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How to Copy Color Negatives with ShotCopy...

Do you have 35mm negatives with no photographs? Now you can easily convert them to the digital age with your digital camera and ShotCopy.

Step One - Pick a good negative
You should be able to hold the negative above a white reflective background and see a lot of sharp detail in the negative. The more detail you see the better photograph will result. If it's under exposed you will see a lot of light areas with no detail. If it's over exposed you will see a lot of areas with no detail. The ideal negative is a negative where you can see a lot of detail.

Actual 35mm color negative to be copied inserted into the ShotCopy Slide/Negative Holder

 
Step Two - Negative Orientation
Insert the 35mm negative into the ShotCopy Slide/Negative holder so that the text and numbers on the top and bottom edges of the negative read left to right (not backwards). This insures that the negative is in the same orientation as when it was shot with the emulsion side facing the lens.
 

Holder allows copying of typical 35mm negative strip in 4 easy clicks of the shutter

 

Step Three - Changing a Negative to a Positive
A lot of today's digital cameras have the ability to change a negative to a positive when shooting. You can also shot the negative as a negative and use your PC's photo editing software to convert it to a positive. You might want to experiment to see which gives you the best results. This image was converted by photographing the negative as a negative with a Sony Mavica Digital camera then using PaintShop Pro 7.0 to convert it to a positive image.

 

Actual negative in ShotCopy Slide Negative Holder

What color negative looks like after switching to the camera's "Neg Art" while still in holder.

How to Deal with Reflections while copying negatives...

Click Here

Step Four - Rotate, Crop and Cleanup
With your photo editing software rotate the image (in this case) to the portrait position. Use your software features to adjust and balance brightness and contrast; color, tint, saturation, remove dust spots; and crop picture as desired. Then save it for posterity as a digital image. No more fading or yellowing pictures. Now you can save and send it to friends and family.  Or how about a compellation of your photos as a  CD-ROM disk photo album? Way Cool...

Most photo editing software does a good job converting b/w negatives to positives; while color negatives can cause a lot of pain and suffering if you don't use the better photo editing software packages that are out there. PaintShop Pro 7.0 happens to be one of them.

If you have a photo editing software program that's easy to use and gets great results, let us know at: color_negs@shotcopy.com