Stupid question, what side of neg to scan?

[ryanmills]

I really never thought about it and i'm not sure if it matters but when scanning negs, what side should be face down? Or does it even matter?

[Heroique]

I dry-mount (tape) the emulsion side on the mounting glass (on its etched underside), which sits above the scanner bed. My results are best this way, but it’s close to a negligible issue.

I think the forum is evenly divided on this one; the Betterscanning site shows base side on glass in one of their illustrations.

Pros & cons either way, depending on your equipment, methods, and belief system.

[Ari]

When I bought a Betterscanning holder, I asked Doug that very same question since he did not specify that in his instruction sheet.
He said either/or, one was as good as the other, it comes down to personal preference.
So, don't worry about it; you can do a brief test yourself and see if one or the other is more to your taste.

[neil poulsen]

I would not want the plastic base between the image and the scanner. So, I scan with the emulsion towards the scanner.

[Leonard Evens]

I don't think it much matters, but if the emulsion side is up, you will reverse left and right. Of course you can correct for that in the scanner settings.

[Too Many Cameras]

When I digitize images with my DSLR, I do it so it matches the way I took the image, which is through the plastic. I've tried both ways and even at 100% magnification with a 1:1 macro lens, I don't see an image-quality difference.

[GG12]

In the darkroom it was always emulsion:emulsion, and that seemed to make sense. If you keep the same logic on the scanner, its emulsion side down, so nothing between it and the scanner.

[Terry Christian]

My experience is that it doesn't matter, but I scan emulsion side up. If I'm scanning 35mm or 120 that has a tight curl so that I get Newton's rings, I flip it over to emulsion side down to scan and then fix the orientation in post.