Handling dust and drying marks when scanning

[gbremer]

I'd like to know how you handle dust and drying marks when scanning your negatives.

I've been trying to get back to doing my own B&W development in the past several weeks due to my dissatisfaction with the results of sending the film out. I realize that one of the things I should do is focus more on prevention when drying my negatives. I've been able to find some good references in past threads on that.

What I'm curious about is what techniques to you use to deal with dust and marks that have made it onto your negs? Since I'm scanning (no wet printing at this time ), photoshop techniques would be of interest as well.

Here's an example of a recent negative that looked to my eye as relatively free from dust until I scanned it.

[RML]

Apart from using distilled water and letting my negs dry in the bathroom, I try to scan them as soon as possible.

If dust gets in the scan, I try to clone it out in PaintShop Pro. Drying marks are worse but that's why I use distilled water. And then there's always an option to wash the neg and let it dry again.

[visiondr]

I have no specific technique on spotting negs except to spot the "negs" in p'shop using the healing brush tool. I've gotten pretty fast at this and only do it on the best shots. I'm lucky, our water here in Portland is very low in minerals and is very soft naturally. So, all I do is rince and put a few drops of photoflo into the tank at the end, hang the strips in the bathroom (after a steamy hot water run) and they dry with no fuss.

[jan normandale]

George, one thing I always do when scanning is wear cotton gloves and I 'blow' the negs clean on both sides with a rubber squeeze bulb blower / dust remover. Also ensure your scanner is clean as are the neg holders, because they will also attract dust which can get onto your cleaned negs during the scan.

Additionally if you can; use distilled water for your final rinse and a small amount of wetting agent / ie Kodak Photoflow. My final thought is to ensure the negs are drying in a 'relatively dustless' location in your home.

[gbremer]

Thanks guys. I've already started using distilled water + photo flo for my final rinse because I know the water here is quite hard. Next batch I'm going to use the "steamed bathroom" technique for drying because my negatives were really dusty. I'm also going to really clean out my scanner when I get some time.

I've been thinking about how to speed up the healing brush work on some of the more challeging scans. Perhaps I'll try using a tablet when I get some money. Sometimes using the mouse is so tedious.

What would really be nice would be for the digital ICE to work effectively for B&W film as well as color. My color scans come out fine.

[erikhaugsby]

Originally Posted by gbremer

What would really be nice would be for the digital ICE to work effectively for B&W film as well as color. My color scans come out fine.

The whole problem with dICE and B&W is that when analyzing a color scan dICE looks for little specks that interrupt the color structure; if used on a B&W negative it will still look for the little specks but in doing so mislabels much of the grain as removeable, essentially turning the scan into rubbish. Like you said, shame they can't build a better mousetrap.