How to Copy Photo Negatives to Digital

Scan your old photo negatives to add them to your digital photo library.

Converting old photo negatives into digital format is a simple, though potentially time-consuming process. There are professional negative scanning services available if you don't want to do the work yourself, but there is a simple way to do it at home. Once you copy the negatives to your computer, you can edit them just like a digital photograph.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Scanner
• Photo negatives

Instructions

1. Clean the scanning surface of your scanner thoroughly. Photo negatives are quite small; if there's a piece of dust scanned into the digital copy, it's going to be quite noticeable if you print out larger copies.

2. Place the photo negative on your scanner. Make sure it's squared properly so your scan comes out straight.

3. Place a piece of white paper over top of the negative to further prevent dust grains and other inclusions from being scanned with your negative.

4. Scan the negative at the highest resolution your scanner supports. This ensures a high-quality image when you process it.

Tips & Warnings

• Different brands of scanners work differently and come with different scanning software. If you're unsure how to operate your scanner, consult the owner's manual that came with it.

• If you have a lot of negatives to scan, you might want to buy a dedicated photo negative scanner.

• Color photo negatives should be scanned with a dedicated photo negative scanner for best results.

References

• Bright Hub: How to Convert Negatives into Digital Images

Resources

• Imaging Resource: Photo and Film Scanners
• Andromeda: Comparing Methods to Digitize Slides