# Help me save this photo!



## Drizzt321 (Jul 2, 2013)

So, I just scanned in 2 rolls I shot a couple of weeks ago and developed at a place that is easier for me to get to and can be a day or two faster to get the rolls back to me. Unfortunately, it appears that they scratched both rolls, right across the upper 3rd. Multiple lines. *[email protected]*JFOIJDSI$ Didn't see this happen on the Ektar 100 I had them develop, but seeing it on the 2 B&W rolls.

Anyway, scanned in the keepers, but now I need to go in and try and digitally save them, as in some of them it's very, very evident. So, what techniques should I use? I've got Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CS 5.1 and a wall that I can bang my head against.

Here are 2 samples, one is the obvious problem, the other it's not so apparent through most of the image thanks to busier background. I'm not so concerned with that one.


----------



## leGreve (Jul 2, 2013)

What's the big deal? Just get to it and use healing brush. Clone tool will ****** up royaly in areas with wide tonality.

This result took me less than 5 minutes in photoshop.


----------



## leGreve (Jul 2, 2013)

Again... around 5 minutes with healing brush. Took a bit longer because of the detailed texture. Working in close.... small brush.

It's all about learning the tool, not just using the tool itself.


----------



## paul13walnut5 (Jul 2, 2013)

Did you tell the lab? They may need to clean their rollers in the processor, or it could have been debris on your pressure plate as well.

Had this happen occassionally.


----------



## marcel (Jul 2, 2013)

Lines are black!! Scratches in the negative are always white.The lab have to fix a big problem!


----------



## Schruminator (Jul 2, 2013)

I didn't have time to read the topic, but I usually just use Ctrl + S. This might be different on a Mac, but on a PC it works great for saving photos.


(I'm sorry, where were we?  )


----------



## leGreve (Jul 2, 2013)

Ok... but they are not going to fix it by you sitting here......

I already told you this can be fixed in 5 minutes photoshop. So stop yapping here and go to work. Honestly...

I've seen worse cases when I worked as fashion / beauty retoucher in London and those were still easily mended in photoshop.

Stop making this a bigger issue than it needs to be.... or consider shooting digital instead? There's not really ANY incentive to shoot film than because you find it funny haha or hobby or what ever. Grain can be added afterwards anyways.... and by afterwards I mean scanning a developed negative and laying it on top of the digital photo.


----------



## marcel (Jul 2, 2013)

leGreve said:


> Stop making this a bigger issue than it needs to be.... or consider shooting digital instead? There's not really ANY incentive to shoot film than because you find it funny haha or hobby or what ever. Grain can be added afterwards anyways.... and by afterwards I mean scanning a developed negative and laying it on top of the digital photo.




Yes, of course, digital is more easy, but maybe you can said to me what digital camera have the same quality of a well scanned 6 X 7 for the same price i can pay for a second hand Mamiya RB 67.


----------



## LewisShermer (Jul 2, 2013)

leGreve +1

stop pricking about and get on with it


----------



## brianboru (Jul 2, 2013)

About eight minutes for me. "Spot Healing Brush" for the dust and then "Healing Brush" in "Normal" mode for the lines. (I wasted a couple minutes creating paths along the lines to be stroked by the spot healing brush, but content aware fill was seeing a pattern to the lines and was creating echos of the other scratches.) 

I've been scanning quite a few old family negatives lately and some sets have loads of scratches on them. I've guessed that it was their negative-cutter that was doing lots of damage as the original prints don't show problems.


----------



## agierke (Jul 2, 2013)

> Lines are black!! Scratches in the negative are always white



Scratches in the negative are white true...but they turn black when a positive is made. Like a scan.

As others have clearly noted...this is such a minor issue especially since you were gonna need to use the healing brush like crazy to clean up all that dust.

Now if you wanted to have an enlarger print done...that's a different story.


----------



## LewisShermer (Jul 2, 2013)

there you go. about 3 mins. got rid of the pesky swimmers and boats for you too. And levelled up your horizon... 8)


----------



## distant.star (Jul 2, 2013)

LewisShermer said:


> there you go. about 3 mins. got rid of the pesky swimmers and boats for you too. And levelled up your horizon... 8)



Lewis, while you're at this, can you remove the fish from the water also? Oh, and the jellyfish for sure!

