A comparison between a print image and digitized image from a film negative

The ageing of print images

Photos from the time interval 1950–2005 was sometimes negatives from which a color print image was produced, by a chemical process.

Below is an example of images from October 1996. The original was a 24×36 mm negative and from this a chemical print of size 10×15 cm was produced immediately after the film was developed.

The corresponding digital image, scanned from the negative in 2007, got a resolution of 5600×3600 pixels. Click on the image to view the corresponding image in full size.

The conclusion is that the dynamic range is higher in the digitized film than in the 10 year old chemical print.

Chemical print, 10 years old size 10×15 cm	Digitized photo from negative, 5600×3600 pixels

The development of scanners

Another comparison can be made by comparing the print scan made in 1997 with a film scan made a decade later in 2008.

Image scanned from a print in 1997 (filters applied)	Image scanned from a film negative in 2008