Enhancing old 35mm Slide scans

[efiste2]

I have just purchased an Epson Film Scanner and am currently trying to scan some old 35mm Slides, I am pleased with the results, but would like to use PS to enhance them, the scans often come out (as the original slides do) with a blue cast, and not much "vibrance" for want of a better word....What would be the best filters and tools to use to make a difference to the scans, Obviousley you cant perform miracles with 50 year old images, but any things that makes a difference would be great....I am using PS Elements 11

 

[Eggy]

I never worked with Elements but if it were Photoshop under the tab Image -- 'auto color', 'auto contrast' and 'auto tone' gave me this result



I don't know if these options are available in Elements but it could save you a lot of time when doing slide by slide.

 

[Tom Mann]

Which model Epson? I ask because color calibration profiles are available for some.

Tom M

 

[efiste2]

Great advice chaps, most appreciated, the scanner is the Perfection V550, im still finding my way with it at the moment......

 

[thebestcpu]

Here is another take at adjustments from which to choose.
John Wheeler :



(Picture Updated)

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Efiste -

When I first brought up the subject of a color profile for your printer, I had no idea whether you might have been using some really low end or business model scanner, or if you were using something more appropriate for color critical work.

Fortunately, with respect to color critical work, your v550 is reputed to be quite a reasonable machine. It turns out that I own a v700, and nerd that I am, I did get my particular v700 individually profiled when I first got it a few years ago. The corrections that the profile made were fairly small, and my guess is that they will be small for your v550, as well. In contrast, I also own a nice Epson business scanner (fast auto feeder, 2 sided copying, etc.) for my home office paperwork, but to get halfway decent color out of it requires such major color corrections, I only use it for business purposes.

BTW, while we are on the topic of scanners, Epson calling this series of scanners "film scanners" really stretches Epson's credibility. Yes, the the v500 - v850 series will do a decent job on 4x5's and and excellent job on 8x10" sized transparencies / negatives, but for several reasons, even the v800 or 850 are considered only marginal for scans of high quality 35 mm slides. Because of this, I use my v700 only for reflective originals, never for transparencies. I get much higher quality digitization of slides at much faster speeds by using a slide copying adapter on one of my DSLRs.

OK ... on to the image that you posted. As I think you have already surmised, the years have taken a major toll on that image. From the lack of dust, scratches, & problems like that, it looks like the tranny was stored well, but unfortunately the color corrections that it needs are huge, at least compared to the minor corrections scanner color profiles typically give. To make matters worse, it looks like the color shifts and fading are not quite the same in different areas of the image. That meant that I wound up having to mask various areas and correcting them separately.

Anyway, here's my quick attempt to restore that image.

I hope you like one of these.

Cheers,

Tom M

 

[chrisdesign]

This is my take.

I just used curves, color correction and unsharp masking.

 

[efiste2]

Excellent advice chaps, Im getting good results following your advice......its very much appreciated. Many of the slides have not aged as well as this one, mainly due to storage but also due to being taken on a basic camera of the time, although I have no idea what it was....