There I was, incredibly excited after receiving a box full of newly processed color 120 negatives after waiting 6 months to view them. Opening the little boxes as if it was Christmas morning once more, the rolled up film inside. I prepared to ready them for scanning into my computer to view them properly. When they were in the negative tray, I hit scan….then it happened…the dreaded ERROR report from the scanner. I tried everything to make my old friend work but it looked after many long years we were about to part ways. My scanner has fallen gravely ill and I was out of luck.
NOW, what do I do…with no patience and a box of beautiful color negatives begging to be seen. Think woman think! Just then I thought, if I had a light table perhaps I could set up the tripod and shoot them, in that way digitizing them. IF I had a light table…
I set about and did a little bit of online searching and settled upon a light box to save space in the studio. Being a lover of French red wine, I have a surplus of wooden wine boxes, so I had found the foundation for my project.
After a visit to the hardware store I found a couple florescent light bars and a sheet of plexy glass. After cutting the plexy to fit the box top I wrapped it with heavy tracing paper to diffuse the light.
Cutting 2 holes for the cables, I then affixed the light bars inside the box and fed the cords to the outlet. I put a few pictures together to show you the finished results. The whole project at time of assembly must have taken all of 30 minutes.
I haven’t attempted shooting negatives on the light box yet, but I thought this small project might be interesting to others who might find themselves in this same shocking predicament.
There is always more than one way to shed some light on the situation. If you too are interesting in creating a box of light of your own here are a few get web pages to follow.
by lthek
5 comments
link to this post email a friend