Negative to Positive

Question

Negative to Positive

I went into my Apple store in Norwich and have been waiting since Tuesday for a reply!

I have lots of old glass negatives and I want to turn them into positives. I can't see anywhere on iphoto that allows this to happen. Any ideas please?

Cheers.

Norfolk-Tours

Mini Mac

Posted on Jan 28, 2011 7:37 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,260 points

Jan 28, 2011 7:42 AM in response to Norfolk Tours

There isn't one.

These will have to be scanned, right? I think you would do that conversion during that process.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

Jan 28, 2011 8:04 AM in response to Yer_Man

I take photographs of the negative using a light box.

Oh well, I will have to buy a scanner. What a shame iphoto can't do it!

Thanks.

Glynn

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,260 points

Jan 28, 2011 8:10 AM in response to Norfolk Tours

If you're snapping the photos like this (and, you know, it's always good to tell folks these details) you can convert them from negative to positive with an app like Photoshop.

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Answer 4

Jan 28, 2011 8:17 AM in response to Yer_Man

So iphoto can't do it? That is what I need to know, thanks.

I didn't think it was important how I got the negatives as my question was simply can I change them to positives using iphoto.

Is photoshop on my mac already or do I have to buy that from somewhere? I am not a computer person as you can already see, I know nothing about these things.

Thanks again.

🙂

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Answer 5

Jan 28, 2011 8:19 AM in response to Norfolk Tours

As Terrence said, almost any image editor will do this. If it is any consolation, Aperture can't do it either (easily).

You could possibly hold the image up to the screen and get photobooth to do it. 8^)

Message was edited by: Keith Barkley

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Answer 6

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,260 points

Jan 28, 2011 8:23 AM in response to Norfolk Tours

Sorry, just trying to be helpful. No, Photoshop is not on your Mac, it requires a purchase. I would counsel that of you're not a "computer person" you might be best getting this job done by someone else. But that's just trying to be helpful too.

Regards

TD

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Answer 7

Jan 28, 2011 8:32 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks, I know you are both trying to be helpful and I appreciate that. I apologise if I sounded discourteous. It is just that I get frustrated as I bought this Mac with iphoto on it expecting it to do similar things to what my other computer did when it came to converting negatives, after all, iphoto is a great programme for most photographic stuff. I don't expect to buy another programme just to transpose negatives.

Never mind. More money.

Glynn

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Answer 8

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jan 28, 2011 8:51 AM in response to Norfolk Tours

FYI - iPhoto is a photo management program designed for casual photographers and is designed around point and shoot cameras - and comes free with your Mac - it is a great program but is not a professional editor like Photoshop - You have expectations that are not realistic - and note that yours is probably the second or third request for this obscure feature that I have seen out of tens of thousands of questions in these forums - and as TD noted I would expect most scanner software to handle this

LN

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Answer 9

Jan 28, 2011 9:22 AM in response to Norfolk Tours

Amazon has a good deal on Adobe Photoshop Elements today.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/theonlinephotographer/2011/01/deal-o-the-day.html

Gimp is free.

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