Dino Saga 060827___Copy Photos to Computer

Dino Saga 060827___Copy Photos to Computer

Follow up on copying pictures from film or prints to digital. And how to do close-ups from a reasonable distance. 3 weeks ago I wrote a how-to from B&W negatives. 50s pictures carried too much baggage so this time I will use buddy’s race cars and my Dino. Some day I will tie these photo tips together and post them on a general site. ‘Til then…

Flat bed scanners do a fair job on 4 x 6 to letter size prints but can be slow. Smaller or larger prints or film really need something special. 35 mm format is about 1.35” x 0.9”.Kodachrome can provide about 8,000 pixels of horizontal resolution (4000 line pairs/frame.) Ektachrome and B&W film provide less but still lots. We are trying for good impact at 800 x 600 pixels. As long as you can capture an original at about 3 times the final size, the picture will (can) look great. You want more than 2000 pixels in the largest dimension to start with. 3 megapixel is enough if the lens can fill the frame. Digital cameras with a 10x optical zoom and an auxiliary lens can get there from here. I showed how to get a lens last time. Now to using it, lights and the camera.

I use an older Fuji S5000, 3MP, 10x zoom-35mm equivalent of 35 to 350 mm. Current S5200 camera is 5MP with same optics. Many other companies offer similar specs. Prints are easy to shoot. You need them flat, evenly lit at an angle and a lens that let you fill the frame. I know, there are copy stands, flash, strobes, etc. The easy way is to use the sun around 9:00 AM or 3:00 PM and get perfect color. Weights hold print flat on table, sun hits print at about 30 degree angle, camera is on tripod looking straight down. Use Macro settings, zoom in a little(reduces distortion typical at wide angle.) Off angle tungsten light with camera set for that is fair but you will lose brilliance. I have used 2 mirrors to bounce flash and that works as well as sun but trickier. Attach small mirror to camera to bounce light up. Use large mirror to bounce light down to picture at an angle.

35mm film, either positive or negative, needs a close up lens. In Dino Saga 060806 I described the way to get a large high quality achromat at a reasonable price. Mount it in front of the lens any way you can. Filter adapter rings are a good way to go. Lens must be centered, curved side to camera and close to camera lens for wide angle to work.

Fabricate a film or slide holder and an illumination source. Standard tungsten bulbs work with the camera set for tungsten. Bounce light off a pure white reflector. Shield camera, lenses and front of film or slide to minimize dirt and reflections. Keep light far enough away from things so that nothing melts. 100 watt bulb should be more than enough. Halogen is best. Some compact fluorescents work, most don’t. It is possible to use mirrors to bounce flash from camera to reflector but it is tricky.

Pictures show results of copying large and small prints, full and cropped slides, and my setup for checking resolution, distortion and color correction. Pictures of worn distributor points in prior Sagas show close-up capability. More another time.

John
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