So you’ve got your negatives processed, cut, and put into sleeves, and you’d like to inspect them before making a contact sheet or scanning them. Holding them up to the window will work to some extent, but let’s be realistic. You should probably have a light box of some sort. It will come in handy in the darkroom too, when you have your paper put away and you’d like to switch your negative. There are lots of light boxes online that are just the right size and reasonably-priced.

What I did was simply use something I already own. I took an inexpensive rectangular lamp from IKEA and turned it on its side. Voila. The only precautions you’ll need to take when fashioning your own light table is to make sure that the surface does not get too hot and damage your negatives. Also, if you are viewing color film or slides, you might be interested in a light table that represents the correct light spectrum. However, I have found for home use, my improvised light table is more than sufficient.