Scanning film with iPhone

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.

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.

On iPhones with a macro-capable ultra-wide lens, turn on Macro to keep that lens in use. It stops the camera switching back to the main lens and losing focus, for example at the edge of a film strip. The setting is remembered.

Fill as much of the screen with the frame as you can while staying in focus: more pixels on the film means a sharper scan.

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.

In portrait the controls sit below the picture — scroll down to see them all. Turn the iPhone sideways to put them beside the picture instead.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.