Fixing E6 scans

Joseph Lockley · Jun 3, 2020

Hey guys,

Recently shot a roll of Ektachrome 400 that I got from a pretty strange old guy in a printing shop in Brixton.
Sent it off to Peak Imaging for E6 scanning and just got my scans back and they are all very washed out and blue-ish looking. Have attached some samples so you can see what I mean.

Does anyone know why this has happened and if there is any way to fix them in Lightroom or something?
Would really appreciate any help or info!

eatfrog · Jun 3, 2020

do you have the slides? do they look this way too? probably really expired film. Or peak maybe scanned it in c41 mode, in that case they should redo it for you.

Joseph Lockley · Jun 3, 2020

eatfrog said:
do you have the slides? do they look this way too? probably really expired film. Or peak maybe scanned it in c41 mode, in that case they should redo it for you.

Don't have the slides yet, unfortunately. Really hoping it's just a scanning error.

Wallendo · Jun 3, 2020

This is probably just old film poorly stored.
This can be corrected to some extent in Photoshop using the "levels" control. By adjusting the black and white points for all three colors, you can often get a reasonable approximation of the original curve.
Lightroom doesn't have a Levels control so you will have to use the various color controls it offers, although often just adjusting the color tint will work.
Digital adjustments can salvage these images, but the result will not be optimal.
Hopefully this is a scanning problem. Most labs, however, would have caught such an obvious mistake.

NortheastPhotographic · Jun 3, 2020

This is what very old slide film looks like. Slide film is generally only ok when kept cold or frozen past the expirey date.

George Collier · Jun 3, 2020

As others have mentioned, you need the slides to evaluate the scans.
They sent you jpgs, which do not have the color information that a Tiff or Psd file would have, so even with adjustments, you're swimming upstream. (think "sow's ear)
I did a screen capture of one of your posts and did some simple adjustments with curves (much like what was suggested with levels, but I prefer using curves, same adjustment capabilities and more), then a hue saturation adjustment. It looks better but not great. Also, the film is grainy, which doesn't help.

Grim Tuesday · Jun 3, 2020

Look into seeing if you can locate a copy of Kodak ROC (Restoration of Color). It's a plugin for Photoshop that a branch of Kodak made for this express purpose.

Trail Images · Jun 3, 2020

I liked the cat one so I took just a minute to set the white and black points and then removed the blue cast.

Fixing E6 scans

Joseph Lockley

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eatfrog

Joseph Lockley

Wallendo

NortheastPhotographic

George Collier

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Grim Tuesday

Trail Images

Fixing E6 scans

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Privacy & Transparency