[rollei_list] Re: Trying to restore Kodachromes taken 50 years ago
- From: CarlosMFreaza <cmfreaza@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2014 15:55:02 -0300
Hi John:
I think that whilst there are some things in common
between an outdated film developed with a fresh chemical process and
an old processed film; the main difference could be that the old
processed film suffers the emulsion age and the chemical process age
too. I think it's easier to correct the colors for an outdated film
processed with fresh chemicals than to correct an old film with a
chemical process that aged with the film. There are situations where
even some PS tools don't work fine, as it's explained in some scanning
tutorials ; sometimes Color Balance and Hue &saturation don't work
fine initially and you need to work with levels and curves only; and
there are some severe situations where you can't recover the colors
because there is no enough info in the slide to recover them; if you
have a frame with a color cast and you have also distorted colors, at
least you have a color cast to eliminate and a distorted color to
change it, but there also are old slides in bad condition without
color cast to eliminate and without distorted colors to correct...
In general, the Kodacromes in my little box show better condition than
the "newer" Ektachromes, however the Kodacromes also need a
restoration work except for five units, after they passed the
infrared cleaning process. BTW, I tried the Digital ICE and the
Vuescan Infrared cleaning (both are infrared), Digital ICE looks
almost a joke compared with the Vuescan version, perhaps I'm missing
some option for Digital ICE..
I'm busy now, but I hope to upload some results for the week-end.
Thanks for your answer.
Carlos
2014-08-06 13:31 GMT-03:00 John Wild <JWild@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Carlos,
>
> I have 'played' about with outdated Kodacolor II negative film and
> Ektachrome 100 Pro - both recently exposed and processed with unknown
> storage history - which have a blue cast but other colours have become
> distorted too.
>
> I have used Digital ROC on my Minolta Dimage Multiscan Pro scanner (colour
> improvement) which with works with faded colours but not with a strong
> colour cast like these images. I also use ICE for dust removal.
>
> People critisise the Minolta software and recommend Viewscan or Silverfast
> but I have never really got on with Viewscan - I do not find it to have
> subtle enough control. Silverfast do not have a driver for my scanner.
>
> I have found that I can quickly improve the colours in Photoshop by
> adjusting overall Brightness & Contrast, Colour Balance, individual RGB
> Curves, then Hue & Saturation and Levels and then if required, a bit more
> Brightness & Contrast.
>
> It does not take that long, and after a while it is easier to judge which
> way to go.
>
> There is also the fact that we are now used to bright saturated colours and
> old film did not have that vibrance so it will be very difficult to bring
> those colours up to 21st century expectations.
>
> Kodachrome is different and should last well. I have some from the 60's
> taken on my Instamatic 100 and the colours are still very realistic. I
> always thought that Kodachrome was expected to last almost forever.
>
> John
>
>
> On 06/08/2014 16:20, "CarlosMFreaza" <cmfreaza@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> One of my sisters found a box containing some K 14 35mm Kodachrome
>> slides taken by my father between 1958 and 1962, the box also
>> contained some E-6 35mm Ektachrome slides taken by me when I was 16
>> and 17 years old (1972/73). We believed all these old slides were lost
>> and, in fact, most of them are lost, but these few slides in the
>> little box have some of the magic from the old times, when, as
>> fascinated kids and teenagers, watched the projected images .
>>
>> The slides show very faded colors, dust, scratches and some units have
>> fungus and humidity stains too, anyway four or five Kodachromes look
>> pretty good, I don't know the cause for the difference, they are from
>> the same time, same lab an were kept in the same box.
>>
>> I'm scanning them using the infrared cleaning option, Vuescan works
>> fine for the purpose, at least a lot better than the Epson Digital ICE
>> software. Vuescan eliminates most of the scratches and dust; BTW, it
>> can not solve problems if the image was destroyed in the emulsion
>> itself.
>>
>> The scanning software options to restore faded colors and chromatic
>> losses hardly work to improve the image quality for these cases, most
>> of the slides need very much work with levels and curves; I'm
>> having some acceptable results for a few slides but others are beyond
>> my limited skills and knowledge, I think I'll convert them into Blank
>> and White images.
>>
>> Carlos
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