“Why You Should Never Use Digital Ice To Fix Your Slide, Negative, Photo Scans"

Here Is 3 Reasons Why You Are Not Getting Quality Scans Even When You Use Scan Enhancements Like Digital Ice -- And What To Do About It...
 
There is nothing more frustrating than learning all the features that came with your scanner, and you still get lousy scans.  No matter what you try, you cannot get consistent results.

If you are scanning your family's slides, negatives, and photos, and you are not getting quality scans like you expected, here is why.

When you rely on your scanner to edit your digital photos, then you will run into problems.  Scanners were made to scan pixels.  They are great at what they do.  But once you press that scan enhance button,  your scanner will do things to those pixels.

Here is 3 reasons why you should NOT rely on your scanner editing software.  And later I will show you how you can get quality scans.

1) You Have The Light Version Version Of Digital Ice / Scan Enhancement Features

Long ago Kodak designed the technology called Digital Ice. Basically Digital Ice looks for pixel consistency.  If it notices a cluster of white pixels that are surrounded by red pixels, it will fill it in.  Have a look...

Digital Ice will look for inconsistencies--  white pixels next to red.

Then it will fill in the white pixels.

Here is the thing.  Since Kodak owns this technology, it lincenses it out to scanner manufactures.

So if your scanner was inexpensive, you are most likely to have the "light" version of Digital Ice.  That means that not all those white pixels will be filled in correctly.  In fact, the wrong pixels might get filled in.  For example, sometimes I get scans with people missing eyes!  I guess my scanner thought that the whites of peoples eyes were dust.

I have a Nikon 9000, and it came with Digital Ice 4. At the time, this scanner cost me $6000. It does great a picking up pixels.  The pixels are sharp, clear, and full of digital data.  But once I press that Digital Ice button, all bets are off.  The scanner does a lot of wonky things to those pixels. I will show you below what I mean.

2) Colours End Up  Looking “Plastic”
   
No matter what I try, no matter how much I play around with the colour settings, some scans I still cannot get right.   Sometimes green grass comes out looking dark blue.  Or faded reds end up bright orange.  Have a look...

Sure, I have tried changing the colour saturation, colour levels-- but I still cannot get it.

And if I do get it, and think I have the colour settings just like I like it, I will have to change it for the next slide.  That is because not all photos taken are the same.  Some are taken in bright light or dark.  Some are taken indoors.  There is too many variables.


3) Digital Ice Removes Dust, Scratches AND Detail

But my biggest issue with Digital Ice and scan enhancement software, is that it takes away detail.  Here are two examples...

Digital Ice takes away detail.  In this photo it filled in the whites of eyes.

And, if you can see, the image on the right lost a lot of detail in the faces. 

Digital Ice does not know if a dust and scratch is important or not.  It will just fill it in.  And if you have an inexpensive version of Ditgital Ice, a "light" version, you will find more problems like this.  With my Nikon 9000 I see less of these problem.  But I still never use scan enhancement features.

So what can you do?  How can you get quality scans?

How To Get Quality Scans WITHOUT Digital Ice

Here is what I do.  I have been scanning since 2005 for a living, and I figured out how to get quality scans, even with a $200 scanner.

The first thing I do is I get a "natural" scan.  This means none of the scan enhancement features were used.  I only told my scanner to scan my slide, negative, or photo at a high resolution.

Next, I take the natural scan, and I edit by "hand" in Photoshop.  You can also use Gimp if you do not have Photoshop.

What if you have no idea how to use Photoshop or Gimp?  No worries.  As a side project I have a tutorial on how I scan my customer's slides, negative, and photos.  It is a free guide, and I try to make it as non-technical as I can.  Check it out here..

Free Guide: How To Scan Your Family Slides, Negatives, Photos Like A Pro

Editing your scans by "hand" is the only way I know how to get quality scans-- every time.  It is not hard too learn, and it does not take any longer than if you used Digital Ice.

Plus you get to learn a new skill you can show your friends and family how to do it.

Good luck with your scanning project!

Konrad M.
ScanCanada.ca