Positive View app icon

Positive View

a live film negative viewer for iPhone

» Get it free on the App Store

Free app, no ads, no tracking iOS 16 or later

Quickly check your negatives

Positive View is a simple iPhone app for viewing photographic negatives as positive images in real time. Put your color or black-and-white film over a light source and point your iphone at it.
The app inverts the image and automatically compensates for the film base.

Very useful for checking newly processed film, choosing which frames deserve a proper scan, or showing someone a first impression after a shoot.

Requires iOS 16 or later. Everything happens on the device.


Get it free on the App Store

The workflow

Place your film over an even, diffused light, fill the camera view with the frame, wait for focus and color to settle, then lock the balance. This way you view the whole roll with the same color balance.

  • View color and black-and-white negatives live.
  • Adjust settings as you like: brightness, contrast, and warmth.
  • Lock the color balance across several frames.
  • Pause the image you want to inspect, then zoom and pan to see details.
  • Save the current positive to Photos.
Positive View showing a color film negative as a positive image, with brightness, contrast, and warmth controls.

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Automatic color adjustment

Most color-negative films have an orange base, but that color differs depending on the manufacturer. There are also special films with clear or even blue base color available. Positive View reads the base color from the image and adjusts the conversion automatically instead of assuming one fixed color. See this example of how it works with Harman Phoenix 200: its unusual blue / purple base looks very different to the iPhone camera, but the app still produces a positive with sensible colors.

In this comparison the Positive View conversion comes first, followed by the original negative photographed with the regular iPhone camera.

Fujifilm 200 conventional orange film base

Fujifilm 200 color chart negative converted to a positive image by Positive View
Positive View conversionAutomatic color adjustment applied
Original Fujifilm 200 negative photographed with the iPhone camera, showing its conventional film base
Original negativePhotographed with a normal camera

Harman Phoenix 200 unusual blue/purple film base

Harman Phoenix 200 color chart negative converted to a positive image by Positive View
Positive View conversionAutomatic color adjustment applied
Original Harman Phoenix 200 negative photographed with the iPhone camera, showing its unusual blue film base
Original negativePhotographed with a normal camera

FAQs

Why does the color change while I move the film?

The app is estimating the film base from the live image. Once it looks right, you can lock the color balance for the remainder of the film

What light should I use?

An even, diffused light: a light table, a white screen, or a window onto an evenly lit sky. If the corners are uneven, run the light-source calibration in Settings. When using a laptop or phone screen, the scan quality might be lower than when using a good diffused light.

Does the app collect any data?

No. Nothing is collected. See privacy policy for details.

Support

Positive View requires iOS 16 or later. For help, read Positive View Support or email [email protected].

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Free on the App Store. No ads, no account, no subscription, no tracking.

Get it free on the App Store

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