What is DustMagic?
A desktop app for Windows and Mac that detects and removes dust, fibres, and scratches from DSLR-scanned film. Originals are never modified.
What film types does it work on?
- Yes: colour negatives (C-41) and slides (E-6) scanned with a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
- No: traditional silver black-and-white film (HP5, Tri-X, Delta, FP4) — the silver grains read as defects. Use C-41 chromogenic B&W (Ilford XP2, Kodak BW400CN) instead.
- No: Kodachrome — same reason.
Does it work on flatbed scans?
It works on any image file — JPEG, TIFF, PNG, BMP — but it’s optimised for DSLR scans. Flatbed scans tend to be softer; you may need to disable Focus-Based Filtering in Advanced Settings if dust is being missed.
Does it work on digital camera sensor dust?
No. DustMagic is built for film scans, not for sensor-dust spots on digital photographs.
Does it need a GPU?
No. DustMagic runs entirely on your CPU. More CPU cores mean faster batches, but no graphics card is required.
How does pricing work?
- Trial — full app, time-limited.
- Free — single-image processing, forever, at no cost.
- Licensed — adds Process Batch (whole folders at once). $49/year.
Where do cleaned files go?
A cleaned/ subfolder inside your source folder. Detection masks go to _masks/. Originals are never modified.
Does it support batch processing?
Yes — Process Batch cleans every image in the current folder in parallel. Requires a licence.
Does it integrate with Lightroom?
Yes — a Lightroom Classic plugin is bundled. Install it from Help → Lightroom Integration. See 3.1: Lightroom Integration Guide.
Does it integrate with Photoshop or Capture One?
Not via plugin. Both work cleanly via TIFF round-tripping. See 3.2: Photoshop & Capture One Integration.
Does it modify my originals?
Never. Cleaned files are written to a separate cleaned/ subfolder.
Can I touch up individual images manually?
Yes. Press B for the Brush tool. Left-click adds dust to the mask, right-click removes false positives, scroll-wheel resizes. Click Export This Image to save the touched-up frame.
What’s the difference between Conservative and Balanced?
Conservative is the recommended starting point — high precision, low false positives. Balanced is more aggressive, useful for older or dustier scans where Conservative misses real defects.
Why isn’t dust being detected on a sharp scan?
Try disabling Focus-Based Filtering in Advanced Settings. On uniformly tack-sharp scans, the sharpness gap between dust and image content narrows and this filter can suppress real dust. See 5.4: Troubleshooting Bad Results.
Why are false positives appearing on faces or skies?
Raise Texture Penalty (for skin) or Minimum Contrast (for skies) in Advanced Settings. See 5.4: Troubleshooting Bad Results.
How big can my image files be?
DustMagic handles very large scans — multi-hundred-megapixel TIFFs are routine. RAM and disk speed become the limit before pixel count does.
Where do I get help?
Help → Report a Problem in the app. Three tracks: improve detection quality (auto-sent), report a bug (creates a zip), licence question (opens email).
Next Steps
- Get going — 1.2: Your First Batch.
- Tune the detection — 2.3: All Settings Explained.
- Diagnose a problem — 5.4: Troubleshooting Bad Results.