Russian scientists have found a way to prevent damage to old film negatives

<img src=”https://naked-science.ru/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Risunok-1.-Primery-negativov-ispolzovannyh-v-issledovanii.jpg” alt=”Russian scientists have found a way to prevent damage to old film negatives”/>Scientists have developed a simple and effective way to identify areas with an initial degree of degradation on nitrocellulose film negatives. Film negative degradation manifests itself as local yellowing due to aging and improper storage conditions. If measures are not taken in a timely manner, this can lead to the loss of the negative, and accordingly, the historical moment captured on it. The proposed method is based on determining how the red, green and blue components are related in individual pixels in the image. In degraded, that is, yellowed, areas, this ratio is statistically different from that for stable areas.