The first time I looked at this photo I did not see the scratch either. When I was working as a wedding photographer years ago I used to have my lab color analyze each negative and touch up dust spots on the final prints. Wouldn't this be the same as fixing the scratch on the scan, allowed? I do not consider scratches as error of the photographer, especially negatives developed by a lab.
No, Totc, fixing the 'scratch; by manually retouching it would be fine here, but not by using a digital solution. In other words, whatever I would do to it would have to be what I could do to a darkroom print. The only analog fix I am capable of is to crop as some have suggested, and that wouldn't be too bad.
Thanks, it is a beautiful photo, maybe more so if it were cropped at the top. I do have a dark room, and I have tried to fix scratches with things like petroleum jelly, etc., with mixed results. I just hope your camera is not at fault, hate to think of the expense of fixing it.
FWIW, it looks too unnaturally straight to me to be a power line. Looks more like a scanner hiccup. Like the head paused ever so momentarily during the traverse and generated a line of slightly more exposure. Does the line reflect the proper orientation of the traverse motion?
Also FWIW, I seem to remember reading earlier that we may have the same scanner? An Epson V-750 Pro? If so, that may also factor in as I have on rare occasions also seen similar artifacts in a small handful of my scans. If it matters, I use VueScan exclusively for photographic scanning.
Any chance of examining the negative and/or rescanning to perhaps isolate that as a possible cause? Personally, I really like the extra room at the top, as it seems to more comfortably bound and isolate the brightly diffuse sun spot that itself defines the mirrored shapes.
Although I use a Microtek i900 scanner I've received artifacts on scans too. They're generally a straight line showing up as red streaks in color transparency scans. Most times you have to go to 100% + or more on the image to see any. However, I've learned early on that by using low pressure air to blow out the open scanning bay area it removed the streaking issue every time. Not sure if it's been just dust particles or something else on the scanning element or what, but now I just clean things out about every 6 months or so. Seems to keep things healthy overall.
Interesting speculations. I simply cannot see this line on the negative at all even with a magnifying glass. I rescanned it on the other half of the negative carrier, and the line remained, so a 'hiccup' is not too likely. As I said before, none of the other negatives on the film share this, so I am at a loss. And, yes, it's an Epson V-750 Pro scanner that is set at 600 ppi for the scan. Maybe I should redirect this to the 'experimental' category! LOL