Photoshop and scanned negs

[Mike Caldwell]

I've got a lot of old (30 years?) negatives I might like to work with in photoshop.

Has anyone done much of this? How bad is the grain, etc.?
--
Mike Caldwell
'if your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail'

 

[Ed Nazarko]

I've done a bit of it. I did some with an LS2000, and some with my new Coolscan 4000, with digital GEM and ROC. In neither case were the results unacceptable, and I didn't find it to be a huge pain - I'm pretty good at color adjustments and retouching, so even with the LS2000 it wasn't bad. Tedious sometimes, but the results were good and I now have pictures of familiy members long gone. With the 4000, it's quite a bit easier with slides than with the LS2000, because the color correction is a snap, differences were not as big of a deal with negatves. Photoshop 7's color correction engine also does a great job in pulling things back into reality.

And the grain is no worse than when the originals were printed. For the heck of it, I scanned some old negs (about 30 years also), printed them, and they were as grainy as the original prints - I'd kind of forgotten what old film was like. (And now I'm starting to play with recreating the look on newer films...) I did the digital GEM thing, and they were less grainy, and less sharp.

I've got a lot of old (30 years?) negatives I might like to work
with in photoshop.

Has anyone done much of this? How bad is the grain, etc.?
--
Mike Caldwell
'if your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a
nail'

 

[Robert Jones]

Go for it! I have had better luck with old negatives, especially B/W, than with slides. Some of the negatives dated back to 1952. I use a Minolta Quickscan (2700 dpi)....Bob

I've got a lot of old (30 years?) negatives I might like to work
with in photoshop.

Has anyone done much of this? How bad is the grain, etc.?
--
Mike Caldwell
'if your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a
nail'

--
Robert Jones

 

[Clever]

Cleve C wrote:

Give it a shot. I have the older Canon scanner - 2700dpi. It worked well on my old TriX black and whites plus bunches of old slides. Most of my negatives were in the 30 years plus timeframe.

I've got a lot of old (30 years?) negatives I might like to work
with in photoshop.

Has anyone done much of this? How bad is the grain, etc.?
--
Mike Caldwell
'if your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a
nail'

--
Robert Jones

 

[Sal C]

Mike

Just spent the better part of Sunday evening restoring old negatives some of shich damaged by water. Used Nikon Coolscan 4000 and the results were very good. The amount of work however is significant!

 

[Kevin Allen]

Mike

Just spent the better part of Sunday evening restoring old
negatives some of shich damaged by water. Used Nikon Coolscan 4000
and the results were very good. The amount of work however is
significant!

I scan lots of glass negs some a 100 years old. these are B&W but I scan in RGB. As with all scanning get the colour correct on the scan and not in P/shop. I would say if the negs are grainy it will be part of the period and add to the final result. The glass negs have no or very little visable grain and certainly no pixelation!

But scratches and marks by the lorry load, I can manage to scan and retouch/repair about 4-6 per hour.
A Labour of love.......... I have hundreds (No I did not take them)
Kevin