Use a spare phone or a tablet.
Turn on light table mode on your other phone or open a white screen on your tablet, set it to full brightness and lay your strip on it.
Set up your light padScan your negatives
with your phone.
Lay a strip of film on a lit screen, hold your phone over it and tap once. You get every frame back as a real photo, colors and all, and nothing leaves your phone.
You get the Android app on Google Play first. Join the list and get one email the day you can download it.
You scan and edit free, and keep up to 12 photos without paying.
On iPhone, join the list and get one email the day you can download Backlit.
See the photo hiding in your negative.
Drag the line. Each of these is a real negative, shot over a light, cut out and developed in Backlit: the orange film base gone, the exposure set, the grain calmed and the dust lifted.
- Color negative, black and white and slide film
- 35mm, Half frame, 6×6, 6×7 frames
- Hold any photo to see its negative again
NegativePhotoReal negative from Wikimedia Commons (LoMit, CC BY 4.0), cut out and developed in Backlit with Enhance on.
Light your film with what you own.
You need an even white glow behind the film and nothing more. Pick whichever sits closest.
Hold it to a window.
Pick a bright window with no sun on it, frosted or covered with a sheet of white paper, and hold the strip flat against it.
Digitize without a scanner
Make a lamp glow.
Lay tracing paper over a desk lamp turned upward. Your strip sits on an even glow, and the bulb never shows through.
See every home light that worksShoot the whole strip in one tap.
Hold your phone over the film and watch every frame light up with an outline and its number. Hold still and you get the shot on its own, or tap the shutter. Every frame comes out cut and straight, and stands upright when a face or the sky shows which way is up.
- Frames found live, even on a strip lying at a slant
- The film base read from the bare film between frames
- Move along the strip and keep shooting into the same roll
Give every frame its film look.
Pick the stock you shot and your photo prints in its colors: Portra 160, Portra 400, Portra 800 and 14 more, from Gold 200 to Tri-X 400 and Velvia 50. Then fine-tune light, color and the frame on one dial each.
- Enhance calms grain, clears color specks and brings detail back
- Dust and speck removal on every new scan
- Crop, rotate, flip and set the frame by hand
- Use one look on the whole roll
Circle your keepers. Save them all.
Every scan lands in a roll you name, as a wall of upright prints. Mark the frames you love with the red grease pencil, save them to your photos at full size, or export the whole roll as one contact sheet.
Keep your film on your phone.
Your family's photos stay yours. You scan, develop and save on your own phone, with no account, no upload and no tracking.
0photos uploaded
0accounts to make
0analytics tools
18film looks on your phone
You go online in Backlit only for purchases through Google Play. Read the privacy policy.
Start free. Go Pro for the whole shoebox.
Free
$0
- Scan and develop as many strips as you like
- Every film look, Enhance and the editor
- Keep up to 12 saved photos
Backlit Pro
$29.99 a year
Try it free for 7 days.
- Save every photo you develop
- Save whole rolls to your photos at full size
- Or pay $3.99 a week, or $59.99 once
Learn before you scan your first roll.
Film negative inverter
Open a photo of your negative and get the positive in your browser: pick the film base, set each color channel, save the JPEG. Nothing leaves your device.
Color vs black and white negatives: invert them right
Why color negatives turn blue when you invert them and black and white ones don't: the orange mask, the film base, chromogenic black and white, and slide film.
How to digitize negatives without a scanner
Digitize film negatives without a scanner: five home methods compared, from your phone and a window to a camera with a macro lens, with what each one costs you.
How to read the markings on the film edge
Read the edge of your negatives: frame numbers and the A half-frame marks, the film name and type, the DX barcode, and what each tells you about a forgotten roll.
How to scan film negatives with your phone
Scan film negatives with your phone at home: the light to use, how to hold the phone, which camera settings help, and how to get true colors from color film.
Use your phone or tablet as a light pad for negatives
Turn a phone or tablet into a light pad for film negatives: the brightness and color settings to change, how to beat the pixel grid, and OLED vs LCD screens.
Get your answers before your first strip.
How do you scan film negatives with your phone in Backlit?
Lay your strip on a lit white screen (a tablet, a laptop or a spare phone in Backlit's light table mode) or hold it to a lamp or a window. Hold your phone over it and you see every frame outlined and numbered live. Tap once and you get the whole strip as positive photos, cut out and straight.
Do you need a film scanner or a light pad?
No. You need your phone and an even white light behind the film. Put a second phone or a tablet in light table mode for the cleanest light. A window or a lamp behind tracing paper works too.
Which film works with Backlit?
Color negative, black and white negative and color slide film, in 35mm, half frame, 6×6 and 6×7. You get every frame found for you on 35mm and 120 strips; on sheet film and movie film you set the frame yourself with the crop tool.
Do your photos leave your phone?
No. You find your frames, lose the orange film base and develop every photo on your own phone. You need no account, you upload no photo, and nobody tracks what you do in the app.
Is Backlit free?
You scan and edit for free and keep up to 12 saved photos. Go Pro to save every photo you develop: $29.99 a year with 7 days free, $3.99 a week, or $59.99 once.
Can you get Backlit on iPhone?
You get Backlit on Google Play first. On iPhone, join the list and you get one email the day you can download it.
Empty the shoebox this weekend.
Lay your first strip on a lit screen and watch your old photos come back.
You get the Android app on Google Play first. Join the list and get one email the day you can download it.
You scan and edit free, and keep up to 12 photos without paying.
On iPhone, join the list and get one email the day you can download Backlit.