Question... About grainy flaws ...

[Yemme]

Hi Everyone

I have a Nikon FM10 and when I get my film developed I prefer getting slides. I am not sure what is occurring if this is due to the processing of the film but I am getting blotches and spots in my Image. It’s not the same blotches in each picture it’s just grains in various areas.
Here is an image I tried to make better because of how it looked. Does anyone have any pointers if I am the one at fault for these smudges? Can anyone inform me of another way to process the film that will give me almost the same quality (or closeness) in pixels as the slides? Thank you in advance.:hug::
Yemme


Before

After

 

[Battou]

Well...First question: What speed film are you shooting?

Second, the large black sploches and squiglies.....Clean your Scanner bed.

I may have more later but for now go with that, try cleaning your scanner bed and rescan and lemme see what you get.

 

[Mike_E]

Just as a caution, you might check your light seals as well.

Good luck

 

[Garbz]

Are you talking about the grain introduced in the after shot? That's a result of pushing the contrast of the grain that is present but nearly invisible in the original photo. For anything else, disregard this post.

 

[Yemme]

Well...First question: What speed film are you shooting?

Second, the large black sploches and squiglies.....Clean your Scanner bed.

I may have more later but for now go with that, try cleaning your scanner bed and rescan and lemme see what you get.

I am using Fujichrome Provia 400X.

The scanner bed might be dirty... But this is what the slide looked like before I put it in. That black blotch to the left is in the development of the film. I can't blow it away.

It's only on this image that this big blotch came out the rest are just fine grain speckles. Also on one of my slides there are also a curved indentation in the slide. I don't know if it was done during the processing or I got a roll with a little bump in the road.

Thanks for your help Battou.:hug::

 

[Yemme]

Just as a caution, you might check your light seals as well.

Good luck

You just taught me something new. I didn't know what a light seal was.... Well I'm not sure if my camera is considered old it's almost 2 years old and I haven't use it that much. I found a site with the steps but I'm afraid to do. I'm a cluts... But I'll try it before I shoot again.

Thanks Mike E:hug::

 

[Yemme]

Are you talking about the grain introduced in the after shot? That's a result of pushing the contrast of the grain that is present but nearly invisible in the original photo. For anything else, disregard this post.

Hi Garbz...:greenpbl: Thanks for trying to help...:hug::

 

[Josh66]

It kinda looks like there was a little dust on the film when you took the picture.

That's the only thing I can think of.

 

[Yemme]

It kinda looks like there was a little dust on the film when you took the picture.

That's the only thing I can think of.

Oh boy... I'm not sure how that could have happened. I'll attempt to clean my camera after I finish the film that's in there now. Thanks Josh:hug::

 

[Battou]

Well...First question: What speed film are you shooting?

Second, the large black sploches and squiglies.....Clean your Scanner bed.

I may have more later but for now go with that, try cleaning your scanner bed and rescan and lemme see what you get.

I am using Fujichrome Provia 400X.

The scanner bed might be dirty... But this is what the slide looked like before I put it in. That black blotch to the left is in the development of the film. I can't blow it away.

It's only on this image that this big blotch came out the rest are just fine grain speckles. Also on one of my slides there are also a curved indentation in the slide. I don't know if it was done during the processing or I got a roll with a little bump in the road.

Thanks for your help Battou.:hug::

...Ok, I think O|||||||O is on to something with the black splotch, But the scanner bed does need cleaning, I can see hair and haze indicitive of dirty scanner bed. Windex will take care of that though.

The rest of the fine grain speckles is indicitive of 400 speed film, It's unavoidable. Perfect exposure will reduce it but it won't eliminate it. Futher more, I believe the grain issues you are looking at are a result of sharpening, USM on film photos will sharpen the grain in the image and Noise reduction software is not designed for grain removal, grain simply does not follow a patern like digital noise does. My suggestion is to raise the threshold just a touch to reduce the amount of sharpening the grain gets. I generally keep me USM threshold in Photoshop CS3 at five.

Below are a a 100% crop example of USM effect on grain in a 400 speed frame.

• Amount 100
• Radious 1.0
• threshold 0

• Amount 100
• Radious 1.0
• threshold 0

Hope that helps

 

[Josh66]

It kinda looks like there was a little dust on the film when you took the picture.

That's the only thing I can think of.

Oh boy... I'm not sure how that could have happened. I'll attempt to clean my camera after I finish the film that's in there now. Thanks Josh:hug::

After you finish the roll you have in it now, just blow it out good.

Probably just some dust that got in there while changing lenses or film.
Every now and then some of it could land on the film before it's exposed.


Same as sensor dust on a DSLR - just not as likely to happen since you get a new 'sensor' for every shot.

 

[Dwig]

Most of the spots are certainly the result of a dirty scanner. Dust and grunge on the slide itself is generally in focus and sharp, not blurred the way dust in the scanner generally is.

A few of the spots could be dust or grunge on the slide. This can get there when handling the slide. It is also possible for small specks to be the result of imporperly filtered and replenished processing chemicals. There is a type of "gunk" that is produced in the chemistry call "tar" that must be filtered out. Poorly maintained chemistry or equipment can let enough be produced to leave specks on the processed film. It if is "tar" is can't be cleaned off.

Dust in the camera settling on the file prior to exposure is EXTREMELY unlikely. Unlike digital cameras, the exposed frame is used only once. Dust settling on it during the exposure affects only that exposure and rarely has time to actually setting on the film surface before the exposure is over. Dust that settles after the exposure has no effect on film. On digital, such dust doesn't affect the shot that let it pass through the shutter but affect all subsequent images until the sensor is cleaned.

With film, by far the most likely source of preexposure dust on the negs it lint or dirt on the felt lip of the cassette. Poor handling of the cassette (removing the cassette from its factory packaging and putting in a pocket or letting it sit "naked" in a camera bag) is generally the cause. Occasionally some cheap house-brand film is supplied by a really bargin manufacturer whose quality control is poor and the felt sheds. In a quarter of a century of dealing with film processing in camera stores I never saw a proven case of flautly felt on name brand film. I did see it on cheap bulk cassettes for hand loading and on a few house-brand rolls of film.

Dust settling on the film prior to exposure will leave a shadow. On slide film, that shadow would be black on the film. Since its actually imaged on the film, it can't be cleanded off.

 

[Yemme]

Thank you Josh and Battou

 

[Josh66]

Dust in the camera settling on the file prior to exposure is EXTREMELY unlikely. Unlike digital cameras, the exposed frame is used only once. Dust settling on it during the exposure affects only that exposure and rarely has time to actually setting on the film surface before the exposure is over.

I agree 100% with everything you said.

But-

I don't think it happened during the exposure. Most likely Yemme had half a roll of unexposed film in the camera (pretty common...), and some dust settled on one of the unexposed frames while the camera was sitting in the bag.


Her experience sounds exactly like dust on the film prior to exposure to me. This is not something that is happening on every frame. It's just a few here and there.

I'm not talking about the little "hairs" (which I agree - are likely dust on the scanner). I'm talking about that big black splotch which is actually exposed into the film.

 

[Joves]

A few of the spots could be dust or grunge on the slide. This can get there when handling the slide. It is also possible for small specks to be the result of imporperly filtered and replenished processing chemicals. There is a type of "gunk" that is produced in the chemistry call "tar" that must be filtered out. Poorly maintained chemistry or equipment can let enough be produced to leave specks on the processed film. It if is "tar" is can't be cleaned off.

That was my thought when I saw the photo. I had a few rolls that I sent out that had the same thing, before I started developing my own in the old days.