Scanning Woes | Dust

Dork Knight

Dork Knight

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Jason
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Dust, it really is a pain in the backside isn't it.

I'm going to have to keep on top of it as best I can but it got me to thinking about products which could assist, at the moment I'm using the following when scanning as well as dusting;

Cotton Gloves,
Compressed Air,
Air Blower,
Anti-static Brush

I was looking at an air treatment system and I was wondering if anyone uses something similar or if you have an alternatives??

Example below;
http://www.vax.co.uk/air-treatment/air-purifiers/ap01-air-purifier

I've got the scanner hooked up to a PC in the bedroom as there's not enough space downstairs next to the main computer, so it's not a massive room.

Thanks,

Jason
 
Nice to have goodies like dust extractors but for me I don't have an annoying problem with dust as if using a flatbed scanner...before scanning clean the glass and neg and then use a rocket blower, but admit I nearly always get a few spots turn up on the jpg and as long as they are not big ones inc hairs they are easily removed in Photoshop. I acquired a gallon of anti static liquid about 30 years ago and it's supposed to be for cleaning TV screens but never used it maybe I should try it on the glass of the flatbed sometime, anyway maybe some one uses it and is an idea.
 
I think the trick is to keep dust off the film when it's wet. When its dry you can blow dust off without too much effort.

All I've ever done is a final rinse in filtered water to help with spots, then removed and hung the film up to dry in the shower which is naturally less dusty because, well... it's a shower. When have you ever seen a dusty shower?

I don't bother with cotton gloves as even lint free ones probably have more lint than my clean fingertips. Before I scan each strip of negatives I give them a light blow with a dust blower and then scan them. Handle them from the edge and only take them out of the sleeves to scan and put back.

The best thing I ever did was stop zooming in to 100% when dust busting in PP. Just do what you can see when the image is fitted to the screen, as that's about as big as you're ever going to see it, especially if you resize it for Flickr etc.
 
I do much the same as Carl and have no issues with dust.

Couple of points...

Cotton gloves are a disaster.

Your bedroom is the dustiest room in the house, always.
 
My routine:
  • Damp-dust the scanner lid and sides, the surface where I'll be mounting the negs into the hoders, and all other surfaces around the scanner.
  • Dry dust the same areas
  • Wipe the scanner galss (top and bottom) with a clean micro-fibre cloth (keep the scanner closed except when you need to add ot remove the negs)
  • When the negs are mounted (I carefully handle the negs without gloves, taking care only to touch the edges), I give them a blow top and bottom with a rocket blower, and then give the bottom scanner glass another wipe in case any stray particles have landed on it before placing the negs.
I still get a bit of dust, but it's rarely overwhelming, and sometimes none (that I can see) at all.

It also depends on when the room was last cleaned properly too, with dust getting more prevalent until it has a proper clean.
 
All good advice, thank you ~ The StaticVac looks good but perhaps a little out of my budget but I'll keep an eye out for a deal.

Thank You
 
Carl Hall said:
When have you ever seen a dusty shower?
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You have clearly never gone into the shower after my Mrs. Kin talcum powder everywhere, no wonder we have 3 vacuum cleaners in our house, all Dysons and it's only a 3 bed semi.
Agree dont zoom 100%, anyway isnt dust/hairs part of the charm of film, like cracks and pops on vinyl :)
Matt
 
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I was introduced to the Milty Zerostat (only around £50) when I was at Uni (1970s) in the Electron Microscopy lab for removing static held dust from the negs that we made photographing the phosphor screen. Later on I used one for removing static from things I was weighing in work (down to 0.0000001g). They were also great for removing static from records. I do have a DIY version that I was using for film until I got a real one for myself. This link is to one a chap uses for cleaning something called a digital sensor (rather him than me).
 
Also if you’re home processing and hang your negs in the shower to dry it’s worth running the shower for couple of minutes as it settles and dust in the air before you hang yours.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Also if you’re home processing and hang your negs in the shower to dry it’s worth running the shower for couple of minutes as it settles and dust in the air before you hang yours.
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I turn my shower on when the fixer's half way through so, by the time the washing of the negs is complete - the last wash being with photo-flo - the shower has been on nearly ten minutes.

