Mystery films
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While going through my photography gear I came by not one, but two rolls of undeveloped T-Max 400. I had no idea what those rolls contained, or when they had been shot. It was time to visit the local photo store.
The clerk at the store was a bit unsure whether there would be any usable frames as I explained that the films could have been shot as long as a decade ago. Fortunately there were good news when I went to pick up the films the next day. Sure, the negatives came out a bit dark, but as I quickly reviewed them on the light table, I could see some good stuff from when I was studying arts some 12 years ago. The other roll was a bit fresher, it had been sitting undeveloped for just 5 years.
At home it was time to fire up my trusted Epson ja re-learn how to scan negatives. Recently I had relied on the photo store to scan my negs, but as I was not sure what the photos were exactly about, I wanted some privacy.
Well, there was just one nude and I was the subject. Many frames depicting student life, i.e. partying. I have fond memories of the Halloween party shown in the photos. The newer roll also had photos of memorable moments. Again, partying, but that specific party was held a day after my wife and I learned that we were expecting our first child. She drank virgin whiskey colas at the night of the party.
On scanning negatives
As I said before, it'd been a long time since I had scanned negatives myself. The first trial yielded poor results, so I turned to YouTube for tips and tricks. The second round of scanning resulted in much better images with crisper look and better tonal gradation. Sure, the time spent undeveloped had definitely impacted the negs, but I'd say the results were quite okay!
With careful gradation during the scanning progress, I had to do only minimal edits in Lightroom. On most photos I only cropped them to taste and removed the most glaring specs of dust.
Got something to say? Please reach out to mkukka@jkry.org!