Introduction

[kenlaughlin]

I have just joined this forum following many years of basic photography that started with my father in our makeshift darkroom in the early 1960's. I had a box brownie and its successor, cannot remember the name, but still have those old cameras stored somewhere.
I still rate myself as a beginner despite many years of taking photos.
My father was an avid photographer both in WA and Tasmania over many years, he is now 94 and confined to a retirement home.
I have inherited his darkroom equipment which includes a home made enlarger, many boxes of unopened photographic paper which has most likely expired now.
My main interest currently is in scanning the thousands of negatives to make a large printed volume of his work for my family. I am having trouble with the scanning process with most of the negatives and that is why I have joined this site.
I am not sure if there is a technical help thread regarding scanning old negatives, as being new I know I am not able to see all the threads, I have read the info created for new members and it seemed very much focussed on competitions and help with camera techniques.
I also tried to message Ricktas to ask if this forum site is appropriate to my current needs but could not access pm's due to my current new status.
I plan to participate once I can adequately scan the old negatives with a focus on my fathers pics based on history in both WA and Tasmania.
kenlaughlin

[ameerat42]

Hello, Ken, and welcome to AP.

It sounds to me from your background description that you may not be a Beginner as such as defined by AP,
but have a look at the guidelines here under New Users in the Site Rules and then decide. It's easy to change
your profile to Intermediate.

Otherwise, you should have fairly full access to the site, most especially the PM system. Feel free to send me a
test PM if you like.

No, the site is not focused on Competitions, but that's just one of the mainstay activities we provide. You are
very welcome to participate in that, but please be aware that many of the competitions are based on skill level.
Further, the type of critique you get for your work ideally reflects the member's skill level.

Apart from that, have a look at the various sections of The Library, particularly the "New To Photography"
section.

Specifically on scanning film, do an "Advanced Search" with keywords like scanning/slides/film/negatives.
There have been quite a few threads on the topics in the past. Some of the info may be outdated, but the
basic techniques should still be relevant.

Lastly, please do not limit your participation here to just what you may consider to be your current needs.
Importantly, too, AP considers the "copyright" of images to be important, and as such, directly displaying
images that are not your own, and especially asking for critique on such is not allowed. For your scanning
project, you may provide a link to the images of interest and ask general questions about them, but for
those, you may not ask for critique. Certainly, however, you may ask for help with techniques involved in
scanning the images.

Please make a new thread about seeking help with scanning your slides and negatives, and ask for any
specific help and advice you may require.

You may probably best start in the General Help forum, and perhaps title your thread along the lines of
"Help scanning negatives/slides".

Good luck, and enjoy AP.

ameerat42.

[Mary Anne]

Hi Ken and Welcome to AP. A very interesting intro.
So much info from ameerat42 which will be a Great Help to you.
And will look forward to seeing what you post on the Forums.

[kenlaughlin]

thanks for the replies to my Introduction, I have had a bit of a look for the content I need and will be following some suggestions.

[ameerat42]

Ken, and do feel free to make up a new thread on the topic if you need.
--Oh, and ask questions.

[canguro]

Hi Ken, and welcome to AP. It sounds as though those thousand of negatives are an unexplored treasure trove, an Australian's version of Vivian Maier perhaps? You might find it useful at some point to speak with your State Library technical people or similar; many of these institutions have done exactly as you wish to do... digitising old images and pulling images out of old negatives.

Cheers, Grant