Digital BW, The Print

lancscott wrote:
> Vuescan users does this software offer any form of just/scratch
> removal?

Yes. Provided the scanner has an Infrared lamp, Vuescan can recognise dust and
scratches and retouch them. You can control how vigorously the cleaning is
done -- there are Light, Medium and Heavy options.

It works best with chromogenic negatives (C41) and Ektachrome/Fujichrome
positives. Probably useless for silver black and white negatives and Kodachrome
positives.

Peter Marquis-Kyle

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Peter
Marquis-Kyle" <peter@m...> wrote:
> lancscott wrote:
> > Vuescan users does this software offer any form of just/scratch
> > removal?
> 
> Yes. Provided the scanner has an Infrared lamp, Vuescan can
recognise dust and
> scratches and retouch them. You can control how vigorously the
cleaning is
> done -- there are Light, Medium and Heavy options.
> 
> It works best with chromogenic negatives (C41) and Ektachrome/Fujichrome
> positives. Probably useless for silver black and white negatives and
Kodachrome
> positives.

IR grain/dust reduction with Kodachromes may not be quite so "useless"
as popularly assumed. Although I don't have extensive experience
--I've been able to use Vuescan's "Light" grain reduction quite
succesfully with a number of 35 mm Kodachromes. 

Phil

> > Yes. Provided the scanner has an Infrared lamp, Vuescan can
> recognise dust and
> > scratches and retouch them. You can control how vigorously the
> cleaning is
> > done -- there are Light, Medium and Heavy options.
> > 
> > It works best with chromogenic negatives (C41) and
Ektachrome/Fujichrome
> > positives. Probably useless for silver black and white negatives and
> Kodachrome
> > positives.
> 
> IR grain/dust reduction with Kodachromes may not be quite so "useless"
> as popularly assumed. Although I don't have extensive experience
> --I've been able to use Vuescan's "Light" grain reduction quite
> succesfully with a number of 35 mm Kodachromes. 
> 

I'll have to try that again. Digital Ice seems not to work on
Kodachrome...maybe Vuescan's IR controls do the trick?

C41 B&W works. And apparently/reportedly Pyro-development's staining
allows Ice to work, so maybe Vuescan works on that.

Djon wrote:

  > C41 B&W works. And apparently/reportedly Pyro-development's 
staining
> allows Ice to work, so maybe Vuescan works on that.  

That's interesting. I'd love to see examples of ICE working on 
Pyro-developed B&W negs. Although there is a stain, the silver is 
still there (unless you bleach your negatives after fixing) and it 
is the silver that messes ICE up (it is opaque to IR).

In response to the OP, there is a free plug-in from Polaroid called 
Dust and Scratch Removal (DSR) that can be used with Photoshop or 
as a stand-alone application. It definitely ain't ICE, but it 
actually does a passable job at detecting and "cloning out" dust 
marks. You can Google for it (I don't have a link handy).

-- 


Jordan Wosnick
jwosnick@...

I'm not convinced that Polaroid's DSR is better than Photoshop's 
version in Noise Reduction. Both have a tendency to soften images, 
which gives Ice and Vuescan's Infared a big advantage. I agree with 
Nikon's statement that Ice's highest level can soften images a little, 
but the basic level (#3?) seems not to at all. A tiny amount of 
gaussian blur (or perhaps Smart Sharpen) can sometimes be better than 
DSR/Noise Reduction. 

Techniques beyond basic Ice/Infared mostly seem applicable to minilab-
processed negative film, due to their inherent crud factor. 

> In response to the OP, there is a free plug-in from Polaroid called 
> Dust and Scratch Removal (DSR) that can be used with Photoshop or 
> as a stand-alone application. It definitely ain't ICE, but it 
> actually does a passable job at detecting and "cloning out" dust 
> marks. You can Google for it (I don't have a link handy).
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> Jordan Wosnick
> jwosnick@f...

Jordan Wosnick wrote:

>
>In response to the OP, there is a free plug-in from Polaroid called 
>Dust and Scratch Removal (DSR) that can be used with Photoshop or 
>as a stand-alone application. It definitely ain't ICE, but it 
>actually does a passable job at detecting and "cloning out" dust 
>marks. You can Google for it (I don't have a link handy).
>
>  
>
With B&W at least you can take out white "dust" quite easily with 
Polaroid's software. With B&W negatives it is more than 50% that is 
cleaned that way. Taking out black "dust" is more risky (especially with 
grainy scans) and I rather use the stamp there.

Ernst