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So for my birthday this year, one of my presents was a large assortment of Star Trek film cuttings(COA included). Very awesome! Now I want to do something with them. I was thinking of scanning them and blowing them up, then have them printed and framed. Well a few at least.

Now the trouble I've been having is actually scanning the film. It has to have a back light in order for the scanner to read it properly. Too much light and you get a glow effect. Too little light and it looks milky.

I've tried two techniques so far, one consisting of a piece of glass, sketch paper, coffee can and LED light. Results shown:


Second one was using two pieces of glass, a LED light underneath and a digital camera. Results shown:


A few problems with this...one, my scanner only goes up to 600dpi, so I'm limited on the size of my scanned image. Also getting the light just right is very hard and it took me a good 2 hours to get it to look like that. Two, the camera tech is just not practical and requires allot of trial and error. Also I'm limited on size...not to mention the grainy effect I get.

So does anyone have some suggestions for digitizing some film? I'd rather not have to go out and buy a $100 film scanner and I definitely don't want to have to hire a professional.

Thanks!

They do sell scanners around 100 bucks that can scan at ridiculously high DPI. That would probably resolve your grainy issues but the backlight, perhaps find a light intended for tracing drawings and lay it on the scanner?

Maybe something bright and reflective would be better than a back light. I mean, the scanner will have a light, maybe just bright paper over the cell would be enough, and might actually reduce the grainy effect - like, maybe it's not helping to have 2 light sources fighting over the same cell, try and let the scanner light do all the work - it's only supposed to highlight the scan line, I think having the whole thing highlighted is causing more problems than it solves. Also - try scanning with the lights out, reducing the amount of non-scanner light can really help, especially with cheaper scanners. Frankly, I got better results with scanners 15 years ago than I do with these cheap and nasty USB scanners we get nowadays.

I know you don't want to hear it but a 600dpi scanner isn't going to help your cause. You have something worth scanning properly, I would go looking for a kind soul to lend you a higher res scanner for a couple of days.

Before you kill yourself, maybe take a look with a magnifying glass. They may just be that grainy. I hope not but if they are reprints, they might be that grainy.

Not reprints lol. They're not grainy too. They look really good when magnified under a lens. Very crisp and clean. Just when scanned, they look like butt. :/