How to properly scan and add metadata to your film photographs

Film photography isn’t nearly as prevalent as it once was, but there are plenty of photographers who still prefer emulsion over electronics, myself included. Despite preferring the analogue method when it comes to capturing photographs, it’s essential to turn the film negatives into digital files for sharing them online.

To do that, you can either send out your film to be scanned by the multitude of professional labs out there, or you can do it yourself. The latter usually won’t produce the best results, but with the right amount of knowledge and preparation, it’s not impossible to get great scans of your images all from the comfort of your home.

Ted Forbes of The Art of Photography has long been scanning his film photography when the time calls for it. And to help others figure out the enigmatic process, he’s created a helpful video that details the methodology behind properly scanning you negatives and adding appropriate metadata to the resulting files.

The 15-minute video is a great watch for any film photographers out there, whether you shoot a roll a month or three rolls a day.

In the video Forbes mentions the use of a device called the Meta35, a little USB device that connects to supported film cameras to import shooting data from rolls of film. For more information on Meta35, you can check out their website.

For more helpful videos from Forbes, you can head on over and subscribe to The Art of Photography YouTube Channel.