How can I batch-correct color and clean up old scanned film with dust and scratches?
Asked 11/4/2012
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2 answers
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I’m scanning several hundred 40+ year-old film images and need a workflow that can automate as much cleanup as possible. The scans have strong color casts plus visible dust, scratches, and stains. I can crop the frames manually, but I’d like to batch-process the image correction steps afterward.
What are the best options for:
- Batch automatic color correction/white balance on scanned film
- Batch removal of dust, scratches, and stains
- Any other recommended cleanup steps for old film scans
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
1
I'm not sure your going to be able to find an automated tool to fix things like scratches and stains. Even if you do, you'll definitely want to check the scripts work. Photoshop's healing tool or even lightroom might be your best bet for repairing the image.
To get the images white balanced, you should check out: http://www.fmwconcepts.com/imagemagick/whitebalance/index.php Looks like he uses imagemagick to apply the auto white balance to images and you can do that with a script if your confortable.
Originally by user13571. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user13571
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Batch color correction is realistic; fully automatic repair of scratches and stains usually is not.
For color correction, a scriptable auto white-balance step is a good fit. ImageMagick can be used to apply white-balance/auto-level style corrections in batch, so you can process many scans consistently after cropping.
For dust, scratches, and stains, there generally isn’t a reliable batch tool that will fix everything well. Even if you find an automated filter, you’ll need to review the results carefully. In practice, manual retouching is usually still required for damaged areas, using a healing/clone-style tool in an editor such as Photoshop, Lightroom, or GIMP.
Recommended workflow:
- scan as cleanly as possible
- crop each frame
- run batch color correction/white balance
- inspect results
- manually retouch the worst dust, scratches, and stains
So: automate color correction, but expect image repair to be mostly manual if you want good results.
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