Using a scanner, minimizing dust

MR
Posted By
Mark Reibman
Aug 1, 2003
Views
293
Replies
16
Status
Closed
My niece keeps sending me scanned photos to work on. They have a lot of dust particles. How do you minimize this? I get tired of cleaning them up.

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KL
Kenneth Liffmann
Aug 1, 2003
Mark
I have a can of air which I use to blow off the dust from the glass surface, and also clean it periodically with a pre-moistened, non-abrasive wipe, made by Memorex.
Ken
P
Phosphor
Aug 1, 2003
There is a "dust and scratches" (or something like that) filter in Elements, but I’ve found it quite difficult to effectively remove all the dust spots without degrading the image. I usually set the tolerance quite low (or is it high?) to get the worst spots without altering the image itself.

Dan
R
Ray
Aug 1, 2003
Dan,

The trick is to make a very narrow selection (or close to, depending on the type of colors / patterns there’s behind the scratch) and experiment. Photo restoration and clean up is the most difficult subject of all! I remember, a few months ago, I had to restore a picture for a friend whose father died. It took me 4 hours to remove all dust spots. But it worked wonderfully, with the dust / scracthes filter.

Ray
JH
Joe Henry1000
Aug 1, 2003
Ray,

Gregory Georges has a great tutorial on the dust/scratches filter in his 50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques. I’ve been doing quite a bit restoration myself and until I went through his tutorial I was pretty frustrated with the dust/scratches filter. Now it works like a charm for me, and it doesn’t take that long to get great results. 4 hours, good grief! 😉 You’re a good friend to have spent that long on a photo. Anyway, if you haven’t checked out Georges book, I highly recommend it.

Joe
LK
Leen Koper
Aug 1, 2003
To clear the dust I apply a foam, used by frame makers to clean the glass of frames. I spray it on the glass plate, wait a few seconds an wipe it off. This seems to be a little anti static as well.
It dries within seconds and leaves no traces.

If anyone is interested I ‘ll check the brand in the studio tomorrow.

Leen
JH
Joe Henry1000
Aug 1, 2003
I’d be interested Leen.

Thanks,

Joe
CS
carl sutherland
Aug 1, 2003
Has anyone had any experience with the Microtek Scanmaker 6800 <http://www.microtekusa.com/prsm68002aw.html> . It is said to have the first application of Applied Science Fiction’s Digital ICE technology in print scanners which has done well in film scanners. PC Magazine <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,762973,00.asp> and PC World <http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,109641,00.asp> have given high marks for it. And it must be good because it has PSE 2 bundled with it. The technology is specifically for creases, dust, and dirt on prints.
I plan to get one unless someone here has had a negative experience with it.

Carl
O
OldnSenile
Aug 2, 2003
Carl Sutherland,

I don’t have the expertise to influence your decision, but I noticed that, although the Epson Perfection 3200 specs did include PE 2.0, the Microtek 6800 lists PE 1.1 (as does the Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III film scanner that I have been considering).

Have you seen the following review of the Epson 3200?

< http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Scanners/Epson_ 3200/page_1.htm>

Also, for the 6800:

<http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,110001,00.asp>

OldnSenile
P
Phosphor
Aug 2, 2003
Well, Carl, I’m sure the microtek is a great scanner, but there have been serious issues in the past due to the fact that microtek doesn’t provide upgraded drivers for mac much. I’d do a search on microtek over at the apple forum before buying it. I know that they flat out told everyone who had their scanners when X came out, "too bad for you."
JH
Joe Henry1000
Aug 2, 2003
Thanks Leen. Sounds like it might be more than what I need, though. Probably pretty expensive. I’ll look into it anyway.

Joe
MR
Mark Reibman
Aug 2, 2003
Thank you for your suggestions. I’ll pass on these hints to my niece.
CC
Chris Christy
Aug 4, 2003
I have a Nikon super cool scan 8000 which used to have a pallette labelled ICE. This did a good job of removing dust spots and scratches in the scanning stage (after, of course, blowing the negs with a gas duster. The problem for me now is that the pallette disappeared into the atmosphere or someplace else. I’ve reinstalled the nikon program, but to no avail. I’ll be back hounding Nikon people unless soimeone out there can clue me in.
I saw no reference to using the clone tool to get rid of dust and scratches. I use it with some degree of success, but wonder why no one has mentioned it.
chris
CS
Chuck Snyder
Aug 4, 2003
Chris, the Clone tool is an excellent way to get rid of the larger dust and scratch ‘anomalies’; it requires some getting used to, but it’s very effective, especially with background noise that can also be blurred.

BTW, and perhaps slightly off-topic, I’ve seen recommendations from Photoshop gurus that you not use the scanner’s sharpening routines, as they may in fact cause the dust trails to become more pronounced. A ‘raw’ scanner image is the best choice for editing with PS and its younger sibling Elements.

Chuck
JH
Joe Henry1000
Aug 4, 2003
BTW, and perhaps slightly off-topic, I’ve seen recommendations from Photoshop gurus that you not use the scanner’s sharpening routines, as they may in fact cause the dust trails to become more pronounced. A ‘raw’ scanner image is the best choice for editing with PS and its younger sibling Elements.

Oh great, now I have to rescan the 2000 or so slides I scanned in with sharpening on! Just kidding, they’re fine the way they are. That’s good to know, though, Chuck. I think I just leave my Epson Twain setting for this at the default which has Sharpening turned on.

Joe
BH
Beth Haney
Aug 4, 2003
Chris, cloning is one of my favorite ways to get rid of dust particles, too. I was trying to focus on getting Mark to get his niece to clean up her act so he didn’t have to deal with all the crud! 🙂 Hey, let’s make this easy on the poor guy!
BH
Beth Haney
Aug 5, 2003
And I bet they do something with that bad scanner once they have to edit their own scans! 🙂 Nothing like complacency when Uncle Mark is the one having to do all the work.

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