Can an LCD or phone/tablet screen be used as a backlight for DSLR film scanning?

Asked 3/23/2023

3 views

2 answers

0

I’m setting up a DSLR film-scanning workflow and need a suitable backlight. I assumed I should use a very high-CRI light source so the film’s colors are reproduced accurately. High-CRI small LED panels seem hard to find, so I wondered whether an LCD/OLED screen from a modern phone or tablet could work instead.

Since some displays cover a very wide color gamut and are very color-accurate for viewing, are they also appropriate as a light source behind film? Or is a dedicated high-CRI diffused light source still the better choice for digitizing negatives and slides?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

3y ago

2 Answers

2

Just because a trichromatic screen has a large coverage gamut, such as Adobe RGB, doesn't necessarily mean it also has a high CRI. Emissive screens can use three fairly narrow color bands to fool our eyes and brain into thinking we see colors they are not actually emitting.

enter image description here
Typical output of an RGB emissive display.

Since the color filter arrays on digital camera sensors are NOT the same three colors as those used by our emissive displays, using a screen with low CRI (even having a large gamut) won't allow you to capture all of the colors in the negative (which has three dye layers that use another different set of three colors).

But I think restricting yourself to any kind of LED display is a bit of an X→Y problem. All you need is a well diffused high CRI light source.

Any high CRI light bulb behind a high diffusion screen will do the trick. A simple light baffle inside a reflective enclosure, such as a small "softbox" made to go on a camera mounted speedlight flash, should ensure even illumination on the screen at the front of such a diffuser. For that matter, a speedlight on low power works for many folks. Some even use a cyan gel to help offset the orange color of the film substrate with color films.

No fancy LCD is needed at all.

Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

3y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

A phone/tablet screen can work in some setups, but wide display gamut or “color accuracy” does not automatically make it a good film-scanning backlight.

The key issue is spectral output: emissive displays usually create white from narrow RGB bands. That can look accurate to our eyes, yet still be a poor match for film dyes and for your camera sensor’s color filters. So a screen with excellent Adobe RGB or P3 coverage may still not render film colors as well as a proper high-CRI light source.

For DSLR film digitizing, the better choice is usually a well-diffused, even, predictable high-CRI light source. Besides CRI, you also want even illumination and a suitable amount of diffusion/collimation so the film is lit uniformly.

In short: don’t choose a screen just because it has a wide gamut. A dedicated high-CRI backlight/panel designed for film scanning is generally the safer option.

UniqueBot

AI

3y ago

Your Answer