Dust Removal Software (post scan)

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mark-b

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Hello to all my colleagues here at RFF ;)


Is there any kind of software that will remove dust and scratches after you scan the negative?

My Nikon Coolscan IV ED came with Digital ICE, which is great with C-41, and E-6 films. But if I use Digital ICE with B&W negatives and old Kodachrome slides, I get these blobby, muddy scans that are practically useless. I know it has to do with the relatively thick emulson of b&w and Kodachrome.

Thanks in advance for your replies :)

mark-b
 
Using the spot healing brush tool while viewing at actual pixels in Photoshop works 99.8% of time for me. It takes less than 30 seconds per scan. Does not degrade the image at all.

But I am one of those who take very good care of my negs, final rinse in distilled water with just a touch of Photoflo, drying in good environments, storing them clean, and all that.

I have never been able to understand those who end up with dust on their negs and then need to deal with it.
 
MOst of my negs are like Bo's, but I'm about half way through a scan of an Adox 100 frame now and have been going for an hour... Photoshop healing brush for open areas and clone tool for edges

Mike
 
i've got a lot of dust specks to deal with and that ps spot healing is like a toothbrush to clean a floor.

do you use distilled water in every step, or is it just the final wash?

will try the polaroid s/w. thanks all.
 
There are variations on how to speed up the process of removing dust and scratches in photoshop. Here's just one of hundreds of online tutorials:

http://creativebits.org/Remove_Dust_and_Scratches

Just to get your feet wet, try this:

Duplicate your image layer and apply the Dust & Scratches filter to the bottom (original) layer. Then puncture through the top layer with the eraser on the dust spots.

This is a little bit faster than using the healing brush because you don't have to constantly take samples with alt-click.
 
With CS3/CS4 or lightroom you can use the heal tool (no alt-click required). It doesn't work very well for scratches though.
 
there is no perfect way to do it. you have to do it manually. but for large areas of unimportant detail you can select large areas and use the Dust and Scratches filter in PS... for some images it speeds things up dramatically. I live in AZ and suffer lots of dust and static with my negs and none of the standard best practices fixes that... especially for a Coolscan V which accentuates each defect. :(

I mainly shoot BW400CN.
 
Healing brush in Photoshop is the best solution. Unfortunately the slowest. I tried Polaroid software - it's not any faster than healing brush as you have to do a lot by hand to get any good results. Dust & scratches filter is lowering sharpness.
 
I use canned air angled across the negative carrier, then my old darkroom standby, a Static Master brush. These two with carefully processed and stored negs help a lot.
 
Photoshop is the gold standard for a software-based solution. I think compressed air would be your best solution. You can also try "Anti-Stat" (available at Freestyle and other places) for cleaning your negatives before you scan them.

If you are using a flatbed scanner, you should also air-can it for dust before scanning. Taming as much dust bunnies as possible BEFORE the scan makes post-processing that much easier. . .
 
Bob, come to where I am and we'll see how your negatives stay free of dust.

I'll say that the Polaroid software which aparat names can be good if used well. On full auto it often makes a mess of things.
 
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