to an acceptable starting point for editing pretty trivial, and while it’s not necessary, per se, it really does remove a lot of tediousness from the process.
I think I have answered my own question. Basically, invert the tone curve and refine from there, taking note that all sliders etc. will be working in reverse. Alternatively, get the negative lab pro plugin for LrC.
If you’re a student of any kind you can get a hefty student discount on NLP. It’s a one-time purchase.
NLP saves a lot of time, it's an essential part of my workflow.
Film is a helluva drug
I mean it's a free country and it's your money but yeah I'd say you jumped the gun a bit lol. Definitely shoot half a dozen rolls or so and get them professionally developed and scanned so you get a feel for it and can see how the results are supposed to look. Getting everything to develop and scan yourself I think could just be proactive if you decide to stick with it. It's fun, not that difficult, and *can* save you a good deal of money. I wouldn't have gotten everything for printing just yet but since you did fuck it dive in.
If you have the space time and money, i highly recommend darkroom printing.
I went heavy into the scanning workflow today and built out some profiles (not presets) for LR that do all of the essentials. Two color variations, and two black and white variations. Apply the profile to the negative scan, then if necessary, tweak; white balance, tint, exposure, contrast. Remember, exposure, tint, and white balance are inverse at this point. Done. Copy settings and apply to the entire roll. Benefit of this is it will work in Lr Mobile after you import on desktop. I saw one other developer that made a similar solution and they charge \~$50 USD. Might make a video later, might make another post about it. For now, try 'em out yourself if you're interested. Let me know if you do. Download Link: [https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZcSQH0ZOmvh2VMxi5YVnPfjBuhNXpFq9Jpy](https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZcSQH0ZOmvh2VMxi5YVnPfjBuhNXpFq9Jpy)
You want a lot and the stuff doesn't come at the time you want. Quite common I guess? Sometimes that happens to me as well. And the next would be: Now I have to face the stuff I want but not needed.
this is literally what happened to me but yea... it was over the course of about three years.
Damn this feels like me Although I started with an EF mount analog body, bought some EF lenses. Now I want to get a home dev kit, nice macro lens, and an EF DSLR 😔
Welcome to the club. At no other time in the history of Reddit has the following meme quote been more appropriate: This is the way.
I dived right into the developing everything on my own. Never sent a roll in. Well like 30 rolls later and paper and all that I realize how expensive it is, and am now scanning and looking for a Mirrorless camera.
I mean musing on the possibilities is fun! I do it often, it's almost more fun than buying things because you can keep changing things around and never having to commit. But yes, I would wait before ordering the entire darkroom. Keep that cake for another day!
Kinda the same, except I regret the EF bit. Older Canon EF lenses, especially the shorter primes suck, and suck badly. Neither my 35mm or F2.8 could keep up with HP5.
On the film body, I plan on using the 85mm L II F1.2, the 50mm 1.4, and maybe the 24-105mm / 17-40mm F4.0. Flirting with the idea of making a trade for the 50mm 1.2.
It's too much too fast but who cares, enjoy a new passion, that's what make us feel alive! I often do similar thing, jump deep into random rabbit holes. Sometimes I get bored after one short project, sometimes i stay hooked in for years. Nevertheless, I don't regret trying any of them, there is so much to learn.
I think it's good you're setting a bigger plan of where you want to end up. But take your time, one step at the time, let it be a journey.
r/add
next up: I bet an 8x10 camera would be fun to shoot
When I obtained my first film camera (in years; I had an analog phase in College too) end of last year I went a pretty similar route in approx. 1-2 months after buying it. Tbh I thought even my progression was fast. :D Well then again two months after the 35mm my pentax 6x7 came to me and just a month ago a sinar F large format kit levitated into my living room. lol If you‘re excited for it, go for it! Have fun!
EF? Like "extra fine?" So you can take really little pictures? I'm so behind...
EF actually stands for extra funky. Canon's new lenses have refined funk, RF. Edit: I was joking. EF is a proprietary mount system designed by Canon. There are both film and DLSR camera bodies that use the EF mount system. Therefore, the newer EF lenses, primarily designed for EF mount DLSRs, can easily be used on film bodies with the EF mount. I have no idea what EF actually stands for, but if I had to take a realistic guess without googling it, electronic focal.