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but the negs once dry should be put into sleeves in the same room, before moving them anywhere else. I generally do my developing late in the evening so that I can leave the room undisturbed until the morning, ensuring they have had more than enough time to dry.
 
I don't process my own film so I usually have AG do it which comes back dust free, or pretty much dust free.

On the weekend I scanned the same roll of film three times using two different film holders, the process was the same for all three scans;

Compressed air to clean the scanner,
Antistatic brush to give the scanner a once over as well as the film and film holder,
Rocket blower for a final blast before placing in the scanner

I would have been using the gloves which I'll try without next time :)

First scan was great, second scan had visible dust but it was Ok and the third scan appears to have way more dust.... I would suggest it was still acceptable but when comparing the first to last scan I was like o_O
 
It was great in regards to no dust, I guess I'll have to try to get the scan right on the first attempt :)

I was testing with different film holders, VueScan, Epson Scan and Silverfast as it was my first real attempt at scanning so trying to find the best workflow.
 
Dork Knight said:
It was great in regards to no dust, I guess I'll have to try to get the scan right on the first attempt :)

I was testing with different film holders, VueScan, Epson Scan and Silverfast as it was my first real attempt at scanning so trying to find the best workflow.
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If we are talking about colour negs, I don't see the point in home scanning all the time unless cropping or for large prints or for old negs.....filmdev are cheap enough for 35mm and 120 and if you get the low scan and treat them as proofs to see what the results are like, then any winners scan them yourself (of course if you get 24 winners out of 24 exp film you are back to sq 1 ;) )...also the low scans are good enough for posting here (maybe not gallery though) and also for emails etc
 
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Dork Knight said:
It was great in regards to no dust, I guess I'll have to try to get the scan right on the first attempt :)

I was testing with different film holders, VueScan, Epson Scan and Silverfast as it was my first real attempt at scanning so trying to find the best workflow.
Click to expand...

If you look into the settings on VueScan, you'll find that you can keep the raw scan to reprocess. If you do this (and scan at what you're certain will be the largest resolution you'll ever want) one scan is enough. You can reprocess with as many different settings as it takes to get the perfect result without needing to even turn the scanner on. When I first started scanning, my then computer (Win2000/512Mb RAM) took four hours to scan a 5x4; I found not having to repeat this time for every small adjustment to the parameters was a big advantage of VueScan.
 
Well nothing to do with dust but "scanning woes" scanning with the V750 and was surprised at the different results....I was using the same Pentax 24-35 and can only assume the V750 is not consistent or the lens introduces CA at one setting but adjusting the zoom slightly doesn't :rolleyes: The shots I wanted to use for the comp but for some reason the flashgun didn't light up the sign.

V750 Tiff file showing CA
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Fildev low scan h'mm
MnNYqFe.jpg


No problems
LvLjvvk.jpg
 
That's an odd one, especially if a lab scan and home scan is giving CA.

I ended up buying the VAX AP01 and it has helped....

When the room has a clean/dusting the VAX goes on, I've also been turning it on every other evening for two to three hours.

The process I've now been following (without using the cotton gloves) is;

Set the VAX to High,
Anti-static brush to clean the surface glass of the scanner, film, film holder and then a final pass over the film,
I then pass the film holder, both sides, over the exhaust of the VAX (which should be expelling clean air)

The results seem to be pretty clean scans, so far :)
 
Dork Knight said:
That's an odd one, especially if a lab scan and home scan is giving CA.
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A mystery indeed as all six shots from 6:26 to 6:30 were crap from filmdev low scan with CA and bright speckle dots. Yet the V750 at 3200 dpi didn't have a problem doing a jpg only tiff.
Back on topic are you sure your negs haven't bits stuck to them as I don't home scan very often and just used a rocket blower quickly for above tests and didn't have many small spots to clean up in Photoshop erm well I lied there was one curly hair :eek: but that was easily cleaned up in PS. (y)
 
Dork Knight said:
They appear to be pretty clean which always seems to be the case from AG.
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You'd think I'd have a serious dust problem as every two weeks, two of the computers are being used for games by my grand children :eek: and with three computers blowing away :eek:. The V750 is far left and the 4180 is below the lit screen.
DSC01302.JPG
 
Bloody Hell Brian, you've got more computing power than NASA. :D
 
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