Digital Photography: beginner's questions

[DeDukshyn]

Posted by norman (here)
I have a question that straddles the space between film and digital.

I have a few thousand black and white negs. I have an Epson scanner and have scanned about half of them so far.

As hard as I try, I cannot get perfectly clean dust free scans. The software includes a feature to remove dust spots but it does it very badly and usually ruins the image.

The best way I've achieved dust spot removal ( manually ) is by loading an image into Microsoft Paint and using the tools in that but it's slow and tedious.

Can anyone suggest a good quality auto de-spotter standalone program ( that isn't a photoshop plugin ) ?

Hi Norman,

From the people who make the PT Photo Editor I linked above - they make a standalone spot remover program as well, they also have a standalone noise remover, both these tools are inside the free version of the PT Photo editor, but you can download the individual smaller programs if that is all you need.

Free PT Blemish remover (probably fits the bill): http://www.photo-toolbox.com/free/ph...h-remover.html <-- just click the green download button.
Free PT Clone Stamp Tool (for more manual photoshop like control): http://www.photo-toolbox.com/free/clone-stamp-tool.html
Free PT Noise Reduction Tool (great for fixing noise in high ISO photos): http://www.photo-toolbox.com/free/ph...reduction.html

and again, all these tools are packaged inside the Free PT Photo editor, which is a bit more complex of a program, but gives you other editing tools as well. It is similar to Adobe Lightroom.

[Rawhide68]

That is sadly true, unfortunately it is rediciously expesive compared to digital. At least if you buy 16mm filmroll that lasts for 3 minutes, the film and development of it is included in the hefty price.

I bought my film camera to do animated films the "frame by frame" way but never managed to construct a good tripod thingy for it, and the only projector I managed to get hold of was a US 110v one, which is useless in Sweden where I live using 220v, big doh!

One thing is for sure, the more expensive the better the result, because you don't waste money by clicking before thinking.

Ps Valerie I would love to see your photos, do you have a website ?