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Hi folks
have you had all these problems in digitalizing the negs? I used Imacon X5 for scanning and spent at lease an hour to clean up every single image.
are images attached looking familiar ?
A
Attachment 171974
B
Attachment 171975
C
Attachment 171976
D
Attachment 171977
can you identity which is dust, which is scratch?
+++++++
Can any one tell me what is A,B,C,D?
Dust is ever present and needs to be managed. A robust 100% dust free workflow in my view would be difficult to achieve and maintain.
Meticulousness is needed at every step. Brushing or blowing dust from the scanner and film are the bare essentials. Maintaining the scanner and film in as clean condition as possible is also needed. Everyone has different approaches, but can include a cover for the scanner when not in use and robust storage of negatives in sleeves/pages.
My process with X5 and 4x5’ films is clean (from dry to sleeves, from sleeves to scanner), but I always have a few spots/particles such as those you show us. it takes my 1 minute to clean, and at the same time I’ checking the image focus.
If need an hour to clean the image with Photoshop, the scan should be really dirty, this seems to me strange.
Or maybe you have dust on the film while you take the shot, in quantity!
I see dust on film from camera/film holder, dust on film during scan, scratch on film, and maybe a chemistry stain. I deal with all constantly at my job and with my own images. Compressed air, a clean environment and procedure go a long way in preventing this kind of stuff, but there will always be something. Size and resolution also play a part. I am not sure from your samples but nothing seems out of the ordinary to my eye.
prof
I have a dog and a cat. I get hair on my film and it even finds its way between a print and mat on a picture that’s already hung.
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No matter where I put my changing tent the cat finds a way to sleep in it. Such is life. If you want sterile results use digital. Gotta think of a few dust spots as marks of the craft, the character that all us old filmophiles lust after.
For negative film, dust on the film before exposure will be black in the end photo. It's a permanent part of the image now.
Dust on the film in scanning will be white. If it's bad you can reclean things and scan again.
I never have black dust on negatives now for two reasons. I keep film holders clean and in anti-static bags when not in the camera or being loaded/unloaded. The darkroom has an air cleaner running in it.
Negatives wet print well and clean.
I do get some dust in scanning. The plastic epson is a magnet for dust. Someone gave me a can of Stoner Antistatic cleaner for the glass and that has been very helpful but not perfect. A non-static generating cover would probably be the next step.
Ideally, Epson would make an ethernet version of their scanner and I could leave it in the darkroom where there just isn't dust. But I don't expect much innovation in scanning.
Have used Ilford Antistaticum cloths as my final cleaning step in the darkroom and with a scanner. Have never had the Ilford Antistaticum cloth scratch film in 40 years. Also used an Imacon for years. At one point seemed to be getting more dirt on the film after scanning. Once the Imacon was internally cleaned, the dirt disappeared.
" anti-static bags"
I will try it next time!
@jp
You could actually leave it in the darkroom if you have a small sytem you could put in there with it, then run ethernet (or wireless for that matter) and use something like Team Player (or similar) to log in and run the darkroom system remotely from a different computer outside the darkroom.When I've had a problem with my IQsmart, Michael Streeter was able to open a session into my computer and take control and diagnose what was going on with the IQsmart software. I think VNC would work as well since all you're doing is remoting the screen, keyboard, and mouse.