Boris77

Any chance that these spots are surface damage to the negatives from being stored in "archival" plastic sleeves. I have noticed that the archival pages I was starting to use is much smoother than the frosted plastic I had previously. Look at the negative surfaces with a high power magnifier to visually ID your problem.
None of my negative are obviously damaged, but I have limited my scans to old prints.
Boris

mchroust Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Nikon Coolscan V has a Infrared Digital Ice that suppose to scan images and clean the unwanted stuff. Did you tried that?

Steve22

Ed

So, I've downloaded Elements. I haven't figured out the optimum slider settings to use. So far a radius around 9 with a threshold in the 20's seems to remove spots without giving up detail. It has some odd effects -- the hi-light in the eyes gets deleted, as well as the narrow bright rim of glasses.

I'll play with it. HENLOPEN has an interesting addition: after removing the spots, he re-sharpens the image.

Also, it may turn out that I can use this technique to get rid of myriad small spots without giving up too much detail, but still have to use the clone tool for larger ones. This should still but my processing time by 80%. fingers crossed.

Steve

Steve22

I no longer have the software disk that came with the scanner. I'm also not sure it would work on a new Mac.

VueScan software is doing some clean-up, but it's not enough to eliminate the problem.

Steve22

Thank you: I hadn't thought of trying to (re)sharpen the image after spot removal. That's brilliant.

Steve

Steve22

Boris
That's a distinct possibility. These were stored in clear "archival" film sleeves, six rows holding six frames each. If that's what you're thinking of switching to, please don't. At least not Q-Pic. I don't have access to a microscope, or an enlarger, right now to confirm.

Tonight I'm going to try E.L..'s rewash suggestion. I'll let y'all know the results.
Steve

mchroust Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Go to https://www.hamrick.com/ they have software for Nikon scanner and it works on Mac. I have the same scanner and it does great job. I have the 2020 iMac and it works very well.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

That's exciting news. Do they have software for the 9000?

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I hope it works for you. It's much better than depending on a spot removal software program that oftentimes will remove highlights that are not defects. Let me know how things turn out.

Steve22

So, re-washing didn't help. It appears, as was suggested elsewhere, that what I'm seeing is a chemical reaction, probably between the plastic of the sleeve and the emulsion side of the negative. The images in question have been in the "archival" sleeve for about 35 years...
Or it was something in the environment to which the plastic was porous. I've been in one house and three apartments in that period, and though I aimed for a cool, dry, dark place for storage.... Who knows?
Thanks again for your thorough response,
Steve

Steve22

Yes, thanks, that's what I use. For me it works better than Silverfast.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Bad news! Usually, if the offending particles are simply dust and dirt that live on the surface of negatives and somehow become embedded are removable by the detergent action and emulsion softening of Photo-Flo. May I suggest, as an experiment on one not-so-important negative, you re-do the procedure but with an extended time- 5 to 10 minutes is the solution and more aggressive rubbing.

As for "archival" envelopes and sleeves- I have had some issues. Some glassine envelopes were labelled as archival that were not. I don; know whether it was the material itself of the glue or adhesive used to construct the envelopes and/or the storage conditions. There was severe adhesions to the negatives, however, I was able to dislodge the negatives with the soaking procedure but there was another permanent damage other than spots, rather Moiré-like patterns. Some of this was somewhat remedied by printing the negatives WET in a glassless enlarger carrier with a cold-light source.

At one time, I discussed this with a film archivist who mentioned that residual chemicals in the film can act as a solvent and cause this kind of adhesion and subsequent damage. High relative humidity accelerates the reaction.

I get into this stuff because at my studio we do quite a volume of photo-restoration for museums and archives that don't have in-house technicians who are familiar with photographic restoration as opposed to the restoration of paintings, etc. Now and again we get the damaged and dirty film, glass plates, and lantern slides where there is interest in the historical content of the image and restoration is need just to clarify the details. Many of the artifacts are too fragile or will simply disolve if soaked. Others are beyond cleaning so out come the airbrush and the cloning tool on the computer. Not fun!

I have found a solution- my lovely wife loves cloning out spots. She is a fastidious housekeeper, organizer, etc. You can perform open-heart surgery in our kitchen!

Steve22

Just an adenda to the conversation:

Negatives from 1971 stored in Agfa glassine sleeves are scanning clean.

mchroust Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

They have software for the most if not all scanners on the market even those that are not being produced anymore.

Steve22

Ah.

A mechanical detail: my film is cut into six frame strips. I was able to get the dry onto a ss spiral reel for the water wash and the initial dip in photo-flo. To give them a good rub, I removed them from the reel. What do you do with them for the second sluice in Photo-flo? I used a 4x5 rubber tank, but was worried about an edge catching on the emulsion of another negative. And how do you hang them to dry?

As to your lovely wife: congratulations. I dated a Canadian in the late sixties..... I'll find the negatives of her, eventually.