Scanning Your Film Negatives vs. Prints: What’s Better?
Many families have treasure troves of physical images from the film camera era, whether it’s negatives, slides, or prints. Creating digital copies is the best way to prevent losing or damaging these physical copies. However, you must consider how to best digitize these images. Is it better to scan your film negatives or prints? Learn the reasons behind scanning negatives and prints before deciding.
What Is the Difference Between a Film Negative and a Print?
You shouldn’t scan film negatives or prints without learning the differences. Despite being what most people touch, prints are not the original image source. In fact, prints are one step removed from the source material.
Photo negatives are the original record of the captured images. Negatives have to be developed to make prints.
Scanning Negatives
The negative film strips preserve the original information from when the image was first captured and are the best option to scan. Even though negatives may look odd to the naked eye because the colors are inverted, they contain the recorded image data needed for a quality print or digital copy. Go straight to the source material if you have it! That said, access to the negatives can be a big hurdle when scanning this format. Over the years, negatives may have been neglected, damaged, or even discarded (intentionally or not)!
Scanning Prints
A major benefit of scanning a print is access and convenience. Since the print is the positive image of the negative, most people have kept prints within arms reach in a photo album, a picture frame on the wall, or even on the fridge. Although scanning a print is convenient, it can lead to some problems, such as different levels of quality with each image.
The varying printing processes affect the scan’s quality, like the photo’s paper and finish. By analyzing the photo’s condition, you can imagine the kind of life the photo print has lived. Things like damaged corners, tears, and oily fingerprints tell a life story; those imperfections make these digital copies special.
The Scanned Results
After digitizing your images, you can do more with the digital file, such as editing in post-process software. Then you can share your results on Facebook and Instagram so your friends and family can reminisce and appreciate the images.
The negatives and prints can now go back into storage. But before storing away the physical copies, ensure you have a safe digital backup!
Scanning your film negatives or prints: what’s better? Here at DiJiFi, we recommend scanning negatives because the quality will be better than a scan of a print. Since scanning your negatives isn’t always an option, DiJiFi can scan all your photo prints and even slides with our slide digitization services! To put a spin on Chase Jarvis’ “The best camera is the one that’s with you,” the best image scan is the one that’s with you (regardless of format)!