Need advice with old 110 film scans
I've got a bunch of old (1992) photos shot on 110 film with a point and shoot. I scanned the negatives with a cheap film scanner (from LIDL) a long time ago, and to be fair most of the 35mm film I had came out ok. But there are a couple of 110 rolls that I don't even know what to do with. The exposure is pretty bad and I think the film was exposed to light or not developed properly. I've played around with the photos trying to first get white balance right and then pushing the curves, but I can't get them right.
Any advice? I don't have the negatives with me, otherwise I'd try scanning them again just in case. Is there any workflow or app that I can use to try to recover them?
6 replies
Scan it using a better scanner. I know that’s not an option, but you’re not going to get much out of a bad scan.
Yeah, thanks. I imagined as much.
Do you know if there is Photoshop plugin/action or some other stand-alone app? I've searched a bit, but most people recommend Negative Lab Pro. I don't have Lightroom, and anyway Negative Lab Pro is out of my budget.
Gotcha. You can try darktable’s negadoctor. Even if you’re not happy with the results for this particular batch, darktable is a free/open software that is a great alternative to Lightroom.
Thanks! I've used Darktable, but never saw it had a negatives module!
I think it was Discovery. It was a replica. I found this (in Spanish): https://legadoexposevilla.org/el-transbordador-discovery-aterriza-en-sevilla/
I'm not great with analog, but you could consider developing them in a dark room so you can try with different exposure times and filters, then scan the photo paper. That may then give a much better starting point to tweak more in Lightroom.
There's often darkroom services or hire places in larger metro areas.
Edit: Looking at it more, if you do a short exposure on the enlarger in a dark room, you'll get an idea of how much overexposure is in the film. It may well be that there's no detail there to bring back, even if underexposing. But if there is, you could do some old-school analog HDR by exposing three versions at set stops, then overlay those as one in Lightroom to recover detail.