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Negative to Positive Converter: Invert Film Online

Open a photo of your film negative and get the positive photo in your browser. Pick the film base, set each color channel and save a full-size JPEG. Your picture never leaves your device.

Drop a photo of your negative here.Or pick one from your phone or computer. Your picture stays on your device.
No negative at hand? Try one:

Convert a negative in four steps

  1. Photograph your negative over an even white light: a tablet or a spare phone with a white screen, or a window with no sun on it.
  2. Open the photo here. Pick Color negative or Black and white.
  3. Tap Pick the film base, then tap the bare film between frames or at the edge of the strip.
  4. Set the exposure and contrast, fix any cast with the channel levels, then save the photo.

What happens to your negative

A negative lets less light through where the scene was bright. So you read how dense the film is at each point, not how dark it looks: the density of each color channel is the logarithm of how much light the bare film lets through, divided by how much this spot lets through. The bare film becomes black. The densest spot in each channel becomes white. Everything between lands on a gentle curve, the way a print lands on paper.

You set black and white per channel, so the orange mask of color film drops out on its own and the grey of black and white film turns neutral. When a picture still leans toward one color, move that channel's levels by a few points.

Get a cleaner photo of your film

  • Lay the film flat. A curled strip goes soft at the edges; tape its ends down or lay a sheet of clean glass on top.
  • Turn the room lights off, so nothing reflects on the film.
  • Fill the frame with the picture and a little bare film around it, and hold the phone flat over it.
  • Shoot at your phone's highest resolution, in daylight white balance if your camera lets you set it.

Your questions, answered

Why does a plain invert give you blue, washed out photos?
Color negative film carries an orange mask in its base. Flip the colors and that orange turns into a blue-cyan cast over the whole picture, and the contrast stays flat. Read the film base first and stretch each color channel on its own, and the cast goes away.
What is the film base and where do you pick it?
The film base is the bare film with no picture on it: the orange strip between two frames, or the edge beside the sprocket holes. Tap Pick the film base, then tap that bare film. It becomes pure black in your positive, which sets every channel right.
Do you upload your negative?
No. The page reads your file and develops it inside your browser with a canvas. Turn off your network after the page loads and the tool keeps working.
How big a photo can you save?
You save up to 6000 pixels on the long side, in JPEG at high quality. You edit on a smaller preview so the sliders move instantly.
Can you convert a whole strip at once?
This page works on one picture at a time. To get every frame of a strip cut out, straightened and developed in one tap, scan it with Backlit on your phone.
Scan your negatives with your phoneInvert color and black and white film the right way

Develop the whole strip in one tap.

Hold your phone over your film in Backlit and get every frame cut out, straightened and turned into a photo, with the film base read for you.

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.