This year, I brought home over 3,000 color slides, representing my parents archive, so could digitize them. I have an Epson 750 flatbed scanner, which produces good results in the past, but is slow. As much as I love my parents, I didn’t want this project to take the rest of my life.

I saw some people using their DLSR cameras to scan their film. After a little research, and a few YouTube views, I discovered Negative Supply, based in California. This was the solution I needed.

Negative Supply specializes in equipment to copy analog images with a DLSR. I was impressed with the build of their equipment and the ability to copy up to 8x10 negatives, which I have. Using their equipment has made this project affordable without compromising quality. The light box, which is at the center of their product offering, is a bright, even, color balanced LED workhorse. I’m very happy with the results. If using film is part of your creative process, this is an integral investment in your postproduction workflow.

I love the way my film cameras “see” the world, but I want to play with them digitally.

A good solution didn’t exist, but the need to digitize my parents slide collection has led me to a whole new way of working. I wouldn’t have considered if it was only for me.

Investing in my work and ideas is still a struggle. Call it low self-esteem, lack of faith, whatever. The result is I get frustrated, putter around, and accomplish nothing, which leads to more low self-esteem. Ah, existence!

The importance of film as an archival tool has been become very clear. Kodachrome was an amazing film. I was digitizing 75 year old images that hadn’t shifted in color. Using film makes sense. There will always be a way to digitize a physical thing. In fact, the digital workflow is only going to improve.

Now, I can go back into my own film archive and produce images from negatives I couldn’t afford to scan. The affliction of large format photography means big scans, for big files, for big money. It is hard to work freely or experiment when each scan is at least $50 Now I can make a camera RAW file with my DLSR and create without compromise.

I’m not an early adopter of anything, mainly because the early technology offers more convenience at the expense of quality. What I like about this workflow is it harkens back to older methods: using a copy camera for negatives, but raises the quality in the digital realm. This setup will be with me for the long haul.