Photomyne offer a smart scanner app for digitizing and saving your old camera film negatives – using nothing but your smartphone. FilmBox makes it easy to view, capture, and save analog film negatives.
With the help of a light source, FilmBox turns your phone’s camera into a smart film reader. It then inverts the negative colors into positive and enhances the image, resulting in a bright and beautiful photograph waiting to be revealed. With a push of a button, you can then capture the image which is then saved as a digital photo in the app.
Tip #1: Use a dark or low-lit room
Since the app requires scanning film strips against a backlight source, it’s best to ensure the room itself is dark or low-lit, with the backlight being the only light source in the room. This is to avoid glares and reflections in your scans. So turn off the lights 🙂
Tip #2: Set up a backlight source
The app’s scanner requires a backlight source that will light up the actual image in the film you’re scanning. You can easily open a white screen on a tablet or computer, or use the photomyne.com/backlight link provided in the app. Make sure the device you set up the backlight on is set to the highest brightness setting possible.
Create a backlight source to reveal the images in your negative strip
Tip #3: Start scanning in front of the light
Once you have the backlight source set up, grab a film strip and hold it (steady) in front of the light. We recommend holding the strip vertically while ensuring the strip’s holes (perforated border) are included in your scanning screen.
Feel free to scan using the app’s capture button or activate the voice control for an easy hands-free scanning action – just say “Go” and the app will take a scan shot for you (currently available only on iOS devices). Here’s how to enable voice control for scanning.
Tip #4: Keep the right distance
Avoid holding the film strip too close to the screen of your light source. This is to avoid the appearance of a pixelated photo. A distance of about 2 inches (or 5 cm) should be fine.
Make sure to leave some space between the film strip and the backlight screen
Tip #5: Keep your device steady
A steady device means in-focus scanned images, so do your best to hold your phone as still as possible while scanning (that’s why using voice control to activate scans is highly recommended here). If you need help with keeping your phone static, consider using a phone stand or a similar structure to keep your phone in place.
That’s it. See how the app does it all on its own. It will detect the image in the negative film strip, rotate it, invert and enhance the colors, and then crop the image part from the slide’s margins. Lastly, it will save the image as a digital photo in the app.