For a while now, I’ve been trying to get a flatbed scanner working, to no avail, to try and create a long time pin hole exposure shot like Justin Quinnell.

The other reason for the scanner was to create contacts sheet from negatives that I have, to prep some scanning sessions on the negative scanner I got for my Dad recently. So then I got an idea…

What if I simulated, my own scanner, well sort of!

• The idea goes as follows.
• Create a white image that fills the entire screen
• View the white image in full screen mode, you might need to maximise the level of brightness and contrast
• Blue tack the negative holder to the screen
• Take a picture with regular camera of the whole sheet, or individual sections of the negative sheet.
• Load pictures onto PC
• If working from black and white negatives, convert the image to greyscale
• Invert the image – hey presto!
• Depending on the quality of your negatives, you will have to adjust a) levels b) curves to get the best out of the image.
• The overall result does not give you highest quality image, but it is certainly not bad for no extra cost or extra hardware.

Here are some example shots

Original shot

The original shot of the negative

End Result

End result of home made negative scanner

Overall, a rather good result
R