iPad guide

Scanning film with iPad

On iPad the photo and every control sit side by side, which makes careful color work and dust cleanup a pleasure. This guide walks through a whole scan.

Using an iPhone? Read the iPhone guide

Step 1
Set up your light and film
Lay the film on an even, bright light source — an LED light pad is ideal, though a tablet or phone showing a plain white screen works too. Put the emulsion side (the duller side) down, and keep the film flat with a holder or a piece of glass.
Turn off the room lights and close the blinds near the light pad, so nothing reflects off the film.
An iPad is heavier and larger than a phone, so a stand or copy stand is worth it for a whole roll. You can also scan with an iPhone and do the editing on iPad — open the scans with Photo Library or Choose File.
Tips
- Dust is the enemy: give the film and the light pad a puff from a blower brush first.
- A phone or tablet stand pointing straight down keeps every frame framed the same way.
Step 2
Open or photograph a negative
On the home screen, set Open As to Negative for color or black and white negatives, or Positive for slides and other positive film.
Tap Take Photo to photograph the film with FilmReverseIt’s camera, or open a photo you already have with Photo Library or Choose File.
Later, the Open (+) menu at the top left offers the same choices, so you can move straight on to the next frame.
Step 3
Take the photo
Hold the camera directly above the film. The level on the camera screen shows when you’re parallel to it, so the frame isn’t skewed and the whole picture is in focus.
Tap the film on screen to focus there, then press the shutter button.
Scanning black and white film? Turn on B&W before you take the photo. FilmReverseIt remembers the setting for your next scan.
Keep the iPad steady on a stand and fill as much of the screen with the frame as you can while staying in focus.
Step 4
Check the image type
FilmReverseIt converts the negative straight away. At the top of the controls, Image Type chooses how: Color removes the orange film mask and reverses the colors, B&W produces a neutral black and white picture, and Original shows the photo exactly as it was opened, with nothing reversed.
On iPad the controls sit beside the picture, so you can watch every change as you make it.
Step 5
Rotate and crop
In Rotate & Crop, use Rotate Left and Rotate Right to turn the picture upright.
Tap Crop, then drag the corners or edges of the box to cut away the film border and sprocket holes. Drag inside the box to move it. Remove Crop brings the whole frame back.
Step 6
Balance the color
In the Color section, tap Pick White Balance, then tap something in the picture that should be a neutral white or gray — a cloud, a white shirt, a concrete path. The whole picture is balanced around that spot. Clear removes it.
Fine-tune with Color Temperature (cooler or warmer) and Saturation.
Tips
- Pick a spot that is bright but not blown out to pure white; light gray works best.
Step 7
Adjust tone, sharpness and grain
Tone has Exposure, Brightness, Contrast and Black Level. Sharpness has Sharpness and Sharpen Radius. Noise & Grain has Noise Reduction and Color Noise to smooth the image, plus Add Grain and Grain Size if you’d like a filmic texture back.
Double-tap a slider’s label to reset just that control. Reset All Adjustments puts every slider back and clears the white balance pick, keeping the image type, rotation and crop.
Pinch to zoom in on detail, or use the zoom buttons; double-tap the zoom percentage to fit the picture again.
Step 8
Remove dust spots
In Dust Removal, tap Remove Dust Spots, zoom in, and tap each speck to repair it. Undo takes back the last spot and Clear All removes them all.
Spot Size sets how big an area each tap repairs. Smartness chooses between Quick, Normal and Thorough repairs.
With a pointer or Apple Pencil you can place each repair very precisely.
Step 9
Save a preset for the rest of the roll
When a frame looks right, choose Save Preset… and name it — for example after the film stock. On the next frame choose Apply Preset to start from the same look.
A preset keeps the color, tone, sharpness, noise and grain settings. Crop, rotation and dust spots are left out, because every frame needs its own. Delete Preset removes one you no longer need.
Step 10
Add the film’s details
Tap Image Info (ⓘ) to describe the picture: the film type and roll ID, the camera, lens and exposure the film was shot with, the date it was taken, and the artist, copyright and description.
These go into the saved file’s metadata, so the Photos app and other photo software show your film camera rather than the device you scanned with.
Save Changes as Defaults keeps the values you changed for every following scan, which is perfect for a roll shot with one camera.
Step 11
Save the positive
Tap Save to open Save Positive. Check the Film Type, Roll ID, Frame Number and Date Taken; they’re used for the file name and remembered for your next save. Tap Start New Roll when you move on to a new roll.
Choose a Format — JPEG, HEIC, PNG, TIFF, JPEG 2000 or BMP — and, for JPEG, HEIC and JPEG 2000, a Quality. Turn on Also Save Negative Copy to keep a matching negative as well.
Under Save To, choose Photos or a folder in Files, then tap the check mark. Files with the same name are never overwritten. File Name Format sets which parts make up the name, and in what order.
Saving to a folder in Files makes it easy to drag scans to a Mac, an external drive or a cloud folder later.
Tips
- JPEG 2000 and BMP can only be saved to Files.
- TIFF and PNG are lossless — the best choice for an archive.
Step 12
Move on to the next frame
Use the Open (+) menu to scan the next frame straight away, or tap Home to close the photo and go back to the home screen. FilmReverseIt asks first, because unsaved adjustments are lost when a photo is closed.
Choose Appearance at the top to use FilmReverseIt in Light or Dark mode, or to follow your device’s setting.