Fixing bad film scans - Edit or Rescan?

In this tutorial-based video, I share some experience and advice when it comes to dealing with subpar film scans. Using Lightroom as an example for editing, I also look at when an image is better off being rescanned, as well as show some examples of an edited scan vs a completely rescanned frame.
00:00 - Intro
00:23 - Common issues
01:29 - The histogram
02:10 - Editing tips
07:06 - Flatbed scans with border
10:22 - Editing tips continued
12:30 - Black & white scans
13:37 - Re-scanning & the difference
17:25 - Conclusion
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[@KarinMajoka]

This was incredibly helpful! I often scan and edit according to what "feels" or looks right, but I think I will pay muuuuch more attention to the histogram from now on. Thanks a lot!

[@pushingfilm]

Thanks Karin! Glad it helped a little 😁

[@akerue3824]

So useful and actually helped me understand how to use curves and the histogram better. I've never really understood how to use it till now. Thanks Hashem!

[@pushingfilm]

Hey, I'm really glad! Thanks for checking it out 🙂

[@anthonyritchie696]

Thanks for letting me know about this earlier today. It is a wealth of information and help

[@zx1124ai]

Holy crap this has helped so much. I never understood how tone curves and all that stuff worked and was just editing my scans to see what looked nice. Thanks for breaking each section down and giving a bunch of examples!

[@paulspink2701]

Really appreciate you posting this. I’m going to try some of these techniques out ASAP. Thank You.

[@pushingfilm]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SPTSuperSprinter156]

This is a great vid, something I have noticed about my local lab's scans is while they mostly look good colour and exposure wise, I think they have turned the sharpening radius up really high because everything looks super grainy. When I did a few test scans via DSLR setup I was astonished how little grain there was and this was on 35mm. In fact I'd hazard a guess that those who think all 35mm film is intrinsically noisy and doesn't hold any meaningful data have probably only ever seen mediocre lab scans. The other thing I'd say is your histogram analysis is excellent but remember not every image will form a perfect histogram - if the actual scene was largely lacking strong blacks or whites, there is no need IMO to falsely manipulate it just to paint a nice histogram.

[@MrPeelhere]

do more of these pls. Really helpful since I just started scanning film

[@84nomas]

So helpful vid, man!

[@ariannadominguez8162]

For videos like this one is that I keep watching KZbin

[@pushingfilm]

Thanks so much!

[@milesmonroe65]

Excellent video, Bob.😉

[@SammySantiagoIrizarry]

Excellent video and explanation on fixing bad scans. Thanks!!!

[@pushingfilm]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lindkvist88]

Great video. Thank you!

[@curtypachec6055]

Been loving your videos and content as of late! Just dropping a comment to voice my support!

[@pushingfilm]

Thanks so much!

[@jdpst20]

Great video. I’ve been scanning 120 and 35mm film for a few years now and scan them on an Epson V600 flat bed and it just always seems that I’m only getting about a 60-70% hit rate where I’m actually happy with how the scans turn out. I usually always try and find expose my image for shadows but don’t really know if it’s the developing process, my scanner, scanner software or post software. I scan as a negative image and convert using Film lab. I try to scan for the most neutral image possible but usually am almost always disappointed in results. I’m looking into a new digital camera and macro lens to try to scan with a camera and light board and will be hoping for much better results. Also considering my scene and understand usually bad lighting will result in a bad or not so interesting film photo and can’t really be manipulated like a RAW digital.

[@zeppelin495]

This is such a helpful video. More tutorials on editing please! Perhaps one on how you edit your scans in NLP?

[@pushingfilm]

Glad it helped! Yes, that one is coming up 🙂👍

[@isidoros20]

Great video thank you so much

[@pushingfilm]

Much appreciated!

[@filmismorefun]

Good tips bro! I scan with a Canon Canoscan 90000 flatbed, and consistently have to shift magenta lower on both color and bw negatives. I've just created a preset in lightroom to apply at import ti give me a decent starting point.

[@pushingfilm]

Oh nice! Yeah if it's consistently off that makes it easy to correct 😁

[@Visions_in_Toyko]

Nice 🙌

[@frstesiste7670]

Excellent tutorial! I've scanned a lot on an Epson flatbed and I've seen all the problems mentioned her. Now to avoid some of the problems I'll always do some basic things on the preview. I first resize the preview crop to a representative part of the film. That way the scanner software will show a reasonably good histogram and I adjust white and black point. Not exact, but with a margin of error to make sure there are no clipping. Same with white balance if necessary. Then I select the final crop, maybe including some border and do the scan. The adjustments usually take less than a minute per frame. I also always scan 16/48 bit and use the best resolution for the scanner to avoid having to rescan. It waste a lot for hard disk space compared to going straight to a JPG, but can save work later.

