Digital ICE works by doing a scan of the film with Infra-red (IR) light. This IR scan enables the machine to visualize surface defects in the film, like dust or scratches. The scanner then scans the film normally. Using the map of defects from the IR scan, special software can replace the defective areas by interpolating between the pixels around the defect to fill in that area with an approximation of what was likely beneath the defect. The results can be dramatic. See the following examples from this 40 year old slide.


The image above was a slide scanned without using ICE.


Here is the same slide scanned with ICE.

Notice how much dirt was able to be removed? It adds about 30 seconds or so to each scan in order to use ICE but it would have taken a talented artist hours or days of work to clean up this image in their photo editing software.

Here is the final image after our photo editors have cleaned up the color and exposure.

You'd never know that image was 40 years old!

Here is a before and after in split screen.

While Digital ICE adds some time on the front end, it can dramatically save time on the back end while producing a dramatically improved image.

There are some caveats, however. Digital ICE doesn't work with B&W film and it doesn't always work well with Kodachrome film.  The technology does work but it works best with small pieces of dust and fine scratches.  Large blotches can not be recovered using this technology. Those types of images may need additional help from a specialized digital restoration service.