egegikbob

I scanned some 50 year old 35mm transparent slides of commercial fishing and my home village Egegik in Alaska. Our Native Corp is starting to work on a history book. I'm not skilled at doctoring dust/flaws in the jpeg files. Anyone have a good experience with companies who touch-up digital images? Your input for a firm nor too pricy with quality work..appreciate it.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Are there no volunteers in you community that have a computer with Lightroom, Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Dust spots and minor flaws are nearly automatic fixes.

If you post an example or two, I'm sure you'll get a quick demonstrations of what is both easy and possible.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

There arte two parts to your questions:

There are companies who will do the scan AND clean the slides first, reducing the dust an imperfection in the process. Since their scan will be high resolution you will also get a good starting point.


If you have a company do the re-scan for you, specify a different format like TIFF. You can learn the process, it is really not difficult and there are several interesting tutorials n line on how to repair a damaged slide or photo.


All specialists who do that usually charge about $75.00 an hour!!!


If you do that (post an image to get help, do it the post processing section.

This is a very good suggestion by bsprague.

Just be aware that you will get many 'remakes' many horrendous. Ask specifically for a 'how to'.

There is one UHH user who was very good at repairing images. I am not sure if he still active since I have not seen any post from him for a long time. If he sees your request he may 'wake up' which would be a great thing for all of us.

As to program PS CC seems to be the best to do retouching, IF you stay away from plug-ins. The cost is 9.99 per month and you have a month try out period to check it out.

Another program good to use (and free) is GIMP. I do not recommend it, not because it s bad (far from it, it is an excellent editor) but because I have not learned it so...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's where sending them to a place like ScanCafe is good. The slides are cleaned and scanned and look like new.

Zaruka Loc: Illinois

I spend hours during the winter cleaning up my old slides from the 1960s and 70s. I find Photoshop tends to blur the the images so I scan them at a very high resolution then go in and by hand do a pixel replacement with MS Paint. I have done this with glass negatives and get great results. The problem is that it can take hours doing one image but getting the cracks and dust specks works well at high resolution and using adjacent pixels. Despeckle in Photoshop does not work well for me. I use the same technique for sensor dust spots. I find it works well.

tusketwedge Loc: Nova Scotia Canada

What PS do you have as the Eraser does a fairly good job .Sometimes you got to play " opacity,flow.brush size ,changing directions etc."with it. That's my go to tool for touch-ups , like taking out electric lines and poles,dust spots etc. Works good for me. Usually blow up the image to at least 100% to make sure I'm not leaving dust spots.

JFleming Loc: Belchertown, Ma

ScanCafe is one of the places to check put. I've used them in the past for just what you're looking to do and they're very good!

http://www.scancafe.com/services/valuekit-product?cid=GOOG&template=1&gclid=CMGxsMGjmMoCFRQlgQodi5cKaA

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I think you mean the Clone tool (or possibly the Healing tool)....

Certainly not the Eraser (which will remove everything and leave a plain white spot on the image).

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Depending on how many slides there are, it might be more feasible to purchase a reasonably good slide scanner and do them yourself, or with some folks to help as a team.

There are some scanners that can recognize dust and spots and remove them during the scanning process. It's a "tunable" function, as it is difficult for the scanner to recognize the difference between dust / scratches and details the would best be left alone.

Epson scanners are pretty close to top of the line in quality and ability.
--Bob

egegikbob

Thanks hogs
the leads & advise is welcome.
I think my knowledge base is inflated a little
more and I will now start on the task.
I'm attaching two fotos 1 B&W & one color
it is gratifying that Kodak produced products
that, when well cared for, help us see history.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Looks like a great start. For this sort of thing the best recommendation I have is a good set of headphones. Yup, that, music you enjoy, and hours of retouching go by very pleasantly.
--Bob

egegikbob

That would be C&W Haggard & Willie & other outlaws :)