First you have to get the film digitized. I use Cinepost that uses a wet scan machine which is not done by 99% of scanning companies now but it gives a much better scan. They scan each frame individually. I get my scans back as single frame .dpx files which are very large but retain much more of the original details. You can request any format you want. I like the .dpx because it gives me more control. I mostly use DaVinci Resolve to do all the corrections but also a few others for problem.areas. DaVinci is a professional program which has a free but slightly degraded version. The problem is that if you want it to come out as best as possible you have to tweak each setting for each scene change. There are a LOT of things to tweak. Most scanning companies just put in basic corrections for color and let it rip. At the beginning I had 3 different companies scan the same can of film and they were all atrocious but said that was the best they could do. That's why I do it myself. If you have 8mm film get it scanned as soon as possible as the film is rotting bit by bit everyday. I had one can that even Cinepost could not do I had to send it to a firm in Canada which uses highly specialized processes to make the film strong and stable enough to go though a scanner. They do not give you your film back after that toxic mix is used on it.
--
Bill From Socal
