jlocke Loc: Austin, TX

I've been scanning some old photo negatives and am running across something that looks like some kind of defect in the negative. These negatives were still in the sleeve from the photo processing company, so they weren't touching another negative. When this shows in a background, it is usually not too hard to remove using the healing brush, spot healing brush, and clone stamp. But sometimes it is in a very inconvenient location. I'm wondering if there is something I can use to clean the negative that would remove this. Anyone have any experience with this or any advice? On this photo, you can see what I'm talking about extending to the right from the bottom of the ear.

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big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Looks like the neg isn't flat and maybe an air bubble is present.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

My negatives from the 80s look like this all the time. I use Lightroom to clean up the scans, as much as possible. Adjusting the WB and removing this artifact are just a few minutes, or less, of work, depending on how perfect you want the replacement to be. This example can be corrected completely and unnoticeably, entirely with LR.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Don't know if this is any help. I selected the problem area with the brush in Lr and put the Moire slider to about 85. The banding is still there but the colour distortions are gone.
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Original.


Moire adjustment.

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

looks like moisture between neg and a glass surface. If you are shooting just the neg without glass elements a rewash of the negative may remove it if dried carefully (always a challenge.) I'd pick an unimportant neg for the experiment.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

It looks to me like a dried water spot - likely from when the neg was washed originally. Maybe the developing company didn't allow it to dry entirely before sleeving it.