Hi all,

Another brain-picking session needed, this time with Scanning from 35mm in mind.

I have a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III 35mm scanner, and have scanned numerous slides, b&w and colour negs. Some come out really well, and others, particularly those with high colour saturation, seem to come out really "grainy".

Its odd, even with pictures taken with the same film speed, that I can't seem to get enough consitency. Skies can come out looking really noisy. Given a conventional print at about the same size, (A4), my digital scans/prints often look much more grainy/noisy, so it can't all be to do with film grain?

I've tried playing about with PixelPolish, which comes with the scanning software, but again not had much consistency in results. This is a great shame as I'd love to make more digital prints out of some of my older back-catalogue.

Does anyone have much experience of this sort of problem and what they have done to overcome them?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Caz Mockett

Hi, I just found this and my question to you is..... how are the camera exposures? Without seeing the negatives, I would guess the images giving you noise are overexposed. Thus more neg density. How does the good neg and the bad neg look side by side on the light table? Over development could give you them same problem.

In the main, the exposures have been fine. Sometimes its well-staturated (under exposed, if anything) slides that give me the most trouble. I haven't really been able to pin down a common theme, which is why I'm feeling frustrated!

Thanks for your thoughts anyway....

Caz

I also have been having the same troubles as you and joined this forum (like yourself to seek solutions. Underexposed negs very grainy (made even worse if I use the scanning software to alter brightness, contrast ect ect). Equipment used Pacific Image PF 3600 slidescanner firewired to a Dell Inspiron desktop pc with 1 gig ram and two 180 gig HDs. Help!

What resolution (dpi) are you scanning at? You will need a really high res scan for a 35mm image to come out clear when enlarged. ie 2400 or 3600 dpi.

I would not try to adjust settings in the scan, use default, and then adjust in photoshop.