stunsworth Posted September 22, 2011 Share #21 Posted September 22, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Aren't the dust removal tools all based on single circles? Yes, but if you zoom in a scratch is just a series of small circles - and in your original post you referred to dust not scratches, which are _very_ easy to correct. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted September 22, 2011 Posted September 22, 2011 Hi stunsworth, Take a look here scratch removal for 35mm b+w scans. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
tgray Posted September 22, 2011 Share #22 Posted September 22, 2011 Yes, but if you zoom in a scratch is just a series of small circles - and in your original post you referred to dust not scratches, which are _very_ easy to correct. Yes sorry. When I said dust, I meant dust, scratches, and the rest of the crap that sometimes ends up on negatives. Do the dust tools let you paint a line? Or do you have to place one dust fix next to the other? Sometimes when I have a scratch and it goes across different features on the negative, using a combination of the healing brush or the clone tool is the best way to fix it. More importantly, those tools don't have a full features curves adjustment tool. Maybe they do now. But I sometimes find it necessary to be able to move the black and white points in terms of individual RGB values. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deeman Posted September 22, 2011 Share #23 Posted September 22, 2011 For scratches on the back of negatives, run your finger nail down the side of your nose to extract a small amount of grease and rub this on the back of the film before you scan it. It fills the scratches with the same refractive index as the film base and they disappear during the scan. This tip was given to me by the late, great Victor Blackman, chief photographer of the Daily Express newspaper. It works! Ivan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalArts 99 Posted September 25, 2011 Share #24 Posted September 25, 2011 Wet scanning helps quite a bit in hiding scratches. fwiw, I'm the scanning operator who scanned all of William Eggleston's 5x7 negatives for this publication by the Eggleston Trust photo-eye Bookstore | William Eggleston: 5x7 | photo books (yes, he's alive and well but all his publications and exhibits are handled by the trust.) Scans were done on an Aztec Premier drum scanner. The negatives were in horrendous condition. All color correction and dust/scratch removal was done in Photoshop without any special plug-ins. I highly recommend simply using Photoshop (e.g., healing brush and the shift key for long scratches, etc..) In my experience the commercial plug-ins just create more problems and can introduce unwanted artifacts. It's much better to do it by hand. Work at 200% (much easier) and scroll methodically through the frame (up, down, over and one click at a time.) Always make a duplicate background layer and work on that, so if you do screw up then you can easily just toss the layer. And if the file looks clean at 200%, it will print fine with no problem. It's very labor intensive, but there is really no free lunch if you plan to go to print and/or publish. Since you've already scanned and archived, then clean them up only when you chose to print. Make a duplicate file to work on if you are only doing web based images since they obviously require a lot less fixing; i.e., you can get away with murder on web only images. In the end it's just time consuming more than anything else. But in certain ways it's meditative and calming to sit at the computer and clean up a large file inch by inch. Kind of like raking leaves off the lawn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
radfilm Posted September 29, 2011 Share #25 Posted September 29, 2011 I second that the best way is photoshop healing brush and patience.. You can also get very fast at it and the results are perfect. Import in LR3 and then edit in PS as duplicate Tiff. I really know no other way . Even digital ice in color is that great for everything... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lincoln_m Posted September 29, 2011 Share #26 Posted September 29, 2011 In Aperture 3 I use the retouch brush (3 has a much improved set of brushes for retouch and burn dodge etc). I use a bamboo pen and tablet to save on RSI. I hover over the scratch then hit Z (zoom) to get a close-up 100% zoom. Then choose the Brushes and just use Retouch (top of the list). Using about a 10-15 pixel radius I place the cursor and drag over the scratch keeping it down as long as I can. Just like PS healing brush it will heal the scratch with info from either side. It's not perfect but at 0.5 softness, opacity 1 it will not be noticed except at 100% zoom. It takes ages to clean up one old negative. I find I have to switch off most other Apps to make the Retouch run fast. It is much faster than the Retouch in Aperture 2 and Snow Leopard also helps too. Good Pro Labs like Peak Imaging are able to give you clean flat negs that are much easier to work with thus cutting down the retouching 10 fold. Regards, Lincoln Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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