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Ghetto window scanning
Some time ago (for christmas) I recieved a Mini-Diana from my best friend. You can read my review here.
It is a little-but-oh-so-cool camera. So far I’ve developed 3 film rolls. And I wanted to talk about the experience I’ve had since there is a lot of people trying out these type of cameras (lomography cameras) for the first time.
First Attempt: First Roll
->Everything ok I got it developed at FotoPrix and only payed for the CD with the digitalized photos.
Nice results
Second Attempt: The bad CD… and the first scans
-> I went to another FotoPrix and got my CD with the developed negatives. When I put it in any computer it goes blank and I have to restart the computer… I tried it on 5 Computers… 3 PCs and 2 Macs… nothing. I go to the place and tell them to redo the CD… I come back and nothing… they say they WON’T re-scan the negatives… “It’s too complicated” - they say.
Resigned, but with my money back, I go home with no CD and only the developed negatives. I try to scan the negatives with a flatbed scanner without a special negative scan and this is what I get:
Not the best results in the world…
Third Attempt: Third Time is the Charm, sort of…
-> I go to ANOTHER FotoPrix… This time I tell the guy to make prints, no messy CD’s, no need to do crazy things to scan negatives (I think to my self)… They make the prints allright, but they cut them however the heck they want (I had warned them it was a special roll)… I end up with poorly developed photos and all the charm of this camera, the format (2 in 1 or Square) of the final images, is gone…
So… now I’m pretty much pissed at FotoPrix and their inability to do something else than to print simple holiday photos from 1-use-cameras… I don’t want to have the bad scans that I got last time so I investigate… and…
“VOILÀ!!!!”
What Changed!?!?¿?!
Definetely you get more contrast on the exposure. As you see the pictures in the bottom are all washed-out in comparison with the ones on top. If you’re not going for this washed-out effect (although I have some good ones from this process) you’ll get better results with window scanning.
What Is Window Scanning and How can I do it!
Well, after trying various methods from all arround the web I settled for the Ghetto window scan method posted on the Lomography Tips & Tricks web. This method is explained there by falsedigital user.
This is the best method for me by far… and the simplest one and no need to have a scanner of any kind!!!
Things you need:
- Digital camera: The More Res. the better! (Mine: Nikon D90)
- A window
- A sunny day
- Photo-manipulation Soft. (Photoshop in my case)
Tape the negative to the window. Aim, focus and Shoot!
Pow!! “You got ghetto scanned!!!” Just take this picture into you computer. Open it in the photo-editing software. Crop the image. Invert the image (Image > Invert). And finally Color correct the images.
EASY TIP: If you are using photoshop and you don’t want to deal with all the hassle of color correcting just select the “Levels” and click on the Auto Levels Option.
EASY TIP 2: To get the biggest resolution, frame the part of the negative that you want and put your camera in MACRO mode.
Finally you have your images ready to Go!!!
So this a great technique when all else fails and you don’t want to pay more money for extra prints!
Hope it helps!
Ness
