What is this weird gradient on my negatives?

Flatbed and Film Scanners
1

Hey all,

I am scanning my negatives with a Plustek 8200i, with Vuescan, and then converting the negatives with NLP, but one thing I see often is this phenomenon, as seen below -

2021.04.06 002.Various_CO.Pentax_ME_Super.Cinestill_800T_EI1600
2021.04.06 002.Various_CO.Pentax_ME_Super.Cinestill_800T_EI1600667×1000 165 KB

It’s not a light leak, as this happens occasionally on different cameras and film stocks, and isn’t present on the negatives…I’m guessing it’s something in the scanning process, but what is it and what can I do to avoid it?

2

Welcome to the forum, @Ben2

If the gradient only happens occasionally, is no light leak and is not on the negative, it must be something else :nerd_face: :roll_eyes:

I such a case, I would

  • try to scan the negative again. If the effect happens occasionally, it should go away.
  • try to scan the negative in different orientation and see what comes of it.
  • try to compensate, before using NLP, the gradient in Lightroom.
  • dive into investigating hardware or software errors - or alternative scanning methods