Why I scan my own negatives
For my first two years of shooting film I paid the lab to develop and scan. The scans were fine. They were also somebody else’s interpretation of my negatives, flattened to a look that suited the lab’s workflow rather than any particular photograph.
The setup
I digitise with a digital camera, a macro lens, a copy stand and a cheap LED light panel. A film holder that keeps the strip flat matters more than the camera does. With a decent holder, one exposure per frame captures more detail than I will ever need for screen or a modest print.
Converting
Black and white is easy: invert, set the black and white points, adjust the curve. Colour negatives are harder because of the orange mask, and this is where most of my early frustration came from. I now use Negative Lab Pro for colour and do a light manual pass afterwards. It is not the only way, but it is consistent, and consistency is what I was missing.
What I gained
Control, mostly, and a closer look at my own mistakes. When you see every frame at full size you notice the focus you missed and the horizon you tilted, and you shoot the next roll a little more carefully. That alone was worth the effort.