Topic: Awful scan.

[vicky slater]

 Very occassionally I'll scan b/w film and it will randomly turn out like this and i have no idea why...
The film looks fine....any thoughts?



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[Francois]

Did you make sure Digital ICE is not on? I know it can wreck havoc with silver based negatives...

[vicky slater]

I don't think i ever installed it......or if it has it even......funny, it's not doing it now either.....and it's the skin and faces that always get by far the worst of it for some reason.

[Francois]

There always could be a host of things going wrong with a scanner. Digital ICE is built-in the scanner and gets turned on by the software (on Canon, it's called FARE). Check to see the cables are in good shape... it often is part of the problem when junk starts appearing in the image. The USB cable to the scanner must have a ferrite filter on it (the little plastic looking can)....

My usual trick is to compare with a scan done using Vuescan (even the demo will be good enough). Since it uses a minimal set of drivers (and none in many cases), it will give you a good comparison to help identify the problem.

[LT]

flatbed?  My flatbed scans sometimes come out like this when I have accidentally covered the "do not cover" area at the top of the platen where the scanner sensor takes it's light readings ...maybe you've done that?

[LT]

actually, I didnt even notice the phenomenal jaggies ... sorry, cant explain those!

[Francois]

actually, I didnt even notice the phenomenal jaggies ... sorry, cant explain those!

I can't either... The only thing related to this I can think of is either too long a USB cable or one without ferrite on...

Or maybe the cable is sitting nest to some transmitter ot power line which induces current down the usb ()

[Karl]

Can't help here. I've been having scanner issues too. I am coming to the conclusion that, in a 3 hour darkroom session, I can run off a number of contact sheets quicker than I can scan a load of negs and still have time to do a couple of proof prints of ones that I like the look of.

[Ed Wenn]

Vicky, if you could bottle that and bang some copyright on it I'm sure you'd have a bunch of Photoshop-heads salivating over what a fantastic new filter you'd created.

 

It IS crazy though. Ain't seen anything like it in my many years doing the 'digital darkroom' thing.

[vicky slater]

Thanks for all your thoughts, chaps.
I'm just going to put it down to freakishness (that is a technical term, y'know   as it can happen on one strip and not the next.

ed, it could be called the zombie ap!

[original_ann]

That is absolutely mysterious and WOW!  Have you ever emailed a scan to your scanner's tech support to see what their thoughts are?

[vicky slater]

No, i haven't ann, i guess because it's so infrequent it hasn't had too much effect, especially as i'm 95% colour, but it's a good idea, i might do!