Thanks.


----------



## leGreve (Jul 2, 2013)

marcel said:


> leGreve said:
> 
> 
> > Stop making this a bigger issue than it needs to be.... or consider shooting digital instead? There's not really ANY incentive to shoot film than because you find it funny haha or hobby or what ever. Grain can be added afterwards anyways.... and by afterwards I mean scanning a developed negative and laying it on top of the digital photo.
> ...



Heh... we have one lying around the studio because we don't know what to do with it.... it's a fossil. On our 4 Hasselblad 503 we have old Phase One backs delivering 10mp photos, 20 on the newer ones.

It's not about the film... it's about the glass.

Having said that, I'd still rather pick up a Canon DSLR and shoot with that instead of an old Mamiya when doing location shots.
And if it needs to be flashy, then the only way to go is a proper new PhaseOne.


----------



## marcel (Jul 2, 2013)

agierke said:


> > Lines are black!! Scratches in the negative are always white
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Scanning with a scanner or enlarging with an enlarger is the same thing: make a positive from a negative.


----------



## marcel (Jul 2, 2013)

leGreve said:


> marcel said:
> 
> 
> > leGreve said:
> ...



Yes, this is the problem: you don't know what to do with it.
And a PhaseOne back is cheaper than a 120 roll film, fantastic!


----------



## Jay Khaos (Jul 2, 2013)

I actually prefer the photo with the scratches... it already has a vintage feel and the exposure is blown out so it's not taking away from anything. Throw an instagram filter on it and call it a day


----------



## Drizzt321 (Jul 2, 2013)

OK, so I guess I chose a bad example and overreacted because it was late and I know it would take me more than a couple of minutes to brush out. I have a few frames with people and more complex scenes which show the scratches really badly, so I guess I'm just going to have to take more than a couple of minutes on those to do them right. No magic PS filter or plug in for me 

And I'm going to call the lab this morning once they open to let them know.


----------



## marcel (Jul 2, 2013)

Drizzt321 said:


> OK, so I guess I chose a bad example and overreacted because it was late and I know it would take me more than a couple of minutes to brush out. I have a few frames with people and more complex scenes which show the scratches really badly, so I guess I'm just going to have to take more than a couple of minutes on those to do them right. No magic PS filter or plug in for me
> 
> And I'm going to call the lab this morning once they open to let them know.



Process the B&W yourself.


----------



## agierke (Jul 2, 2013)

> Scanning with a scanner or enlarging with an enlarger is the same thing: make a positive from a negative.



Um...if you are trying to deal with removing scratches then scanning versus enlarger prints is two entirely different problems.

I'm guessing something is being lost in translation here so I'm gonna let it go.

As for the OP, scratched negatives suck but be glad you do have the digital option to correct them. The healing brush is probably the best tool to deal with it but if you want to try a potentially easier solution, check out the content aware fill features in PS. I think they started getting pretty good in CS5. If your version is earlier then you are stuck with healing brush.


----------



## tron (Jul 2, 2013)

Scratched negatives and slides is one of the reasons I like digital photography. In fact I was sorry I decided to turn into digital by the end of 2007.
I should have done that earlier.

Anyway photoshop can fix many problems given ... time (and disk space but that is ample nowadays).

May I suggest to make the corrections in a different layer so as to make the process non-destructive?
(you create a new layer , you select it, check "Sample All Layers" and then start making corrections)

With that way you will be able to keep all corrections to the new layer, have your original photo intact and be able to repeat the process.
Just remember to keep all layers and save it in PSD or TIFF format.


----------



## marcel (Jul 2, 2013)

agierke said:


> > Scanning with a scanner or enlarging with an enlarger is the same thing: make a positive from a negative.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's ok, I just wanted to say that it's not a different story.
In the darkroom, the paper to make the prints is negative, like the negative film. Negative + negative= positive.
With a scanner you can scan a negative to make it positive, same as negative paper in the darkroom.
For me is the same thing to shoot digital or film, but i print digital. PS is more versatile and repeatable.Especially for the scratches and Silver EFX pro.


----------

