Strategies to combat dust while scanning

[Bob McCarthy]

By the way: removing dust at 200% is the only way to not damage the structure of buildings in most of my shots, 50% is just to small to cope with geometric patterns, for sky and areas of green it works at 50%, but not for buildings...

Thanks for the good help so far! Thomas.

A couple of thoughts, every time you vacuum, its imperative to let the room settle down. The filter bags on almost all vacuum cleaners leak small micro dust particles back into the air. None are 100% effective. A central vacuum system would be the exception. As a rule of thumb, I never vacuum the day I plan to scan.

You need to learn how to use a cloning tool around geometric patterns, the bandaid tool is too coarse for working around fine details. And you can momentarily zoom in <cmd><+> on a mac and then zoom back out.

bob

[jp]

I would like to know if it is possible to eliminate these few spots easily with the tools in Photoshop elements that came with my flatbed scanner?... or do I need to upgrade to the full Photoshop version.
Thanks and best regards. Bob G.

I think elements has both bandaid and cloning. That's about all you need.

[Drew Wiley]

No different from a traditional analog film room. Paint walls with oil-based enamel (latex
holds a static charge). Oil-based or epoxy floor paint. Formica counter. All surfaces
sealed and washable (frequently mop and sponge everything). Electronic air cleaner.
No conventional vacuums! Air line with highly filtered air and/or canned air. All air lines purged with solvent. 100% Dacron cleanroom smock or lab coat. Helpful to study sites
or cleanroom suppliers or industrial suppliers like MCMaster. I also like a machinist's
inspection light for detecting bits of dust on the film. A little fuss up front will save you
nearly 100% of correction due to dust.

[rguinter]

Unfortunately since there is no reversal process, you cannot tell with transparency. All dust spots should be black; a white one indicates something different, perhaps a pinhole in the emulsion or the like.

Got it. I should have recognized that. Thanks. Bob G.

[Stephen Willard]

I do not do any digital scanning, but I do make very big prints from my 10x10 enlarger and the smallest amount of dust on the negative can become a nightmare for big prints. Furthermore, I use extensive masking methodologies, and I have made masking sandwiches having 10 layers of masks for one negative. Clearly, this could become a horrid monster of dust problems and oiling that many mask is not practical.

I am also very gun shy about cleaning my negatives. Each time you clean a negative, you run the risk of scratching it. I am willing to clean my negatives only when it is absolutely necessarily. Last year I probably only cleaned 2-3 negatives the whole year.

What I have resorted to using is filtered compressed air coupled with and anti-static air gun to address my big dust problem. A high pressurized blast of anti-static positive charged ion enriched air neutralizes all static charges and send dust fly far away from the surfaces where I forbid them to lay.

The solution I now employ reduces my print touch up time for a 20x50 print from 3-4 hours down to 10 to 20 minutes which is plausible and reasonable. If you are interested, I can post pictures and recommend equipment to purchase to configure a divine dust blaster from heaven at a cost between $120 to $200.

[Lenny Eiger]

The solution I now employ reduces my print touch up time for a 20x50 print from 3-4 hours down to 10 to 20 minutes which is plausible and reasonable. If you are interested, I can post pictures and recommend equipment to purchase to configure a divine dust blaster from heaven at a cost between $120 to $200.

I for one, would love to see your setup. I have a very nice compressor, and am still using dust-off. I haven't got the details worked out (I know, shame on me, been a lot of other stuff to do lately, like making a living.)

As to the OP's issues - I am wondering if he is wet mounting.... None of the explanations seem to be things that make sense. Dust floating around and landing in patterns... I don't have any of those problems, and my floor is tile, just a step up from concrete. I often open the door in the summer, and there is plenty of dust around.

I suppose the other possibility cold be a faulty scanner. On occasion I get an orange scan sample in an area that's blue and I can tell that the scanner made some sort of error.

So - are you liquid mounting?

Lenny

[sanking]

I make carbon tissue which as it dries is something of a dust magnet.

To combat dust I have two strategies. One is to run a Hepa filter 7/24/356 in the run where I make the carbon tissue, and the second is to run a humidifier to keep the room RH at about 45%-55%. By coincidence my scanners happen to be located in an adjacent room so both benefit from the air cleaning and humidification.

Sandy King