JeffM From United States of America, joined May 2005, 3266 posts, RR: 53 Posted (10 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 1666 times:
I have hundreds of negatives of aircraft I have taken over the years and would like to scan some of them. I have not purchased a film/slide scanner as of yet due to questions I have regarding their age (some are 20 years old) and if they will scan acceptably. Can old negatives be scanned without tons of work?
I would love to see some examples, and get your opinions on this if possible.
JeffM From United States of America, joined May 2005, 3266 posts, RR: 53 Reply 2, posted (10 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 1630 times:
Thanks for the reply Paul. I read that discussion, but most of the responses were of recently scanned negatives from what I could see. I really would like to see some examples from much older color film negatives.
Mirage From Portugal, joined May 1999, 3120 posts, RR: 16 Reply 3, posted (10 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 1629 times:
Make a search for "Pedro Aragao", his photos are around 15 years old, scanned from negatives. The negatives were very scratched and dirty, it was one hell of job to get them basically acceptable.
Cfalk From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (10 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 1627 times:
I am about to embark on a similar project. I recently discovered among my deceased grandmother's belongings a large number of boxes full of slides. She was a pretty good photographer and sportswoman in her day, and in the 40's, 50's and 60's climbed mountains, did safaris in Africa and other such expeditions before the advent of large-scale tourism. All with her favorite Leica.
Unfortunately a lot of the slides that I've looked at are badly discolored or faded. I want to scan them and store them digitally for posterity. So it will certainly be some work in correcting all those slides.
Most photo-editing software have color auto-adjustment features. Some, like Corel PhotoPaint 10's, work very well. Many others suck. If you have one that works well, that will save you a hell of a lot of time per picture. You'll have to test a few to find one that works well.
I also have a Nikon film scanner, and Nikon's driver software includes a function called Digital ROC (Reconstruction Of Color), which is specifically designed to repair old, faded and discolored images. Similar in concept, I suppose, to the earlier auto-correct function, but more specifically designed for the most likely problems. I haven't tried ROC yet, but I expect I will be putting it through it's paces soon. If anyone is interested, I'll post some results here on the forum.
Tomh From United States of America, joined May 1999, 960 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (10 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 1606 times:
I think the age is not an issue when compared to the condition of the negatives or slides. If they are scratched, mouldy, or otherwise physically damaged, they are likely to require additional work. I would not know of any reason why 15-year old negs should be faded or discolored, so I don't think that is a problem for you.
I have experienced no problem scanning color or B&W negs that are 15 years old. I have also scanned B&W negs and color slides that are 40 years old with no problems that relate directly to age.
JeffM From United States of America, joined May 2005, 3266 posts, RR: 53 Reply 6, posted (10 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 1590 times:
That's what I needed to know. Their condition is not an issue for most of them. I was just curious if age had much of an effect.
Thanks for the replies. I guess it is off to the store to find a film/slide scanner now.
Tomh From United States of America, joined May 1999, 960 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (10 years 8 months 3 weeks 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 1579 times:
Not that this is an opportunity for a shameless plug or anything like that, but these recent uploads of mine were scanned with a Minolta Dimage Scan Elite II:
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