When my parents passed away and we were left to go through the house, my sister and I started sorting through the pictures. What a daunting task. In the end, I said I would take the negatives naively thinking I would just make prints of stuff back as we did in the old days.
I was so disappointed when I learned that making photos from negatives we so 1970 and not only was impossible to find someone to do it, it was expensive.
The negatives got put in a box and I left them. I had hope that someday I’d figure out a way to do something with them.
Not too long ago while I was scrolling through Instagram I saw an app called FilmBox by Photomyne.
Supposedly you can take a negative, put it in front of a clear light source, take a picture of it with the app and it will turn into a picture on your phone.
Hmm. That sounded interesting. I watched the advertisement for the app many times. I am super skeptical of things and don’t want to be ripped off. So, I didn’t get the app. I was afraid there was some hidden something so I left if be.
Then one-day Kalissa was at my house and I showed her the app. She said let’s try it…so we did.
There is a free 3-day trial and then you are charged $29 a year. I think there was a $ 7-a-month option too. I did the $29 for a year. I have my immediate family negatives I’d love to go through too.
Kalissa and I went through a few negatives from our family and then a few days later, I pulled the negatives from my parent’s house and started working on a few of them.
I just adore old pictures…and my brothers were so cute. Here are… Jim and Jay. They are 4 and 6 years older than me. My dad made this corncrib for Jim as his birthday present. You can still see the bow on top. That was our dog flipper with them.
Here is a picture of my oldest three siblings, Judy, Jule, and Jay with our dog Nippy.
The app has a button users can click and then the picture is colorized. Isn’t that neat??
Here is a picture of my older siblings…
I colorized that one too.
It is SUPER easy to turn the negatives into pictures. Simply place the negative on a whiteboard. I have THIS ONE from Amazon. Set the board to the highest white setting. Open the app on your phone and hold down the button. Then you have a picture that can be downloaded onto your phone.
If there is interest, I can try to do a video on how to do it. It is super simple. So simple that I can do it and surprisingly, I am not tech-savvy.
Here’s another picture of my siblings and dad. Left to right it’s Jule, Judy, Jay, and my dad. Of course, as with all families, there are fewer family photos of the younger kids…I’m the youngest.
I smiled after I saw this photo. This was my mom’s kitchen. She and Dad bought her stove on the day JFK died. They were in the appliance store when a television in the store reported the news of his passing. It was a brown Coppertone-colored stove. I should have made a color version of this one. The oven door was lower and my mom would turn on the oven, open the door a few inches and let the heat of the oven go up her back. This is totally 60s!!
I sent several of the photos to my siblings. These are my brothers Jim and Jay. Jay was Mrs. Harper Valley PTA. I sent the photo to him.
Jay said this started his love of dressing up for Halloween. He said he won the 4th grade Halloween costume contest with this outfit. HA!!
I found this older picture of him. It was one of the first old trucks he bought. He doesn’t remember seeing this picture ever and was happy to see it.
After some discussion between the siblings, we decided to try to get together one day and go through the negatives. I’m excited to do this.
Luckily at one point, my sister sorted through many of these and put them in each sibling’s envelope.
Sadly, I have this huge envelope of negatives for my own family…they all need attention too.
I hope to tackle them a little at a time. I have a year to do it and then I’ll cancel my app charge so I don’t pay for another year.
I thought I would share this as I’m certain there are many of you who also have negatives and would like to do something more cost-effective with them and find a way to preserve them. Again, the app was FilmBox.
Let me know if you try it and what you think of it…me, I’m loving it!!
Wow, what a program! I would love a video and will look up the app online. Would this work with slides? I have several cases of slides my dad took of my brothers and me in the late 1950/60s and would like prints of some of them. Or at least save the slides in a better way. I have 6-8 large boxes of negatives/photos from when my children were growing up. Back then I could order 2 photo print copies for slightly over the cost of 1 set when I mailed the film across the country to be developed and then I’d mail the 2nd set of prints to my mom and relatives that lived 1,000 + miles from us. My mom has 6-8 boxes of her photos in her closet. I had hoped we’d organize them but she never wants to do it when I visit her. I would like to get my photos organized and not leave the job to my kids.
The photo of you with your siblings and the pet dog is lovely. The dog looks like the sort you are now regularly fostering! Sounds an amazing app- perfect for your job of turning those negatives into photos.
oh I so agree and the little boy looked so much like Carver plus that dog had me wondering if I was reading the description for the correct ohoto. this sounds wonderful
Wow, what a brilliant app! Thanks for sharing it with us, Jo.
