Matthew Shields Photography

Scanning and Editing Workflow

I always scan my own film - I decided to document my workflow

Personally I prefer to scan myself. I feel like its as much part of the creative process and find it an enjoyable thing to do (though often people don't).

My workflow will change as I learn more about the process and software, there is as much for me to learn and improve with this process as well.

Goals

The five goals for my workflow are to ensure that it:

  1. Is organised and consistent
  2. Enables non-destructive editing that doesn't require multiple backup files
  3. Allows editing of images on the move and on multiple devices
  4. Keeps full-res images accessible on the move
  5. Is backed up off-site for safety net

Equipment

  • For 120 film I use an Epson v850
  • For 35mm I use a Plustek 8200i SE
  • Gloves to avoid fingerprints on negatives
  • Negative cleaning - a lens cleaning brush and an air blower
  • The negative holders included with either scanner
  • Archive sheets / folder for storage after scanning

1. Loading film to scan

  1. I wear my gloves whenever I am handling negatives - it's just easier then cleaning
  2. If I have developed myself I keep my negatives hanging in the bathroom and cut a strip to scan each time. This reduces the amount of dust it collects rather than laying flat I find
  3. Each time I load a strip I give the film holder and the scanner a quick clean with the brush
  4. Load film as per instructions so top is facing the scanner when holder is flipped
  5. Give one last quick blast with air blower if can see any small bits of dust – especially if black and white film as IR Dust Removal will not work (unless is XP2 Super or similar)

2. Scanning

  1. Use Silverfast 8 - included with both my scanners.
  2. Get my scan areas prepared where is inside each negative frame
  3. Set my scan settings:
    • Set scan type - either 16->8 bit black and white, or 48->24 bit colour
    • Set file output type as a TIFF
    • Resolution at 3200dpi - any higher I don't get more detail, just larger file sizes
    • Scan as an inverted image - I personally do my conversion inside Silverfast
    • Choose the film stock from Silverfast Negafix – if the stock is not available I experiment with similar ISO and brand stocks
    • Disable CCR (Colour Cast Removal)
    • Unless the image is severely underexposed I keep exposure / midtones at 0
    • If colour film I use iSRD set to Correct level 16
  4. I don't do any manual colour editing within the scan process
  5. Open Batch Scan panel:
    • Create new folder per roll of film – more details in archiving section
    • Set image naming settings – more details in archiving section
    • Set the Index to start from the next number from my last roll scanned
  6. Set the scanner going!
  7. Check each negative as is scanned incase there are any errors or large missed dust
  8. Place the finished strip into the archive sheet
  9. Repeat till have finished the roll
  10. When finished I put the archive sheet in the folder and log what it was on a sheet of paper in the front – just to give a hint if I want to go negative hunting

3. Editing

  1. Use Lightroom for my editing purposes (as well as mobile access)
  2. Sync my Film Photography folder to bring into lightroom maintaining folder structure
  3. Drag all new imports into my Lightroom Synced Collection – this will upload smart previews to the cloud so that I can also do the following editing process on any device

Image Adjustments

  1. Start with white balance to remove colour cast
    • Use the eye dropper tool on a neutral / white area of the shot
    • Manually tweak the white balance as required to get shot as needed
  2. Apply small amount of sharpening - no more then 20 usually
  3. Ensure that the settings to flag clipping in both shadows and highlights is turned on
  4. Tweak levels through the historgram panel as required
  5. With colour I may tweak the warmth slider if want to make it more reminiscent of the real-life scene – I try and keep this to a minimum though
  6. Inspect the image for any dust / scratches and correct with the healing brush

Exporting Images

Although you can edit on the move with Lightroom Sync this will not export the full-res images as it only uploads a smaller preview size – so when I'm happy with my edits I also have it export out full images to Google Drive.

To be honest the smaller image size would be perfectly fine fo upload to social and I often do - but it's quite handy being able to ad-hoc access the full-res and also the ability to share them with people too. Or even an impulse print...

4. Archiving

As scans are organised and named as part of the batch scan process the folder structure is:

  • G: Photography Hard Drive /
    • Film Photography /
      • roll-00001 /
        • scan-00001.tiff
        • scan-00002.tiff
        • scan-00003.tiff
        • ...
      • roll-00002 /
        • scan-00004.tiff
        • scan-00005.tiff
        • scan-00006.tiff
        • ...

I have an Amazon Prime membership (I know...) but one thing that comes with that is "free" unlimited photo storage.

I have Amazon Photos pointed at my photography hard drive to back up the entire thing to ensure I have an off-site back up as well incase of anything happening to it.

And that all folks!