Scanning: Film Holders vs Wet Mounted
What is the difference between the two scanning options we offer? Why choose one or the other? What is a wet scan?
It depends on what you want to use your scan for, and what you want to get out of it.
When scanning with a film holder, the negative sits in the holder on top of the scanner glass. When wet scanning, the negative is wet mounted directly to the scanner glass using wet scanning fluid and a sheet of mylar. Because the negative is flush directly on the glass, it makes for a sharper scan. It is also a cleaner scan, which means you have to spend less time hunting for and editing out dust on your images.
Wet scanned on an Epson V800 flatbed scanner. Picture made with Kodak Portra 160 in a Yashica-Mat twin lens.
Scanned with a film holder on an Epson V800 flatbed scanner. Picture made with Kodak Portra 160 in a Yashica-Mat twin lens.
Film holder scan.
Wet scan.
We recommend wet scanning for any negative that will be printed at a large size. Wet scanning saves you time in Photoshop because you don’t have to edit out as much dust. We prefer wet scanning because it produces a sharper, more versatile scan that is easier to work with.
