How to scan this film?

[Crazy Fedya]

I have a problem with one of the xpro'd Kodak Ektachrome films: it was overly expired, and after development in C-41 chemicals the mask is too dark to be scanned normally on my Canoscan 9000f. The guy at the lab, where I developed it, also said, that the film is severely overexposed. When I look at the film against the light, I can see all the details, but I can't scan it. Please, help!!!

 

[d_ross]

give up now while your still sane 🙂 as far as I know there is nothing you can do. If the images are really important you could take the film to a commercial drum scanner, if they cant extract the info nobody can.

 

[colyn]

Ektachrome requires E-6 processing not C-41. The lab should have known this..

 

[Particular]

Some scanner/software combinations let you manually set a longer exposure time. If you can 'scan through' the dense negative then you should be able to get something out of it.

 

[filmtwit]

Welcome to X-processing.

Ektachrome requires E-6 processing not C-41. The lab should have known this..

 

[d_ross]

If you have a darkroom put in the enlarger and put a piece of paper under it turn it on and go to bed 🙂

 

[Chris101]

Mount the negatives in slide mounts. Put them into a slide projector. Remove the lens from the slide projector. Set up a digital camera with a macro lens in front of the slide projector and focus on the negative. Snap away. You now have digital files of your negatives.

 

[colyn]

Welcome to X-processing.

I'm aware of cross processing but what I was saying is the lab should have known what chemicals to use for proper processing..

 

[Crazy Fedya]

I'm aware of cross processing but what I was saying is the lab should have known what chemicals to use for proper processing..

I've had film xpro'd at said lab a number of times, and never had a problem. I tthink this film was just way too old to be processed, and as a result negatives are way too dense. I was thinking, that may be someone has a technique of some sort of scanning dense negatives.

 

[Crazy Fedya]

give up now while your still sane 🙂 as far as I know there is nothing you can do. If the images are really important you could take the film to a commercial drum scanner, if they cant extract the info nobody can.

Images are always important and not important at the same time for me(I hope it doesn't sound ridiculous, but I have no other way to put it 😉.
Since it is purely a hobby, I don't really stress over lost images, but I still like having them, whenever possible.

 

[Chris101]

... I was thinking, that may be someone has a technique of some sort of scanning dense negatives.

I did Sam, did you read it? I have used that technique myself. The problem is that you need to put more light through the negative than your scanner has.

 

[kzphoto]

Mount the negatives in slide mounts. Put them into a slide projector. Remove the lens from the slide projector. Set up a digital camera with a macro lens in front of the slide projector and focus on the negative. Snap away. You now have digital files of your negatives.

That's pretty brilliant!

 

[Chris101]

Heh. Pun intended I presume? 😉

 

[charjohncarter]

Mount the negatives in slide mounts. Put them into a slide projector. Remove the lens from the slide projector. Set up a digital camera with a macro lens in front of the slide projector and focus on the negative. Snap away. You now have digital files of your negatives.

Pretty good Chris, or maybe the same with a long exposure light box.

 

[Crazy Fedya]

I did Sam, did you read it? I have used that technique myself. The problem is that you need to put more light through the negative than your scanner has.

I did, sorry I didn't comment on it😀. I meant technique working with computer.I will try it, once I get some slide mounts. It is very inventive.
I understand that this film needs more light to be scanned properly, but I didn't have any ideas about how to do it. I was thinking more along the line of increasing light output of scanner somehow.

 

[rovnguy]

Try using one of those old 35mm "slide copier" lens attachments. I haven't seen any for sale lately, but Cambron used to make them. Some had a 2.5X magnification factor.

 

[Crazy Fedya]

I was thinking about it, but what do they use as a light source?

 

[Chris101]

I was thinking about it, but what do they use as a light source?

A slide projector ... 😉

I did, sorry I didn't comment on it😀. I meant technique working with computer.I will try it, once I get some slide mounts. It is very inventive.
I understand that this film needs more light to be scanned properly, but I didn't have any ideas about how to do it. I was thinking more along the line of increasing light output of scanner somehow.

Well, you can try scanning multiple times and using the 'screen' mode to stack the exposures, but the fact is, the light source of your scanner is just too weak to penetrate the dark areas of the negative. The key number on your scanner is the actual D[size=-1]max[/size]. the higher this number, the darker the negative that it can 'see through'. Most scanners are in the range of 3 to 4-point-something. A truly dense negative will have a density of 8 or so. (Over exposed negatives are often used for observing solar eclipses - so you know it has to be dark.

So give the stacking routine a try, but when that gives you uncontrollable contrast, you will realize that you need to step up the incident light.

 

[rovnguy]

The slide copier lens atttachments can use a controlled artificial light, or more important in your case, use the sun. You'll only be able to adjust the shutter speed, but that should give you enough control. Let me know how this turns out. If you were local, you could use mine.

 

[not_in_good_order]

The Nikon Scan software I use with my Coolscan 5000ed has adjustable settings such as analog gain and DEE that help immensely when scanning underexposed or otherwise dark slides. If your Canon scanning software doesn't have any useful features, maybe try something like VueScan.