Scratches

 

Non-photographic blemishes on the film emulsion or base.

Film scratches can be caused by poor manual handling or improperly adjusted equipment. Wet gate printing can reduce the effect of scratches on the base of a film.

Video tape scratches appear in quadruplex recordings as an evenly spaced series of dropouts forming a diagonal line across the picture. In helical recordings, a scratch will appear as a solid line.