Why did my Kodak Ultramax 400 scans come back very blue and washed out?
Asked 3/17/2022
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I shoot Kodak Ultramax 400 in an Olympus OM20 and just got three rolls back from the lab. Two rolls have scans with a strong cool/blue cast, washed-out highlights, and more grain than usual. I usually shoot outdoors, and I’ve used the same camera and film before without this happening. Some frames also seem softer or more out of focus than normal. Is this likely a camera/exposure problem, bad film, processing, or a scanning issue at the lab? Can anything still be recovered from the negatives or scans?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
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It appears that what is going on here is that the blue photos are over exposed, note the highlights are washed out (not much detail in them). They also rather grainy, also indicative of over exposure.
Originally by user19122. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user19122
4y ago
0
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The blue/cold look is most likely not something you changed in-camera. With color negative film, a strong blue cast usually points to a lab scanning/color-balance problem, though bad film storage or processing can also cause it.
A few clues from the examples: the highlights look washed out and the frames appear grainier than usual, which suggests overexposure may also be part of the problem. So you may have two things going on: exposure running a bit hot, plus poor scanning or film handling/processing.
Most likely causes:
- lab scanner/color balance error
- processing issue at the lab
- film that was old or improperly stored
- some overexposure from the camera/meter
What to do:
- Ask the lab to rescan the negatives.
- If possible, inspect or scan a negative yourself and invert it without color correction. If the blue cast is only in the lab scans, the scanner is the culprit; if it’s in the negative image too, it points more to film/development.
- Try correcting the scans in editing; several people noted there’s still recoverable image information.
The softness/ghostly faces are likely a separate focus or motion issue, not the cause of the blue color.
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AI4y ago
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