Myths About Slide Scanning and Negative
Scanning: Restoration of Scanned Images

Myth: Scans of my slides/negatives will remove all scratches, damage, and fading

Restoration during and after scanning can be wondrous. But it isn't perfect. Let's look at some examples of two of the primary technologies used to improve scanned images: ICE and ROC.

ICE

ICE, or Image Correction and Enhancement, is the name for a technology from Applied Science Fiction, now part of Kodak, for correcting for dust and scratches in scanned film. Similar techniques are used by other software and hardware vendors.

Mildly scratched/dirty slide (click for the full-sized JPEG image 9.3MB)	Restored with ICE (click for the full-sized JPEG image 9.5MB)

In this example, there is a significant scratch across the top third of the image, above the flowers. In the restored version, the effect of the scratch is greatly reduced. You may need to look at the full-sized versions of the images to really appreciate the magnitude of the improvement (click on each image to access the full-sized versions.) These are great results, showing ICE technologies working well. This kind of result is very common. Film with less pronounced scratches and embedded dust will show even better results.

Dirty slide with fingerprint (click for the full-sized JPEG image 7.6MB)	Restored with ICE (click for the full-sized JPEG image 7.7MB)

In this example, there is a pronounced fingerprint on the slide. The restored version greatly reduces the effect of the fingerprint. The result is good, but not all of the blemish is removed. The fingerprint is still visible.

ROC

ROC is a technology from Applied Science Fiction, now part of Kodak. It is a software technique to correct for faded colors in digital images. It uses complex mathematical models to adjust individual colors to improve overall color in faded images.

Badly Faded Slide (click for the full-sized JPEG image 7.6MB)	Restored with ROC (click for the full-sized JPEG image 8.4MB)

The faded image on the left is a good representation of the original slide. It is badly faded to the red color that you see here. We see slides that look like this regularly; some Kodak Ektachrome films fade this way. The result after application of the ROC tools is amazing, though not perfect. (Note that no other corrections have been applied to this "restored" image. Hence there is still some color cast and other color issues. We show the end result of our full suite of corrective actions here. Simply having the ROC tools and applying them on images such as this is not sufficient - other corrections are still needed.)

(All slides scanned with the Nikon 5000 ED. Normal ICE settings used.)

Save to del.icio.us Digg This Story