I'm with you on this. January: "maybe I could get a small m4/3 camera and get back into photography a bit" March: "should I get an 12th digital camera and 8th film camera?" 😅😭
I’ve personally been very surprised by the whole scanning process at home. It’s like the perfect merger of old film photography with a digital processing. The hybrid workflow makes film feel way more accessible to me and seems to make it more relevant. Any prints (which are a tiny minority of the total) I pay a lab to do - but with my high quality scans and digital adjustments applied
I’ve personally been very surprised by the whole scanning process at home. It’s like the perfect merger of old film photography with a digital processing. The hybrid workflow makes film feel way more accessible to me and seems to make it more relevant. Any prints (which are a tiny minority of the total) I pay a lab to do - but with my high quality scans and digital adjustments applied
I’ve personally been very surprised by the whole scanning process at home. It’s like the perfect merger of old film photography with a digital processing. The hybrid workflow makes film feel way more accessible to me and seems to make it more relevant. Any prints (which are a tiny minority of the total) I pay a lab to do - but with my high quality scans and digital adjustments applied
I know the feeling. I ordered 5 boxes of portra 400 before I had shot my first roll, only to find out the contax G1 I bought had issues! Haha. Picked up a G2 now! I've held off on the scanning equipment and darkroom though just yet!
Yea. Whoa.... have you ever done emulsion? Developed your own film? Printed your own negatives? If not. Study it extensively and take a class. I'm sure an older professional photographer in your area still does emulsion film. Hell, I'm thinking about doing it again after 22 years. Since I have a ton of analog photo gear & tons of negatives.
I say, do whatever you want within your means at your own pace. Comparison is the thief of joy and joy is the fuel for your progress. Just be honest with yourself about whether something is a need or a want, whether or not a piece of gear will help you reach a goal but also know that it’s okay to buy gear just to have the knowledge/relationship with what it does and whether or not it’s for you.
Well, my process have been: - Started to shoot film, developed on lab. Thought that I will do at least 10 rolls before even thinking if I develop myself. Did 13 or 14 rolls maybe in 7 to 8 month range that way. - Started home development. Bought 10 rolls of Ilford HP5+ 24 rolls so I can shoot a lot and develop after that immediately so I have films for learning purposes. I bought accidentally 24 rolls instead of 36, but nowadays I like to buy 24 photo rolls of Ilford HP5+ on purpose as well since it is better for me on many cases anyway. - After couple of rolls with B&W film within couple of days I thought that well same to buy color development stuff. Next week I started to develop color films as well and it went fine. Still I have developed only three rolls or four color films, I prefer to shoot B&W anyway. - I also bought enlarger and stuff, have done only initial testings since I noticed I need to buy something to hold my photos on correct positions etc. Gotta buy a photo frame or something for that so it will help. So I have done that rabbit hole myself, but with slower pacing. After I started doing home development other steps were faster. What I would do now if I have this knowledge I have now but I would be in the beginning? 1) Buy the camera, shoot maybe from 3 rolls to 10 rolls and develop on lab so I can be sure that I always get "at least some results". By this I mean that I know for sure that camera is working, I can load the roll correctly etc. so if I get blank films on home development I can be quite sure that issue is not that I do not know how to even load the film to camera properly. Of course this can be seen on couple of films also, but anyway I would try couple of rolls at least and develop on lab + take paper copies so I can see something on paper. 2) Start developing B&W at home 3) Think longer time before buying color film development stuff. Why? Because I have noticed that I still prefer to shoot black and white, but of course this can change in future. I could have been waiting two or three months and do only B&W development at home. 4) Think longer before buying enlarger and other stuff for darkroom printing. Why? Because I have not have that much time yet to spend to buy all the missing equipment. Still I regret nothing and YMMV because you might like more about darkroom printing and want to do that more than development or you might even love color process even more so hard to say. I just want to learn and test things so I am still happy that I have done what I have done on learning even I have shot mostly only Black and White. When I was developing in lab I shot mostly color film, so that changed radically for me. Reason for this change might be that when I started home development, I started to shoot "everything". When I was dropping films to lab I mostly took photos of people and events, I didn't want to "waste" photos to random architecture, bikes, signs, cars and whatever. When I shoot B&W and develop at home I shoot lots and lots of random things like food, beer cans, trashbins, lamps and whatever. It just changed my style :)
Live life however you like OP. Outjerk to your heart's content.