{"id":246,"date":"2026-03-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dustmagic.io\/blog\/6-1-faq-2\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:20:09","slug":"6-1-faq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dustmagic.io\/blog\/6-1-faq\/","title":{"rendered":"6.1 Frequently Asked Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What is DustMagic?<\/h2>\n<p>A desktop app for Windows and Mac that detects and removes dust, fibres, and scratches from DSLR-scanned film. Originals are never modified.<\/p>\n<h2>What film types does it work on?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Yes:<\/strong> colour negatives (C-41) and slides (E-6) scanned with a DSLR or mirrorless camera.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No:<\/strong> traditional silver black-and-white film (HP5, Tri-X, Delta, FP4) \u2014 the silver grains read as defects. Use C-41 chromogenic B&amp;W (Ilford XP2, Kodak BW400CN) instead.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No:<\/strong> Kodachrome \u2014 same reason.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Does it work on flatbed scans?<\/h2>\n<p>It works on any image file \u2014 JPEG, TIFF, PNG, BMP \u2014 but it&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<h2>Does it work on digital camera sensor dust?<\/h2>\n<p>No. DustMagic is built for film scans, not for sensor-dust spots on digital photographs.<\/p>\n<h2>Does it need a GPU?<\/h2>\n<p>No. DustMagic runs entirely on your CPU. More CPU cores mean faster batches, but no graphics card is required.<\/p>\n<h2>How does pricing work?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Trial<\/strong> \u2014 full app, time-limited.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Free<\/strong> \u2014 single-image processing, forever, at no cost.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Licensed<\/strong> \u2014 adds Process Batch (whole folders at once). $49\/year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Where do cleaned files go?<\/h2>\n<p>A <code>cleaned\/<\/code> subfolder inside your source folder. Detection masks go to <code>_masks\/<\/code>. Originals are never modified.<\/p>\n<h2>Does it support batch processing?<\/h2>\n<p>Yes \u2014 Process Batch cleans every image in the current folder in parallel. Requires a licence.<\/p>\n<h2>Does it integrate with Lightroom?<\/h2>\n<p>Yes \u2014 a Lightroom Classic plugin is bundled. Install it from <strong>Help \u2192 Lightroom Integration<\/strong>. See <strong>3.1: Lightroom Integration Guide<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Does it integrate with Photoshop or Capture One?<\/h2>\n<p>Not via plugin. Both work cleanly via TIFF round-tripping. See <strong>3.2: Photoshop &amp; Capture One Integration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Does it modify my originals?<\/h2>\n<p>Never. Cleaned files are written to a separate <code>cleaned\/<\/code> subfolder.<\/p>\n<h2>Can I touch up individual images manually?<\/h2>\n<p>Yes. Press <kbd>B<\/kbd> for the Brush tool. Left-click adds dust to the mask, right-click removes false positives, scroll-wheel resizes. Click <strong>Export This Image<\/strong> to save the touched-up frame.<\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s the difference between Conservative and Balanced?<\/h2>\n<p>Conservative is the recommended starting point \u2014 high precision, low false positives. Balanced is more aggressive, useful for older or dustier scans where Conservative misses real defects.<\/p>\n<h2>Why isn&#8217;t dust being detected on a sharp scan?<\/h2>\n<p>Try disabling <strong>Focus-Based Filtering<\/strong> 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 <strong>5.4: Troubleshooting Bad Results<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Why are false positives appearing on faces or skies?<\/h2>\n<p>Raise <strong>Texture Penalty<\/strong> (for skin) or <strong>Minimum Contrast<\/strong> (for skies) in Advanced Settings. See <strong>5.4: Troubleshooting Bad Results<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>How big can my image files be?<\/h2>\n<p>DustMagic handles very large scans \u2014 multi-hundred-megapixel TIFFs are routine. RAM and disk speed become the limit before pixel count does.<\/p>\n<h2>Where do I get help?<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Help \u2192 Report a Problem<\/strong> in the app. Three tracks: improve detection quality (auto-sent), report a bug (creates a zip), licence question (opens email).<\/p>\n<h2>Next Steps<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Get going \u2014 <strong>1.2: Your First Batch<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Tune the detection \u2014 <strong>2.3: All Settings Explained<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Diagnose a problem \u2014 <strong>5.4: Troubleshooting Bad Results<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frequently asked questions about DustMagic \u2014 film types supported, pricing, output, batch processing, integrations, and troubleshooting pointers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-series-6-quick-reference"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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