Jump to content

Dust Busting


Michel Hafner

Recommended Posts

Any opinions here what the currently best dust busting software on the market is if there is no dust mask from the scanning stage available (program must figure out itself what is dust/speckle... and what is genuine image detail)?

Best meaning best accuracy for telling them apart and replacing faulty pixels with pixels that look 'correct' when stepping and in real time playback (no visible artifacts).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any opinions here what the currently best dust busting software on the market is if there is no dust mask from the scanning stage available (program must figure out itself what is dust/speckle... and what is genuine image detail)?

Best meaning best accuracy for telling them apart and replacing faulty pixels with pixels that look 'correct' when stepping and in real time playback (no visible artifacts).

 

Our DI company uses Revival - software made by Davinci, it works wonders, and we use it all the time for features when there's dust or speckles that get into the scans. It does a pretty good job of removing film scratches too, but I've found that Shake does a very good job handling them as well. I can't say Revival is the "best" but it's a very versatile piece of software. Manual dirt removal is really the best way to go. Autopass or built-in dirt removal in the scanner can oftten be inconsistent and unpleasing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Pixel Farm makes PFClean, which looks pretty cool, although I've never used it. There is also a tool in Furnace to remove dust automatically that is fairly decent. But ultimately you're going to have to paint at least some of it by hand, in Shake or After Effects or Silhouette or whatever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
Thanks for the feedback. I tested several options and none were as good in automatic mode as I need it. So I went for something that works well manually: Diamant Dustbuster.

 

We've seen both Diamant and PFClean. Both are good. But ultimately you have to do a fair bit manually. If you set the auto-detect too aggressively you risk the system cleaning even legal image portions. So you set it mild and it cleans up most small dust specks. Then go over and take out the really big ones.

 

A combination of both Forge from Foundry and PFClean (both work on Mac as well) is great especially as they can run on an existing FCP system so outputs can be instant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And one more, really low-cost option. But its totally manual.

 

If you need to do some light dust-busting on a FCP timeline ready to output to tape, then check out Rainer Standke's Too Much Too Soon FCP plug-ins. He has a great dust, hair and scratch removal that has saved me time many a times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...
Any opinions here what the currently best dust busting software on the market is if there is no dust mask from the scanning stage available (program must figure out itself what is dust/speckle... and what is genuine image detail)?

Best meaning best accuracy for telling them apart and replacing faulty pixels with pixels that look 'correct' when stepping and in real time playback (no visible artifacts).

 

We use DVNR 2K - Dust busting and scratch removal with our custom addition to do all the work in real time. Works wonders. Built into our scanning process makes our clients VERY happy :)

 

Amro

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While there's a good deal of software that does a good job with dust, the best dust removal is ultimately going to come down to a human operator.

 

At the end of a ten-hour day, the work is going to suffer.

 

Ultimately, Digital Ice, which uses an IR pass to actually see surface imperfections, works wonders, saves times and picks up 99.9% of base dust, scratching, and synch marks.

 

 

So, I would recommend getting film scanned on a scanner that DOES have this wonderful tool, or else you are going to hate your very existence by the time you dust-bust the last frame. Don't ask me where I am getting this information from <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Ultimately, Digital Ice, which uses an IR pass to actually see surface imperfections, works wonders, saves times and picks up 99.9% of base dust, scratching, and synch marks.

 

 

+1 on ICE. Find an Arri scanner and a company that has PAID for the ICE option....I've found a few that haven't.

 

jb

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

This is where my ignorance of high-end scanning equipment really shows through. Do any of these scanners have air scrubbers? I'm putting an air scrubber on my scan rig with the notion that if the dust isn't there at scan, there's much less you need to bust digitally.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Digital Vision's DVNR and MTI's dust busting software will both do you fine. But these aren't things that are practical to buy for your own use, you'll find them at post houses. Which way were you planning to go with this?

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...