[@pushingfilm]

Nice, this sounds like a good way to go about it, especially if you scan frame by frame. TIF files might always come in handy later, too.

[@frstesiste7670]

It's similar to some of your suggestions in the video just applied to the previews. My goal with a scan is always to avoid having to do a rescan. Getting the histogram and WB reasonably close helps a lot with that.

[@jacobsed8432]

You’re so handsome 🥺🥺

[@agylub]

Received scans of Coorong sand dunes which the operator read as yellow sand so the sky went a weird cyan colour. The sand there is white. Sending it back for a rescan. And waiting for my Intrepid enlarger to set up my DSLR scanning. Ps thanks for the shout out on the Albert Watson books. Bought two

[@pushingfilm]

Yeah sometimes it can be a bit too far off... Nice, glad you picked it up. I think they also added another Albert Watson book to the sale at another big discount!

[@Bussmicke2305]

Intreresting, do you have d same for slide scans? Which scanner are you using?

[@pushingfilm]

The image at 11.49 was actually Provia and I mistakenly said it was a negative! Slides are a pain to scan in my experience, and never look as good as they do projected. However, much of the same applies, with special attention to too much red in the blacks/shadows when using an Epson.

[@pushingfilm]

The Provia image mention was a lab scan. The scanner I was using was a V800, but I have now fully transitioned to using my DSLR

[@terryhopkins8059]

Hello... I recent purchased a Optek 8200i 35mm film scanner. I want to scan all of my films that I shot from the 80s and 90s. I've been scanning my film to jpegs, but was wondering if it was worth it to scan as tiff? I've heard its better to edit tiffs over jpegs, but is it worth it to scan as tiff over jpeg when scanning 35mm film?

[@shishka3116]

I tried to scan my negatives with an DSLR but i had an weird problem. The lens reflected on the negatives and was visible on the scans.. is this a common problem?

[@moritzengel]

Maybe scanning in the dark helps 😬

[@pushingfilm]

I've heard of this happening with a lot of people. Try to make sure there's no stray light from your light panel and mask it off if necessary, scan in a dark room, and use a lens hood 👍

[@shishka3116]

@@pushingfilm Thanks mate

[@ivansadovyi6105]

As for me, the whole point of film photography is that you can't edit your photos later, except cropping them of course. Thus, you have to choose composition, light, and colors really carefully before you press the button. Interested to hear your thoughts, will check the video carefully tomorrow.

[@pushingfilm]

I see what you mean, and agree! (to a certain degree) But a couple of things to consider: Light and colour is greatly affected by how the film is scanned or printed, which nullifies most arguments that are against editing after this point (especially when it comes to correcting a scan that wasn't done well or correctly representing the white balance and contrast of the original scene) The scanning software, machine, and operator/printer etc are already editing the photo "later" (post-exposure). And, if cropping is okay, isn't that also altering the composition? So for me, the point of film photography is for the enjoyment of its unique process and characteristics; regardless of whatever editing or correction is applied. I still agree with the heart of what you're saying - in that importance should be placed in all those factors before making an exposure :-)

[@petrub27]

he is just removing color cast form the black. use ps auto level for instant result.

[@someonewithsomename]

10:35 Also no, Noritsu scanner is not over-sharpened and over-contrasted by it's own. It's usually the opposite, rather low contrast. Just your lab of choice (you used to scan with) are making those adjustments, probably on top of Noritsu scan.

[@pushingfilm]

That's why I said in my experience. Even in a recent side by side test Noritsu had more contrast. Of course I know this depends on how the scanner is set up and used as well as the film in question, but again I'm speaking of my own experience. Also, it's well known that Noritsu does tend to sharpen much more than the Frontiers. Both through my own experience and speaking to multiple lab scanner operators.

[@someonewithsomename]

This scans are gorgeous compared to what I am getting from time to time. Ok, the later images are not great, ok.

[@peteharper3299]

You lost me at "there's no reason for blue in the shadows."

[@deophotography4337]

I'm sorry but the noritsu contrasty photos are B E A U T I F U L they are P E R F E C T

[@pushingfilm]

Thank you 👍