Scanning paper negatives

[Flexnib]

Thank you all for the great info.
Arthur

[D. Bryant]

If you are determined you should build a light box to put over the paper neg that has more horsepower than the light panel in the scanner and a dimmer so you can adjust for proper exposure.

Sorry Gary, that won't work properly.

Don Bryant

[Gary Beasley]

It does if the scanner had a transparency adaptor, which is my take from the original question. You are right it won't work well with a simple reflection scanner unless you can find a way to kill the light bar while scanning. That would be more trouble than it was worth.

[Darryl Baird]

Arthur, after I saw you message I dropped a (RC) paper negative on my 4990 and made a transmissive scan without a problem. Are you using a film holder supplied by Epson? The holder helps get the scanner to calibrate for what is inside the film area. My scanner worked with either film negative settings -- "film holder" or "film area guide" with "B&W Negative" for the film type.

Helllo All,
Just received my Epson 4990 and have started to try to scan paper negs. I am having no luck. Anyone out there doing this? Please help. Any help on where and how to start would be helpful. I know it is alot to ask but any help at all would be appreciated.
Arthur

[D. Bryant]

It does if the scanner had a transparency adaptor, which is my take from the original question. You are right it won't work well with a simple reflection scanner unless you can find a way to kill the light bar while scanning. That would be more trouble than it was worth.

Sorry Gary, that won't work with a scanner built for scanning film transparencies or negatives. Using a florescent powered light box as the the light source will create scan lines in the scan. I've tried it and it doesn't work.

Don Bryant

[Flexnib]

I have gotten it to work. I just treat the paper neg as a picture, scan, flip and invert then go to work on the contrast, etc.
Thanks again
Arthur

[Flexnib]

Here is one of my negs scanned and fiddled with.
Arthur

[Gary Beasley]

Sorry Gary, that won't work with a scanner built for scanning film transparencies or negatives. Using a florescent powered light box as the the light source will create scan lines in the scan. I've tried it and it doesn't work.

Don Bryant

If thats the case why stick with flourescents? Incadescent lamps can be used, you just need to vent the heat. Nowadays led lamps may be the way to go. Either way I've done it before with a little handheld light panel for viewing slides. My only problem was lack of calibration for the exposure, which is solved by a dimmer.
Learn to worth with the equipment design and you can get away with a lot.

Interesting about the scan lines to catch the alternating colors of the flourescent output. I wonder if you get the same effect running white LEDs on an unfiltered ac or dc source.