Scanning photography negatives, transparencies and prints

What is the course about?

Many people have boxes of prints, negatives and transparencies from years gone by and don’t know what to do with them in this digital age. This course teaches you a number of methods to digitise your images so that you can use them on the computer, archive or print them. Learn the pros and cons of different methods and how to scan for best-quality results.

What will we cover?

- Using a flat-bed scanner to digitise prints, negatives and transparencies of sizes up to A4
- Using a film scanner to digitise negatives and transparencies in 35mm or 120 film size
- Using a DSLR camera to digitize 35mm negatives and transparencies or prints of any size
- Scanning to the optimum size
- What to do if you need higher quality scans.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

- digitise your archive of old prints, negatives and transparencies using different methods including using flat-bed scanners, a film scanner or using an DSLR camera.
- understand which method of scanning is the best one for the purpose
- scan to the optimum size.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

You should be able to use a computer and have some basic knowledge of photography for this course.
You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions, demonstrations, hand-outs and health and safety information, and be prepared to take part in group discussion. You should be happy using numbers and able to do simple measurements and calculations.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

You will be taught through workshops, short lectures, practical exercises, tutorials and handouts. Please note we'll be working on Apple Mac computers and Epson scanners.
The course also uses Google Classroom (an online teaching resource) for you to share comments with your class, download course material and upload images for group crits. Google classroom login help.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

Please bring a selection of old prints, negatives and transparencies to the session which we will use to scan. To take your scans home, it would be useful to bring a memory stick (or portable hard drive – please note PC-formatted hard drives can be read by Apple Mac computers, but not written to).

When you enrol on a course at the City Lit, you are entitled to student discount on Adobe Creative Cloud
Please see the link below:

Please note:
- You will need to create an Adobe account using your City Lit email address which includes your student number. (This is in the format 123456@student.citylit.ac.uk)
- You can access your City Lit email through your supplied Office 365 account.
- When your course finishes and you no longer have access to your student email, the software will continue to function on the installed machine for the remainder of the annual subscription.
- At renewal, you will need to create another Adobe account using your personal email.
- The Adobe account is not accessible to City Lit and technical support is extremely limited as a result.
- It is recommended that you do not use the online storage available on Adobe accounts as access to your work is subject to the continuation of your subscription.
- Adobe sales can be contacted on 0800-028-0148.
Adobe Creative Cloud for Students
Adobe Creative Cloud for Students - system requirements.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

City Lit has a vast range of practical and theoretical photography courses including darkroom printing and film developing, and fine art digital printing.