Light table alternative [tip]

[Brian Miller]

Okay, call me cheap, but with a tight budget, I've just not felt like spending any money on a light table (or box).

The other day, staring at my monitor, I realized I had one right in front of me, albeit not a perfect one.

All I did was make a blank web page - with a white background - and saved it to the desktop in Windows. Then, I opened it using IE, hit F11 to make the web page fill the entire screen, and there's my cheap light box.

Yes, you do get some funky views of those pixels when you put the loupe to the negs, but hey, not bad if you already have a computer.

;>

[Bruce Watson]

OK, you're cheap ;-)

Whatever floats yer boat...

[Jeremy Daalder]

Or you could build yourself a light box for about $50 and two hours effort. I wrote an article on this you can find here:



Build your own lightbox (http://www.jeremydaalder.com/singleArticle.php?articleID=2)

Australian Landscape Photography (http://www.jeremydaalder.com)<br />
Affordable High Quality Scanning and Printer Profiling (http://www.imagesciencescanning.com.au)

[RichSBV]

One problem... DUST! A CRT screen is a major static dust magnet and it will transfer that static charge to your film...

But if you happen to be using an LCD monitor, then it wouldn't make much difference and it's a good idea...

[Mark Vaughan]

Great idea!!! I don't have the room for a light table in my cramped little home office, and this sounds like just the ticket. Perhaps a piece of plain white paper taped over the screen would help alleviate the dust problem.

[Edward (Halifax,NS)]

My wife suggested that one. I find the screen a bit dark though. Either that or my trannies are all under exposed. Also the pixals give a moire look that can be annoying.

[Darin Cozine]

I found notepad works well to give a backlight for trannies.

[CXC]

Dang, typed "lightbox" in on this forum, and saved myself 80 bucks. Thanks.