Part 5 - Scanning & Editing 120 Film

We'll do a quick little set up to swap our camera scanning set up from 35mm to 120 film, then we'll jump in!

Start by taking off the 35mm film carrier and unscrew the bottom piece. Replace it with the 120 bottom piece, screw it in, then add 120 film carrier. Set that cutie on top, and raise the camera up to the higher 120 mark. Turn on lightbox, turn off any competing lights and you're good to go!

A few notes as you start to scan:

• With 120, make sure you're feeding the film left to right.

• I have better luck taking the dust brush off when I feed in the film.

• When you start feeding the them, pull the door flap up, then feed it in until the first image is visible.

• Once you see your shot, close the door flap and start scanning. FYI - you'll raise and lower this flap every time you advance to the next image!

We're right back in it, it's time for a little set up.

Just like when you're scanning 35mm, you'll open EOS Utility 3 and click on remote shooting. You might have a couple quick tweaks to the set up here since we adjust the stand to allow more light in (because 120 is bigger than 35mm y'all). I like to make sure:

• I set the images to RAW.

• I keep ISO to around 200.

• I adjust the F-stop close to the 4.5 mark.

• I speed up that shutter speed to 1/320.

Find the Live Shoot to pull up those images. It doesn't hurt to check your preferences again here too, just to make sure you have that neatly organized destination folder in place. 

Okay let's start scanning!

• Double click in center square, then zoom in and double click again to get her in focus. 

• Press space bar to take the first scan of your first negative. 

• Then use the dial to push through to the next frame.

• It's a rotating door effect: lift the flap, feed the film, drop the flap back down, hit that space bar and repeat.  

Now let's hop into Lightroom to convert these bad boys. 

• Just like with 35mm the first thing I like to do before I start editing is go through and adjust for correct orientation. Use command then either the left or right bracket (left for counter-clockwise and right for clockwise) to rotate the images. 

• Then last thing before you convert your images - you'll want to adjust the white balance. Press "W" and then move the dropper to the frame of the image - make sure all the squares in the sample areas are the same shade, then click and it will white balance the whole image.

Okay now you're ready to convert.

• Hit command "N" to pop open the editing tool. In the convert tab, your settings can stay the same as in 35mm. Here it's really important to keep that border buffer around 4% just so you don't run the risk of cutting it too close. 

• Now let's talk about all the controls at our finger tips in the edit tab. This is where you get to play with the tone setting. Each photo has different lighting scenarios, play with tones to see what works best with your style. You know I love beautiful haziness of the "Cinematic - Log," the strong, punchiness of the "Lab Standard" and the shadows of "Linear Deep" tones. Just like in 35mm, play around here and let your favorite tones surprise you. Don't panic if things look too dark, these are just the preliminary edits to actual edits. At this stage, I focus primarily on highlights, a little bit of color and overall tone. Okay and sometimes I flirt with the brightness a little here too. But this is just your first go around on the edit, so be patient with yourself!

• In the advanced tab, those settings don't need to shift from 35mm. Just do a quick once over to make sure you're all set. Then press apply, your image will turn into a positive, and it will save automatically in your subfolder. Then repeat for your next image!

Now let's go find our positives and start editing.

• Go back to your Library, and find the Positives folder - this is the collection you'll edit. Set up a smart folder here, you'll thank me later. 

• Once your images are in play, I set myself up with a white background (just double click on the background and choose your preference). 

• Removing dust is top priority again here - go wild with that bandaid tool to get rid of those blemishes. 

• Then it's all about the fabric and feel of the image itself. Here's where I bring contrast up, adjust my shadows, play with tint, saturation and color tones. Warmth, vibrancy, exposure...they're all in play here. 

• To edit in Black & White (yes sometimes I break the taboo of turning color film monochrome), I make sure no edits have been applied, and I choose "Black & White" in the "Treatment" tab. It's a quick shift to make your image monochromatic without adding a preset. When in doubt, make a copy of the image then apply the Black & White treatment, creating an alternative edit for your clients to love in the final gallery. 

• I play with framing here too. There's an art of cropping to find new images resting within the originals, and I totally encourage you to go wild with that crop tool. But when I'm shooting 120, I like to lock in the aspect ratio to preserve the integrity of the larger format. 

• And don't panic, you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. If you have a series of similar-toned images, you can copy final settings from another image, paste and work from there. 

Once you've edited all of your photos, you're ready to export the photos! Rearrange the images as needed, the click command "A" to select all the images, then hit command, shift and  "e" to export. Choose specific folder for your newly edited scans, and I recommend exporting the files JPEGs at 95%.

I hope you can see that scanning photos at home gives you so much more flexibility and freedom to create with film. Higher resolution scans allow you to crop and play without sacrificing resolution, and it's been such a big unlock for me in my process.