Scanning 35mm Negative Nikon Coolscan V

[napoleonesq]

I love shooting film, but scanning the film has been less than a hhapy time for me.

I use a Nikon Coolscan V Scanner with the software it comes along with, and most of the time when I scan i get tons of spots or lines. I try scanning with the Digital ICE option checked and that does not work, and in fact, most of the time, the image looks awful, and when I don't have that option checked out, i get all these spots that takes hours to clean out.

I also try cleaning the negatives before scanning, but I still get so much spots. Maybe I am not cleaning the negatives properly i don't know, but i am going crazy figuring this out.

I see people's images on this site from film and they are sooo clean, and I just wonder if i am doing something wrong or I am missing something.

Is it my software or something wrong I am doing?

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Digital ICE will not work on black & white film. If you scan BW film using the ICE function, it will look very contrasty and grainy. So, you have to clean your film before scanning to avoid dust spots. I use the Coolscan 8000ED with a glass carrier and I rarely ever have dust because I am a cleanliness fanatic.

 

[navilluspm]

First of all, what kind of negative are you scanning? B&W negatives (other than the c-41 kind) can not use ICE. If you have dirty B&W negatives, the only way to clean them is to use the spot healing brush after the fact.

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

Are you using the Nikon Scan? You might want to try Vuescan there's a free trial version you might prefer the results. Regarding dust the only sure way apart from making sure the negs are as clean as possible before scanning, is to make good use of the spot healing brush and clone tool in Photoshop. Sadly i've found there are no real shortcuts.

 

[angeloks]

If you like doing BW on film (like I do) and also want to take the advantage of ICE, just use Ilford XP2. This is what I'm doing.

 

[Peter S]

By the sound of it (ICE giving horrible results) you are talking BW negatives. I also suffered similar problems and made my life a lot easier by doing the last rinse after developing with demineralized water (with Fotoflo). Also put the shower on for a couple of minutes before hanging negs to dry. It seems to make for less dust. After they are dry I store them in these special negative sheets and only get the negs out at the very last moment. Then I use high power canned air and a special camelhair brush (said to make the negs non static) and then hope for the best.

It usually makes postprocessing life bearable, but now and then I still have a lot of spotting to do. On the other hand once you have a perfectly dustspotted image masterfile you never have to do it again for that image.

Keeping the scanner well covered when not in use is also good working practice.

Hang in there, it takes time before you start getting good results, but I definitely now have much more control over my BW than I used to have in my old darkroom.

Good luck

 

[napoleonesq]

Thanks for all the help. I was using ICE with BW negatives which explains the horrible results. I guess I will work a bit more on the cleaning aspect and even try Vuescan.

I see some of the images on this site and I am amazed how clean they are...I was envious 🙂

Tony

 

[jarski]

why would not digital ice work with B&W negs ? is this described somewhere ?

Vuescan is definitely worth testing. I only install Nikons own program just to get drivers into system, then leave it be.

 

[icebear]

I work with vuescan and like it much better than the original Nikon scan software that came with my coolscan.
As for the ICE : its based on infrared detection of nontransprarent particles - like dust on the surface of the negative. The BW negatives are silver halogenid based and the crystals are not transparent, therefore are detected as dust and the software tries to remove the info that is basically the picture information. Hope this helps.

 

[nyx]

ICE works by using IR light - scratches and dust will block it and the scanner software can fix it. But silver clumps will block it too, so the software sees scratches over whole area and goes nuts...

It has the same problem with Kodachrome.

 

[jarski]

woops. I've scanned two rolls of HP5 with ice on.

hope Vuescan is clever enough not to use ice if film type is chosen as B&W. dont want to start slow scanning process again 😛

edit: to my eyes there's nothing wrong with scanned results. perhaps I can link here few if someone else can give some pointers.

 

[jarski]

here's two. I think ice was on.

first with F100 & 105 Nikkor. second Leica II and Summitar.