Scanning Old, Odd-Size, and Mangled Negatives

I recently completed a project scanning a large number of old poorly stored negatives which had been kept wound way too tightly or left loose in an open cigar box for 40 years in the basement.  There were lots of odd sizes (126, 127, 828, and more).  The problem was that the film holders for my Epson 4990 weren't the right size OR didn't have the strength to hold the negatives flat.

I purchased two 8x10 sized pieces of 'museum glass' from a framing shop.  This is glass with an anti-Newton's rings style surface on one side.  Unlike real anti-Newton's rings glass, this material gets you 90% of the results for only 10% of the cost.  I think I paid about $15 for both pieces.

The glass, as cut, has sharp edges and needs to be sanded down or taped off to prevent scratching the scanner platen.  I used blue painters tape and covered all of the edges.  I then used the tape to tightly affix my mangled negatives, emulsion side away from the glass, to the anti-Newton side of the glass sheet.  Using the tape allowed me to tape the edges entirely.  This accounted for any direction of bend or curl and kept everything very flat.

Through experimentation I found that placing shims in the four corners of the glass were necessary to prevent Newton's rings on the scanner platen to film interface.  Also, my Epson 4990's optimal focus is slightly above the glass surface.  I made my shims using squares of the painter's tape.  It is easy to add or remove pieces to get the right height.  I found 30 strips, stacked, in all four corners worked perfectly.

The second sheet of glass was prepared similarly.  The second sheet allowed me to mount the next set of slides while the first set was scanning. 

After scanning was complete, I removed the tape holding the negatives and returned them to the cigar box (the point of scanning is that I never need worry about these negatives again!).  Then I removed any fingerprints, dust, or adhesive using a quick lens cleaner spray, wipe, and then the StaticMaster brush.  The glass was ready for new negatives.

Using this process I was able to scan about 4000 old photos with resolution that far exceeded the low-end cameras on which they were originally shot.

Comments

[Eddie Brown]

Aaron,
I have some Kodak "safety film" that is B&W that I would like to scan using my HP Scanjet 4200C. Do you have any suggestions? I have tried scanning directly on the bed and then inverting the negative with poor results. I have backlighting the negative while scanning with poor results. I've read up on ICE3 but it seems that ICE does not do well with B&W negatives from the 1950s. I read about your "newton glass" but don't really have a clue. Could you send me a jpeg of your rig? Or maybe some more details? Thanks
eddie@stockmanoil.com
REF: http://www.kryptosinistographer.com/2008/03/scanning-old-ma.html#comments

http://photo.net/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/00M8WL

[The Kryptosinistographer]

Thanks for writing.

ICE does not work at all for B&W film regardless of vintage. (It does work for chromogenic B&W film but that is because it is really a neutral-tone color film)

I wasn't able to find any technical specs on your HP Scanjet 4200C. Assuming it is capable of scanning film (i.e. it has a light in the top of the scanner to shine through the film to the sensor below), it should work. Go to a framing shop and ask for a piece of anti-reflective glass. An 8x10" piece should fit your scanner and work well. Tape all of the edges using blue painter's tape so the sharp glass doesn't scratch your scanner surface.

Using blue painter's tape, tape the negative to the glass with the emulsion side away from the glass. You want to tape it to the side which is slightly frosted. Now put it in the scanner so the film is sandwiched between the scanner glass and the 8x10" glass. Give that a try. If it works, the next step is to shim the glass so the negative is raised just a hair above the scanner glass. This will remove any of the Newton's Rings. I use layers of tape in the four corners of the glass to create the shim.

I hope that works. Keep in mind that, your scanner's maximum resolution is 1200x600. To me this implies that you aren't going to get a decent print from your negatives much larger than 3x4". You'll need a scanner capable of higher resolution to do much better.

Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck!