Scanning Glass Plate Negatives

[Serenoa]

The post by Vigdis (Blossom) prompted me to post this question.

I have about 50 very old glass plate negatives that I found in an old antique desk that I had purchased many years ago. The desk was imported from England (Manchester area) so I assume the photos are also.

I can see by holding them to the light that they are very old, men in either WWI or Boer War uniforms, old houses, children and women in old fashioned clothing, and some photos of graves. They seem to be from the late 1800's. Not my family, but someones.

I have tried to scan these by laying them on the glass plate of my flatbed scanner but they come out all black. I'm thinking maybe the scanner light is reflecting off the emulsion on the plates. Another scanner I have has a device for scanning negatives where the light comes from above but these plates are all about 5x7 and much bigger than the device.

Any ideas on how to do this? I would love to do a series using these photos - the "unknown family" kind of thing. TIA

[blkcow]

I have no idea how to help you out...but just the idea of having glass plate negs is just so exciting....hopefully somebody can help you out with this project! Good luck...can't wait to see the pages!!!

[DonnaNJ]

Hi Barbara: You do need a scanner capable of scanning negatives to do this. If you flatbed isn't you might call around to some photo stores in the area and see if they can scan them for you. Good luck DonnaNJ

[Chris]

Have you tried taking your black scans into Photoshop, and done the Image>adjust>invert thing? Then if there's any image, you might play with the settings. Of course, this won't work if they're completely black.

Not a good image, but I've done this just to see what was on slides. This was before I got my negative scanner.

[Netleigh]

You need a lightbox to give an even source of light to shine through the glass negative on the flatbed scanner. The ones with negative scanners have a light in the attachment for the negative.
If none of your crafting friends have a lightbox, a professional copying service could arrange it I expect it would be pretty expensive.
Good luck, I hope to see the results here sometime.

[Serenoa]

Netleigh - Could you please explain in detail how I would use the lightbox to do this on the scanner? I do have a lightbox that I use when doing stained glass work, but it is really big. I also have a smaller one somewhere for viewing slides but can't picture how to use either with the scanner. Thanks.

Chris - the negatives are scanning as solid black. I tried bringing them into PS, but there is nothing there.

[Netleigh]

Barbara,
Take the lid off the scanner, put the glass plate negative on the flatbed, put the lightbox(hope it's not too big!) on top(obviously light side down). Switch lightbox on so it shines through the negative, scan, then you should get an image rather than black. Then all you have to do is invert the image in Photoshop.
Hope this works for you.

[Serenoa]

Thanks so much - I'll give it a try tomorrow.