Blue cast on portions of scan

[mustang]

I am scanning a number of old matte paper sepia toned photographs and I am getting a mottled blue cast in the dark areas of the photographs. Viewing the original photograph with a slightly oblique light shows these areas to be shinny compared to the rest of the photo. I've tried reducing the blue channel for the scan and this does reduce the blue cast but it also makes the area lighter - not what I want to do. Cloning the scanned file does not work well since there are not similar areas w/o the blue cast to sample.

Any ideas on how to get rid of the blue cast w/o ruining the sepia tone on the rest of the photo?

[Hatter]

I think I'd probably try converting to B&W, then adding a new sepia tone.

Gareth

[GaryK]

Mustang

May be too late now, but something to try is rotating the photo on the scanning bed 90/180/270 degrees. Sometimes this works wonders for getting rid of texture and unwanted artifacts.
You may also want to try changing the scanning material and or type of original in your scanning software if your scanner has that feature.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

I suspect that what you are seeing is silvering and one of the best ways for sorting it out is not to scan the image in at all but to photograph it instead ...

However here is a good tutorial on how to correct it:)

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=58

Wendy

[mustang]

Thank you for the responses. I could not respond before this because the forum would not let post a new msg. I had updated my profile for my new email address and apparently the system didn't like it. After a couple of emails to customer support they corrected the problem.

I tried doing the two scan process but it didn't make any difference. Also tried converting to B&W and while the blue tinge was gone, is was replaced with a bright area - not what you want in the shadow or dark areas.

Wendy - thanks for the link to retouchpro.com! They have some excellent info! I blew my printer ink budget printing out a number of their articles. FYI - One of their articles made reference to a program called Neat Image which is designed to reduce the paper texture which can show up in scans. I downloaded the program (demo version) but have not had a chance to try it yet. At another site - www.skeller.ch - there is an article on a program called an FFT Filter (Fast Fourier Transform) which is also designed to remove pattern texture. Something else for me to research.

[Wendy]

Hi ..

Glad that it helped ... they do tend to have some good restoration tips on their site :)

Did you try photographing the image that does seem to work a lot better than scanning ??

Wendy

[mustang]

I don't have the equipment to do a good photocopy (copy stand, lights, easel, etc.) and it is too expensive to have it done professionally. I'll just keep experimenting. Maybe something will work or I may just have to live it. Thanks again.