Slide and negative scanning questions/issues

As mentioned in my first posting, I have begun scanning 35mm slides,
B&W negatives, and color negatives from around 24 years ago.

These are some issues I've run into, using an HP Scanjet 3970 with
slide/negative adapter:

1. Biggest problem has been dust and dirt, especially on sleeved color
negatives. A blower brush and Quantaray cloth have been of some help,
but a small amout of dust remains as if it is bound to the negatives.
Is there a more agressive method to clean them?

2. Slides produce the easiest good results. Color negatives are nearly
as good but require more contrast/brightness/gamma tweaking.

3. B&W negatives produce good results, but appear as a sepia/orange
that I must remove by zeroing the color saturation.

4. Virtually all scans benefit from a sharpness increase, contrast
increase, and slight gamma adjustment.

5. I have some older 126 negatives and even older roll-film type
negatives (127?) that do not fit the negative adapter.
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Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, but I think it's all...

Richard's fault!

Visit the Sounds of the cul-de-sac at www.richardsfault.com

 

A film scanner enabled with Digital Ice is the easiest approach. It has
saved me hours of touch-up work on old slides.

 

Back in my B/W darkroom days I used a "Staticmaster" radioactive polonium
brush for cleaning negs, and it worked quite well. I'm not sure if they're
still available, and they don't have a very long half-life, so my old ones
are just plain brushes now. You might give them a try.They have a
recommended "replace by" date, so watch for that.
On the 126 negs, some judicious "cropping" with a scissor may allow you to
fit them into the neg sleeves for your scanner. Another option would be to
have them printed at a local lab, asking them up front to clean them first,
then scan the prints.

 

Check here:
http://porterscamerastore.com/Merch...n=PROD&Product_Code=22-0257&Category_Code=D1H

They mistyped "static" as "state" in the description, but evidently they're
still available. Made in 1" and 3" sizes - I always used the 1"

 

Sounds like somthing in Saddam's arsenal!

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Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, but I think it's all...

Richard's fault!

Visit the Sounds of the cul-de-sac at www.richardsfault.com

 

You mean the arsenal that didn't exist?
;-)

 

.... Just like the days when women who painted the "glow-in-the-dark"
radioactive highlights on watch hands... they'd suck on the brush to
bring it to a point... a high percentage of them died of bone cancer
decades later.

Many actors (including John Wayne) who filmed in the desserts of the
midwest where nuclear test were conducted in the 50's... died of
cancer as well.



Hey, I watch the learning channel K?!?




jim h


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.jamesphotography.ca

More than photographs: free downloads, prizes for every 1,000th visitor, a bit of humour...

 

Hello Richard
For the most stubborn negatives carefully re-washing works, using
distilled or deionized water and a few drops of photoflo (Kodak) or
Ilford's Ilfosol (or substitute a drop or two of a clear dish detergent.
The real trick is drying, ushally hang drying but careful blow drying,
with a hair dryer. Experiment with the least important negs first.

Water temp should be Warm not hot or cold.

Regards
Helge

 

Having looked at your images, I can see you would benefit from Polaroid's
Dust and Scratch Removal software. It's free and operates as a standalone
application, or within Photoshop as a plugin.
http://www.polaroid.com/service/software/poladsr/poladsr.html
It really works a trick!