The other day I received a pack of 35mm slide transparencies which were well packed and clearly well looked after. All of the images were from the fifties and sixties. I scanned the slides at high resolution and was surprised by the dust and mould that became visible. I use a blower to remove the dust but it does not remove all, the software I use removes some of the effect but again, not all. In the end the best results were achieved by a combination plus manual editing of the images.
Another effect of age on the film is colour change. The blue being stronger in Kodak film and the reds predominating in the Agfa product. These colour changes are usually quite simple to correct but with the oldest slides the task becomes more difficult.
I am sure we will see this more and more as the older slides emerge for scanning and preservation and the challenge for us is to keep the picture as close to the original as possible. Our picture of the month is a Supermarine Scimitar F1 and is an example of a slide scan image from the sixties which has been restored. The resolution on the web obviously does not compare with the original image, but gives you a good idea of how well images can be scanned, restored and preserved for transfer to disc.
For further information on image scanning and to see examples visit our website Saturn Films 1969
David J Sack www.saturn-films.co.uk
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