This is so cool -thanks for sharing. I was wondering about slides too. My dad has boxes of slides in those round containers. Would love to see a video.
Love and prayers.
That is really cool! Also wondering about whether it would work for slides. Great pictures! Thanks for sharing this app info.
I think your grandson Carver looks like the younger version one of your brothers. I wish I had kept negatives, I think they are gone now. I’ll have to check it out because this is such a neat thing. Thanks Jo.
I never there was such an app. I will check with my siblings and see if we still have the negatives. How fun!
What a wonderful way to save memories! I’m scanning the photo albums my grandparents made. Would like to do the ones from my great grandmother too! Yes, my Dad has lots of boxes of slides that have precious memories of my sister who is now deceased. We were super close!
Kate what is the name of the sampler on your wall that says Accept what is,let go of what was…” I’d like to make that one and the floral one of the flowers. Where are u finding ur patterns&supplies? We have no cross stitch stores around me&I’m not sure what to use online. I’m also looking for the sampler of the Apostles Creed someone just finished. My prayers are with you as you continue towards remission. God bless. Thank you for your help.
Here is the link for Accept What is by Lizzie Kate. https://www.123stitch.com/item/Lizzie-Kate-Accept-What-Is-with-Buttons-Bonus-Chart/LK-53B
Here is the link for Floral Motif Sampler https://www.123stitch.com/item/Scarlett-House-Floral-Motif-Sampler-Cross-Stitch-Pattern/21-1683
Here is the link for Apostle’s Creed. https://heartstringsamplery.com/shop/ols/products/apostles-creed
I will write more about this in an upcoming blog post.
That sounds great! I’ll have to find out who among the sisters has the negatives or if they’re lost. I hope not we have some great pics from what I remember.
Yes, to the training video!
To those who were asking about scanning slides: the same developer, Photomyne, has another app named SlideScan for slides. It looks like FilmBox is just for negatives, and uses the row of holes on the negatives to help align the picture it makes. SlideScan probably uses the cardboard frame around the slide for the same purpose. (Also, negatives need their black/white reversed, while slides do not, so the processing would be different.)
I had 1,500 slides from my Dad who took his camera everywhere from his college days to the day he passed sway. In addition, my mom had boxes of photos and I, myself, have several albums. I decided to scan them and save them to my computer, where I could caption each photo and date it. When phase one was completed (winnowing out the people slides from the unlabeled scenic ones), I copied them onto thumb drives and mailed them to my siblings and cousins. I was able to throw away all the originals. I am now embarking on phase 2, the pictures. I have an old scanner, so it is taking some time to get this done. I do, however, feel the relief of being able to lessen the weight of feeling responsible for the family photos.
This sounds like a great app! I too noticed the resemblance between Carver and one of your brothers.
Your post and the comments are of interest. I have a bunch of negatives, and also a lot of slides. They are just sitting waiting on some day. These apps sound as possible solutions.
That is amazing! Much better quality than I would have expected. When I worked at the library I got an Epson scanner that could scan negatives and these look just as good. And for a $29 per year subscription, way cheaper too.
This is a great option for folks who have negatives. And NOW we know why all your kids’ names start with K..you and your sibs were all J’s!! LOL That’s so funny. Just how many of you kids were there?
My parents had five kids all with J’s. My sister has five kids all with J’s. I have five kids all with K’s. My 3 brothers didn’t follow the tradition.
Love this column!
Carver and Jule…holy moly…twins!
On a similar note, I just sent in all the family vhs and 8mm home videos. What a relief! I do have all my old negatives, but my kryptonite is the digital pictures that have never been printed. For some reason that really bugs me lol.
Are thr digital pictures still on SD cards? I have a project like this on my to do list. Nowadays finding a decent sized photo album is hard to find as well. Please do a tutorial, that will be wonderful, How did we ever survive without YouTube?!
Thanks for the memories. I also grew up on a farm in southeastern Minnesota with a dog named Nippy. Different color, larger size but another great family dog. Haven’t thought about him for quite a while. I will smile all evening.
Great information here. The only pictures we have of our wedding are on slides.
Wow, wonderful app! Must look into it! Thanks for sharing!!!!
Photomyne also has a scan program to turn printed pictures digital. It’s easy to take a picture of several pictures at a time and then separate and save them. Photomyne is a quality company.
I wonder if this app works for the old square negatives. Jo, do you know if it does? Also, why did you put the photos on the white board?
For the app to work, you need to put the photos up to a white light source. You can use your computer or you can use a white tracing board like I did.
Do you know if this would work with slides?