Film will age even when properly stored. Over time, the colors in the film will fade noticeably. In the case of slides, since the different color layers don’t age equally, they will take on a color cast and become unsuitable for projection. By the way: this is one important reason why film profiles hardly ever seem to match. At different ages the same film looks remarkably different.
Applied Science Fiction has developed the ROC filter for color restoration. Even 20-year old slides can look like new again. ROC removes the color cast and refreshes faded colors. The degree of restoration is selectable; if set too high, colors will look unnatural. Water spots on the film surface (from developing) and other impurities can also become exaggerated.
To check for unwanted side effects beforehand, always generate a preview when using ROC. The ROC filter has a considerable impact on the colors and should be used with caution. The example shown on the following page demonstrates an extreme case. The slide is almost 50 years old and badly discolored. This example shows that even a seemingly hopeless slide can contain some interesting hidden information. ROC corrects typical signs of age very well and improves the image significantly. Current Nikon scanners include ROC. ROC can also be executed after the scan - not with the Nikon scanner software, but with a Digital ROC plug-in for Photoshop at extra cost. The software allows experimenting with different settings without having to perform a time-consuming rescan each time. This is a definite advantage over the solution implemented in the scanner software. For scanning old film material, ROC is a great help.
With Restore Fading, VueScan has integrated a function similar to ROC. However, unlike ROC, the function cannot be controlled with sliders but uses checkboxes instead.
