film scratches?

[levm]

I have a Canon EOS 35mm SLR and recently sent my film to Mystic Color Labs for printing. I had requested that the film be digitized as well so I could have an online gallery. I had taken pictures in Peru and the 100 speed Kodak film had gone through about 3 or 4 scans in the carry on luggage scanners. I think that since it was 100 speed film, it should have been ok, but take a look at this photo:


Larger Size Link


Those streaks could be caused by several things: scratching inside the camera during rewinding or from the developing spool at the ?Lab?
(You can also notice that the image is a little blurry and that there is some faint vertical grating on the left side as well)

I have not gotten the negatives yet, but am almost sure they will be just as bad. I am trying to figure out who is to blame here. If this really was an xray problem, then the film should have fog/streaks at 4 different angles and they probably wouldn?t be parallel to the edges, right?

(I used to send lots of film to that company, but it seems that their service has gone downhill?.they supplied me with ?hi-res? negative scans that were compressed jpegs down to only 300kb in size and were 1536x1024!)

Any ideas?
Thanks for your help!

[another view]

It's not from the x-ray. Scratches are likely on the negs but it's hard to say where it happened. There could have been a small piece of something that got in the camera (probably when changing film) that caused it, or it could have happened at the lab. Fortunately this isn't bad and (at least this shot) would be easy to touch up in Photoshop with the clone tool.

Let us know if the scratches are on the negs, are on the whole roll, and if they're only on one roll, etc.

[joseanes]

I do travel a lot for Business.
Several times a week.
I used to carry a point and shoot 35mm camera on my carry on bag.
After a few xray scans (4 to 6) the photos appeared just as foggy as the one you showed. And I was carrying ASA200.

[levm]

I got the prints today and they look pretty much the same as the online shots. Each roll has those white lines on the pictures...some more than others. There is no fog, those were just poorly scanned by incompetent people.
I checked out the negatives and can see thin scratches all over them when viewing under a grazing light. It really looks like every roll was passed thru something bad. Taking a look inside my camera, I found a clean back plate, no dust or particles anywhere and smooth surfaces...like new.
My next plan is to develop a roll of film at a local drugstore from the same camera and see how that turns out. I wouldnt normally be concerned about this, but the fact that I paid $13 a roll makes me a little upset at the situation.
Thanks for all your replies.

[mjs1973]

Sorry to hear the prints weren't any better than the scans as far as the scratches go... Keep us updated on the outcome of your experiment with the local drug store!

[another view]

I got the prints today and they look pretty much the same as the online shots.

The scan that you're looking at is the same one they made the print from - 99.9% of all prints are made digitally anymore, including the ones from negatives made by a lab. The scratches are probably very difficult to see on the negs themselves without a light table and a loupe.

But this is bad, and it obviously shouldn't be this way. Once again, it's hard to say where it happened. You might try to clean out the camera with a blower brush (keep it away from the shutter!), shoot another roll and see what happens.

One question, is the scratch in the same place on all of the rolls? That's not a "smoking gun", but more likely that it's the labs fault if they're in different places.

[clight385]

If the film was scratched, the scratch lines would be black on print and clear on the negative, right?
What is light on the film is dark on paper.
I have one theory and have not been able to duplicate. I have been told that if you wind the film back into the canister (old days before motors) too fast, you can have static electricity discharge and thus dark images on the negative and white on the paper.
Just my too cents.

[another view]

I think that would be true about scratches in a negative being black on a print based on the theory and assuming a darkroom print. But these prints, and at least 99% of the prints made today, are actually digital prints from scans made by the minilab machine.

I've never heard of that about rewinding film too fast - I guess you'd have to be in a really dry environment for that to happen. I'd think motor-driven cameras could actually be worse with this - the Nikon F5 can rewind a roll of 36 exp in about four seconds!