How to scan negative>photo?

[mystvearn]

I just got a snail mail. No letter nothing, just a 36 kodak negative film. I don't know who send it to me. I could make out the pictures. Anyway, anyone know how to can the negative, so that it appears like a photo. I have a Canon Lide 20. I have photoshop.
the scanner has the option of "invert colours to producs neg/pos image from pos/neg original".
I tried scanning both ways, using it, and the invert colours.
With the invert I get a photo with a cyan backround. With the normal scan, I get normal negatives. I really would like to find out what the pics are without having to process it. Thanks

[el_novato]

If you have a digi cam, see if you can find an attachment that will let you take a pic of the negative. My camera has a film holder that I place directly on the lens and it will snap a shot of the negative. Another option would be to get ahold of a scanner that can scan negatives. I looked on Canon briefly but I didn't see any film adapters for the scanner you have.

I don't know if you've seen them or not, but they look something like this.

Hth

e.n.

[mystvearn]

don't have that. I only have a digital camera- Canon a70

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

The cheapest (unless you could scan them in without special parts) way might be to take it to a photo shop, ask them to develop it, no messing around with scanning them in etc.

[Force Flow]

If you really want to scan it, simply scan it like you would a color picture (but at the highest dpi possible so you can increase the size of the picture later). Then, in photoshop, open the scanned images and go to Image > adjustments > invert. That should do the trick.

[mystvearn]

Originally Posted by Force Flow If you really want to scan it, simply scan it like you would a color picture (but at the highest dpi possible so you can increase the size of the picture later). Then, in photoshop, open the scanned images and go to Image > adjustments > invert. That should do the trick.

I tried that, but I got this blue/white background of the picture. Anyone knows why?

[Statica]

In scanning negatives on a regular scanner and then inverting it, you've forgotten one important physical characteristic of a negative - You view a negative using the light that passes through it as opposed to a regular scan technique where light is reflected off it.
TMA (Transparent Media adapters) allow good scanning of negatives because they accomplish a good viewing of the negative because they have a backlit lamp. When scanning a regular photograph, you have a lamp within the flatbed that moves illuminating the photograph to scan it - that is exactly what happens when we use our eyes - we use external light to illuminate the photograph.
The TMA has a light that illuminates through the negative, and a subsequent scan will show the image as seen when light passes THROUGH the film. That is the basic minimum requirement of using a scanner for negatives - a back lit lamp.

It is not quite as simplistic as it may seem, to use a regular scanner to do the job of a scanner with a TMA. The backlit lamp needs to be calibrated for intensity, this is usually done by the scanner firmware. Some TMA's have motors that will move the backlit lamp in synch with the CCD carriage below.
There are of course other considerations to using a good TMA on a flatbed, stuff like dynamic range and resolution; but these are things that I can get into detail if you are considering buying one of those devices. For now, I just thought I'd tell you why you cannot just scan a negative and invert.

[mystvearn]

so if I use back lit, I might get the scan photos?