Problem with predominately black slides and negatives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roger Halstead
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Roger Halstead

I have had a problem scanning slides and negatives where a
major portion of the image is black, or in some instances blue. In
instances where a shot might have a view out a window, but was shot so
the window is only a small portion of the frame, or where an airplane
is a small object against the sky.

In both cases the image will be extremely grainy an usually off color
although in one case the black and red airplane was in focus and
looked fairly good. The rest of the image (sky) was a yellow/orange
and very grainy.

It's similar to what you some times get when the frames are not in
register, but the same cure doesn't appear to work.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
 
I have had a problem scanning slides and negatives where a
major portion of the image is black, or in some instances blue. In
instances where a shot might have a view out a window, but was shot so
the window is only a small portion of the frame, or where an airplane
is a small object against the sky.

In both cases the image will be extremely grainy an usually off color
although in one case the black and red airplane was in focus and
looked fairly good. The rest of the image (sky) was a yellow/orange
and very grainy.

It's similar to what you some times get when the frames are not in
register, but the same cure doesn't appear to work.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
Click to expand...

This is a common failure of the auto color balancing system in scanner
software when it averages everything to gray.

Usually I have been able to "fool" the auto color balancing by turning
off the continuous color balancing and framing just the subject or
some gray area such as a cloud bottom before clicking on the auto
color balance / exposure button. Once you find a neutral spot to set
the color you can re-frame the photo and scan with the locked setting.
The other option is to go with full manual settings.

The grain problem might be reduced if you have a multiple sample
option on your scanner. I have found that the dark areas of the film
do tend to be the grainiest because they have received the least
exposure. But the scanner noise can be significant too and averaging
multiple samples helps significantly.

73, WB0MOT
 
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