Best applications to digitize negatives they have characteristics that make them unique, allowing them to go from an analog film to a digital format. This not only helps to recover the priceless memories of photos, but also helps to retouch them and make them look much better.
In this opportunity I will tell you what are the applications and software that will help you in the work of digitizing your negatives in analog films. It is important that you know that not all of these applications require in-depth knowledge to achieve the task, some are very simple and carry out the process automatically.
Best applications to digitize negatives from the mobile
You may be thinking that the process of digitizing a negative is something long, laborious or even complex. However, application developers have put commitment to make our work significantly easier. Here I give you a sample of what I consider to be the best applications to digitize negatives from your mobile.
FilmBox by Photomyne
It is a pretty friendly free app, which with the help of artificial intelligence allows you to scan photographic negatives with your mobile camera. To run the process no further knowledge is required, we only need a light source to show the negative, capture the negative and wait.
Once the product is obtained, the app itself will take care of improving the colors and help define the contours of the objects and people that appear in the image.
Based on data from Google Play, this app has more than a million downloads and more than 22 users left their opinion, averaging 4.4 stars out of the top 5.
Photo Negative Scanner
This app was created exclusively to obtain images of the negatives through scanning with our mobile camera. The process is carried out in real time, when we capture and automatically, the product is generated in true color.
Photo Negative Scanner has been an excellent and high quality tool, however, has not had updates for a few months, which has made it unstable for some mobile models. Despite this, as of the date of writing this note, it has more than 1 million downloads and a score of 4.0 stars.
Negative scanners
Another of the apps specialized exclusively in obtaining digital images from physical negatives. Despite execute the conversion automaticallya, it is not done in real time when scanning the negative. Its interface is quite friendly and simple, without being flashy.
It has a series of filters, which allow you to improve the natural color of the image or even black and white. At the time, this app was very well received, with more than 10 active users. Currently, it has not received any new updates, which has caused a decrease in its downloads. Another element to keep in mind is that the application is in english, so you need to know the language to use it.
pictoscanner
This is another of the jewels in the crown in terms of digitizing negatives. The application allows not only to take the negatives to positives, but the opposite process, thus taking raw data digitally. The tool has more than 50 thousand downloads.
A very striking element of PictoScanner is the use of a device specially designed to place the mobile while you pass the negatives, which was sold all over the world. The application promoted the use of equipment as part of the job, which gave him more publicity.
Negative Image
Unlike the apps mentioned above, Negative Image is a tool that seeks to apply filters to any type of images, highlighting the negatives. Despite this, in our case, it can be useful, because when scanning a negative we can give it color.
I found it quite interesting, because not be a specialized app to digitize negatives, we can also do it and in an excellent way. The quality of Negative Image speaks for itself with over 1 million downloads worldwide, from Google Play alone.
Best software to digitize negatives from the computer
Not everything is done through the mobile, there is a large number of computer tools that allow us to digitize of the negatives obtained from physical films. Keep in mind that many of these tools require slightly longer processes, but they generate many times better results than those that are done automatically.
The process carried out by the applications to digitize negatives is based on obtaining the digital negative and subsequently processing it. With desktop software it is necessary to obtain the digitization of the negative and convert it into a photograph later. Here are some of the most used tools:
GIMP
Surely you have heard or read about GIMPa open source app that allows image editing. You can download this software for free on its website and once installed achieve excellent results.
The process consists of loading the digitized negative on your computer and then applying a color inversion, as well as editing other elements to improve colorization.
Befunky
This option, unlike the others on the list, no installation required, as it runs directly in your web browser. Befunky It is quite a friendly tool and we can use it without the need for a subscription.
As in the previous case, it is recommended to invert the colors and then improve the colors, achieving a high quality digital image. This tool can be used from the computer or as a mobile app, I add it in this section because it is, in my opinion, more user-friendly from a web browser.
Photoshop
This is maybe one of the tools most used by professionals all over the world, mainly by professional designers and photographers. Unlike the previously mentioned tools, it requires a subscription.
With Photoshop you can perform converting the negative into a digital positive, generating important visual improvements, such as color, sharpness or even removing the existing noise in the image.
I hope you have enjoyed this tour of what I consider to be the best applications to digitize negatives, both from your mobile and from your computer. If you think that an application was left out of the list, leave it in the comments to update the note.