Emulating analog film digitally Part 1 - Scanning the film

Pineapple Kodachrome 64
Scanned with Sony NEX-5N

When I started with photography, shooting film was the one and only option to make photographs. There are very few things I miss from that era. Photographing on film was slow, expensive and eager for all kind of errors. Change to get a good photo was 1 in 10 and the worst part was that you didn't know it before the film was developed. The film supply was also limited compared to digital where it is practically unlimited. You really had to know your film, gear and your limits as a photographer.

What I do miss in the film, are the colors and looks that a properly exposed film can give you. A digital camera is much more faithful to the source, that’s for sure, but the eclectic colors in film are irreplaceable.

I´m not the only one with this opinion, the popularity of Instagram is based on their filters trying to mimic film. Software which mimics film like DxO, VSCO, Replichrome, NIK etc. are very popular. The forte and problem with these are that you can freely try different kinds of styles and pick up the one you like. What you don´t know is how well they emulate the film and of course it doesn’t matter as long as you’re happy. Very few of these reveals any comparison between the real film and their outlook. Mastin Labs is the only one I’m aware of who shows film and emulated digital version side by side. I also pay respect to Totally Rads scientific approach in their creation process of film presets. All the movies older than 10 years and many of the fresher movies (http://motion.kodak.com/motion/customers/productions/default.htm) are shot on analog film. We´re used to the look of film.

When reading photography forums about the subject of mimicking film digitally there’s always few wise guys claiming that you can’t – if you want the look then shoot film. If the digital capture contains more information than the comparable film, then you CAN replicate the look, no debate here. How its done, is a totally different topic altogether.

Because I’m very fond of the look of film and I got lots and lots of film in my depot, I decided that I have to do it myself - my very own version of digital film.

Before one can impersonate film, one needs to know how does the film look. It’s not as straightforward as you may think. To make things simple, there’s two types of color film; negative and positive(slide) transparent film. Negative film is the more common “consumer” film. Positive is the one used by professionals, all the pictures you will see in National Geographic where exposed to a positive transparency film. Negative film is more forgiving for incorrect exposure but will give you more washed out colors compared to positive film (in general). Positive film is very picky about correct exposure, but will give you brilliant spectrum of vivid colors. I used to underexpose positive transparency film by ½ stop to tune down the luminosity with a result of even deeper colors. Positive film is “ready” when developed through the chemicals. Just look at the film through an open window and what you see is what you get. Negative film is supposed to end as prints and needs an inversion correction with some adjustments to remove the orange cast layer to correct impure dyes. The “real” look of the negative film is thus unknown.



My first attempt was to transfer the authentic look of the film to my computer screen. Proper equipment is a necessity. Screens, cameras and scanners and the quality of light must be calibrated to the point of perfection. Nothing can be neglected in this workflow. 

My setup for scanning film. With 1:1 Macro i was able to get 16 Mp files which is more than enough to squeeze all the details out.

The film has to be scanned first. My scanner is Epson Perfection V750 PRO flatbed scanner and Sony NEX-5N camera with Olympus OM Zuiko 50 mm 3.5 Macro lens extended with 24mm extension tube. Both systems profiled and calibrated. As a light table I used a 20 W high cri led floodlight with a neutral photographic paper on top to make the light even. Copying film with the camera gave me better results in sharpness and color control, however the scanner handled the high density of slide film better. Theoretically speaking a 35mm film contains more information compared to any digital camera today, but the problem is that there’s no practical way to squeeze it out. successful snapshot with film needs perfect circumstances; film is slow, try to walk around with your digital camera and shoot only with ISO 100 or even less, you’ll miss many of the opportunities. I Managed to squeeze out information from a 35 mm film compared to 6 Mpix digital camera, give or take.

Scanning the film

Positive film

Many scans of those legendary slide films like Kodachrome and Velvia are ruined with a heavy blue/magenta cast. These films are supposed to be watched with a slide projector casted against a white/silver wall. Slide projectors were equipped with a 3000 K tungsten lamp which addressed the color cast. Film itself is daylight balanced and daylight should be your white balance target. You don´t want to correct the white balance for each frame as in digital photography. My approach was that I measured the white balance and tint from the light table directly. If the film itself has a slight tint you will get it on the scans too which is desirable. When you look at the slide against a high quality neutral light (through the window on an overcast day) and if you notice any color cast, then it’s a characteristic of the film and should not be “corrected”.

The scan should be as close as possible compared to the original. The slight color cast here is due the wrong hue in computer screen.

Negative film

Negative film is trickier. The scanner software has some kind of algorithm to convert it to a positive but the result is not even near what I looked for. My approach was to scan it as a positive film and do the conversion in Photoshop which gives a more linear tonal response and greater latitude for editing. After the initial inversion in Photoshop the picture has a cyan cast (originally orange before inversion) which must be corrected. The color cast can easily be removed by adjusting the black and white points individually for each color channel. I also tried to separate the cast to its own layer and set the blend mode to divide. Outcome was almost the same, but I prefer the first method. I’m not sure if I succeeded to reveal the “real” look of the negative film, because every method I used ended up with slightly different outcome, but used the best attempt as a reference. I will write a separate article how do the conversion for negative film – it´s complicated.