The photo-a-day thread

[SubLunar]

35mm film negative "scanned" via DSLR w/macro lens

[mindwaave]

35mm film negative "scanned" via DSLR w/macro lens

Cool method! Can only imagine how hard it must have been to focus...

[SubLunar]

35mm film negative "scanned" via DSLR w/macro lens

Cool method! Can only imagine how hard it must have been to focus...

Not hard at all actually. Autofocus. I'm guessing you might've mentioned that because that shot is slightly blurry. I'm not sure if it was the original shot that was blurry or my attempt at scanning it, but there's a handful of shots from this set that I'm going to redo and see if they turn out better, this being one of them.

The hard part was.. everything else.

First: finding the best settings to get the cleanest image. A large aperture produces the sharpest image but on the thinnest focal plane. So if the camera lens wasn't PERFECTLY level with the negatives then part of it would be blurry. Had to dick around until I found something that seemed to work okay. Lots of annoying pixel peeping and comparisons and driving myself crazy.

Getting everything lined up perfectly, not bumping anything or else having to set up everything all over again, etc. Then having to reposition the negatives for every shot.. I had 324 photos to "scan" this way. It was a tedious fucking chore.

When everything is set up correctly, I'd argue that you can get good enough results this way that you don't need an expensive film scanner. With a proper 1to1 macro lens, you can fill up a good 90+% of your frame with the negative image, so you basically get full resolution.

I was just using a couple tripods but the best way to do it would be a purpose built camera rig designed for this. Negative Supply makes some, but I'm too cheap and don't shoot enough film for all that.

[mindwaave]

A large aperture produces the sharpest image but on the thinnest focal plane. So if the camera lens wasn't PERFECTLY level with the negatives then part of it would be blurry.

Autofocus sure does help lol. Was worried you'd have to knife-edge your focal plane using a macro lens that way, but levelness/alignment sounds tricky too.

I like the slight blur, it looks like character from the original photo!

[SubLunar]

[SubLunar]

[SubLunar]

[mindwaave]

[SubLunar]

Damn son. You could start a magazine called bridge magazine. And then put that photo on the cover. And then just stop publishing because you ran out of stuff to say about bridges in general. But youd have a bitchin first edition

[SubLunar]

[McCave]

That bridge photo is crazy awesome.

Sublunar, your photos are always epic!!! I always tell people, it has nothing to do with the camera. It's the creativity and vision of the photographer!! Nice job!!

[koolkid.explores]

B.P.U

[SubLunar]

[SubLunar]

That bridge photo is crazy awesome.

Sublunar, your photos are always epic!!! I always tell people, it has nothing to do with the camera. It's the creativity and vision of the photographer!! Nice job!!

Damn, I seem to have missed this comment. Thank you, sir!

[SubLunar]