Dirty Slides - What To Do About Dust

A common issue with the old slides I scan is dust. Lots of it. Although the Coolscan's Digital ICE can remove dust and, sometimes, scratches from a a scanned image, it often does not work, or does not work well, on Kodachrome slides. Besides, the scanner works better if it can "see" what is on the slide rather than "guess" what is missing. So, let's talk about dirty slides and how to clean them.

First, a dirty Kodachrome slide. Sorry about the trapezoid shape, but I shot it picture at a low angle to see the dust better.

When we look at a detail of the slide before cleaning, the amount of dust is even more apparent.

Fortunately, I have super secret method -- which I will share -- for cleaning the slides. But first, here is the slide after cleaning.

Here is a detail of the same part of the slide after cleaning.

Big improvement, I'd say, even though a very few specks of dust remained that I did not worry about. Life is too short.

So the super secret method? Well, it had to be gentle and non-destructive. And, it has to effectively clean dust. My choice, an all-natural feather duster. Here it is:

I know, I know; some people will say that any method that physically contacts the slide has too much potential for damaging the slide. Perhaps a puff of canned air would work better? Perhaps not, or perhaps the blast of compressed air would damage the slide.

Judgment is important, and I do not use the feather duster on anything that appears fragile. My technique is not to rub the slide with any pressure, but to quickly flick the slide with the tips of the feathers. Finally, the feather duster does not work on dirt or other debris solidly attached to the slide. Some problems cannot be solved outside of professional restoration and archiving.

TIP: Gently clean your slides and other source materials before digitizing.