How to Scan Negatives to Pictures
Although the days of using film-based cameras have long passed for many, you may come across a stash of old film negatives while cleaning your house and wish that you could do something with them without paying a photo lab's high cost. If you have a scanner and Corel Paint Shop Pro image editing software, you may be able to make high quality color pictures for free. Scan your negatives and use Paint Shop Pro to convert them to color photos.
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Instructions
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Place a negative on the bed of your scanner and put a piece of plain white paper over it. Close the scanner and launch Paint Shop Pro.
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2
Click the scanner-shaped icon at the top of the screen in Paint Shop Pro to launch the software for your scanner. The options shown will depend on the manufacturer of your scanner. Generally, you will want to choose the highest dots per inch (DPI) setting available. For example, if you are scanning a 1-square-inch negative, 1,000 DPI will produce a 1-megapixel picture. When the scan is complete, the negative will appear in Paint Shop Pro.
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3
Click "Image," then click "Negative Image." The scanned image will be converted to color. If you are converting a newer negative and are happy with the color saturation, skip to Step 5.
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Click "Adjust," "Color" and "Fade Correction" if the negative is old and faded. Use the slider at the bottom of the window to adjust the correction level until the picture's colors look natural. Click the "Preview on Image" check box to see what your corrected image will look like. Click "OK" when you are finished.
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5
Click "File," then click "Save As." Save the completed image to the location of your choice.
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Tips & Warnings
Many image editing programs have the ability to convert an image negative to color, including Adobe Photoshop. If you would prefer to use a different program for this project, the menu options to acquire images from a scanner and convert them to color may be found in different locations than those described here.
If you have many negatives to scan, consider investing in a negative scanner. Generally priced between $50 and $150 in 2009, a negative scanner may produce an image with more accurate colors than what would be possible with a flatbed scanner.
