Digital dust/scratch removal on B&W films (Agfa APX 100 and Lucky SHD 100)

CHX · Oct 12, 2014

Hi,

Hybrid photographer from APUG here...

I have some negatives (Agfa APX 100, Lucky SHD 100 and a few Kodak 400 TX) that have some imperfections, and scanning them on the Epson V550 is driving me nuts! Digital ICE doesn't work, and creates a terrible posterised effect, which I understand is due to Digital ICE not being able to work with true B&W films. I'm just using the standard Epson scanning utility, so wondered is there any software way around this and have comparable or near-comparable automatic dust removal? I have too many negatives to be able to go through manually in photoshop (I use CS3) and do it by hand.

I recall somewhere that it's possible to create a photoshop action that can use certain channels from the scanned image to create an automated dust removal process, so if anyone has information on that I'd be really grateful, or if anyone can point me towards any stand alone software that could do it. Is it worth considering SilverFast or VueScan specifically for dust/scratch removal?

All help really appreciated

artobest · Oct 14, 2014

I used to use Polaroid Dust and Scratch removal, but lately, the dust and scratch removal tool in Photoshop has begun giving identical results - I suspect some code has been traded. The trick is to do the work on a new layer and mask off any edge detail as it will get damaged - ie, stick to low-contrast or blurry areas. (It's better than nothing.) Play with the sliders while keeping a close eye on the quality of visible film grain, or what passes for it, in your scan.

Then, use the healing tool/spot healing tool to do the rest.

jeffreyg · Oct 14, 2014

Along with PhotoShop check out OnOne software. Their magic eraser my be helpful.

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L Gebhardt · Oct 14, 2014

The problem is the IR channel that the tools use is blocked by the silver in the negative. The tools can't distinguish between image and dust (which also blocks the IR). To the best of my knowledge there isn't a good software solution for what you want to do.

OzJohn · Oct 14, 2014

L Gebhardt said:
To the best of my knowledge there isn't a good software solution for what you want to do.

That has been my experience also. Just out of curiousity, does anyone know why ICE also does not work with Kodachrome which I expect contains no silver after processing. I don't recall ever reading an explanation for that.

Alan Klein · Oct 15, 2014

I think it has to do that Kodachrome has three layers - one each for the three primary colors. The layers interfere with ICE.

L Gebhardt · Oct 15, 2014

OzJohn said:
That has been my experience also. Just out of curiousity, does anyone know why ICE also does not work with Kodachrome which I expect contains no silver after processing. I don't recall ever reading an explanation for that.

Wikipedia on Digital_ICE says Kodachrome's cyan layer absorbs infrared. The article on Kodachrome also says Kodachrome also has a pronounced relief image that can affect the infrared channel

CHX · Oct 15, 2014

artobest said:
I used to use Polaroid Dust and Scratch removal, but lately, the dust and scratch removal tool in Photoshop has begun giving identical results - I suspect some code has been traded. The trick is to do the work on a new layer and mask off any edge detail as it will get damaged - ie, stick to low-contrast or blurry areas. (It's better than nothing.) Play with the sliders while keeping a close eye on the quality of visible film grain, or what passes for it, in your scan.

Then, use the healing tool/spot healing tool to do the rest.

Thanks for that. Managed to find the old Polariod utility online, and alsoa newer version that works as a plug-in on CS3, and it works a LOT better than CS3s fairly basic dust/scratch filter. I think between that and more judicious care of the negatives themselves (not easy really as I don't have a proper darkroom, and the negatives dry hung from a piece of string in the lounge!) I should be able to achieve something

lenny · Oct 15, 2014

Wet mounting helps a lot...

Richard Boutwell · Oct 16, 2014

First step is to make sure there is isn't too much dust around the area where you are scanning and try to keep static to a minimum. I found all the automatic digital tools to be slower and more of a pain than they are worth.

If there is a lot of light dust marks in areas like a sky then you can duplicate the layer, change it to the darken blend mode and then nudge the darken layer over a few pixels. Then go back mask out/erase any areas in that layer where you want to keep the original detail.

I also use the dust and scratch filter on a separate layer with an opaque layer mask, and then paint in the spots where I am not worried about killing sharpness and detail. I used that methods wauite a lot when preparing/repairing a bunch of scans for the Brett Weston Portfolios that are being published (sometime in the next few years).

All that being said, I still think the Wacom and the healing brush and clone tool is the best game in town. You can keep all your detail, and accurately define what is spotted out and how it is sampled. It takes a little practice, but it goes very fast once you get the hang of it. I learned it back in 2001 with the clone stamp and varying the sampling area to minimize any evidence of the edits.

Like all this stuff there are tons of attempts at what amount to ineffective software fixes, but all it really takes is the it just takes a little practice and the basic tool in photoshop.

OzJohn · Oct 16, 2014

CHX said:
Thanks for that. Managed to find the old Polariod utility online, and alsoa newer version that works as a plug-in on CS3, and it works a LOT better than CS3s fairly basic dust/scratch filter. I think between that and more judicious care of the negatives themselves (not easy really as I don't have a proper darkroom, and the negatives dry hung from a piece of string in the lounge!) I should be able to achieve something

If you do use the Polaroid program make sure you have a look at the finished product at high magnification because when I briefly used it some years ago there was a tendency to create a halo effect around the area from which spots were eliminated. Looks OK in a small print but was very noticeable in enlargements. It could have been the settings I was using but I did notice that the halo was most pronounced when using settings that gave a good detection rate on spots. FWIW. OzJohn

John_M_King · Jan 23, 2015

Some may wring thier hand in anguish and proclaim that it will not work, but a real get you out of difficulty practise used by a number of newspaper darkrooms in the days of film news pictures was to lightly smear the scrached area with grease - the source of the grease was taken from the sides of the printers nose (NO not from the inside) and lightly polish off. This filled the scratches and seemed to be a similar refractive index to the film. The negative then could be printed without the need to retouch afterwards. And yes it does work I have tried it.

Of course the best practise is not to get them there in the 1st place.

alanrockwood · Apr 18, 2015

CHX said:
Thanks for that. Managed to find the old Polariod utility online, and alsoa newer version that works as a plug-in on CS3, and it works a LOT better than CS3s fairly basic dust/scratch filter. I think between that and more judicious care of the negatives themselves (not easy really as I don't have a proper darkroom, and the negatives dry hung from a piece of string in the lounge!) I should be able to achieve something

Where does one find the old Polaroid utility?

OzJohn · Apr 18, 2015

alanrockwood said:
Where does one find the old Polaroid utility?

It's called Polaroid Dust & Scratch Removal or PolaDSR. If you can't locate it on the web send me an email address in a PM. I still have the extracted files but not the original zip but they should work OK. Less than 2Mb in total. I reiterate what I said in an earlier post to this thread that PolaDSR has issues and I gave up using it. OzJohn

lenny · Apr 22, 2015

When I had a lot of spots I used to use Dust and Scratches in combination with the History brush. Do the dust and scratch removal over the whole image, or a whole part, then take a snapshot with the little icon on the History palette. Then undo the Dust and Scratch action. Then paint with the History brush which will paint in the dust and scratch action you did.....

Doing dust and scratch softens the image a bit, which you don't want, but it isn't critical on the spots you ant to get rid of... This technique is very quick. You are still spotting but you can do it query quickly, especially with a Wacom tablet....

Lenny

Digital dust/scratch removal on B&W films (Agfa APX 100 and Lucky SHD 100)

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