I’m new to developing film at home. I’ve done about 8 rolls. I’m having a problem with super dirty negatives.
I use the handheld rocket blower and have recently started using the canned air but some of the hair (?) particles are stuck on and no amount of air can get them off.
I’m also wondering if I am not leaving the negatives to dry long enough ? I gave it about 2 hours and they still seemed a bit sticky.
I’ve uploaded some samples.
Dust can be on your negatives and on your backlight (assuming camera scanning). In order to eliminate the latter, you can move the backlight away from the film so that the backlight is definitely out of focus.
As an illustration of backlight dust, I took a shot at it and accentuated the dust spec with Lightroom’s clone tool to see what we get. Tick the checkbox at the lower edge of Lr’s image display area to get the inverted reveal-it-all view.
When I was in film photography and developed my own (b/w) negatives, I found that dust was of minor concern when I let film dry in a room that promises less dust like a kitchen or bathroom and avoided air movement. When film feels sticky, it’s not dry enough and will behave like scotch tape.
At times, I used a blow-dryer to speed up the process, making sure to blow along the film rather than smack at it.
have you tried getting your film restored or cleaned before developing and processing them? i know a few companies that offer this service that might be worth looking into, i can attach a link that might help?
if you do get any luck please do update us!
Have you tried anti static cloths?
There also a professional brand of antistatic brushes for scanning. They are expensive thought. https://www.kinetronics.com/
You can try building a gate like that with antistatic vinyl brushes. I did something like that and worked very well so far. https://imgur.com/z6VGEfw
The last thing is genius. What did you attach it to?
Tape and some hard foam board. I have come away from this and invested in something from kinetronics. The cheap vinyl brushes were losing bristles from time to time and depositing themselves on the negatives.
Here is another suggestion that works very well for me. The darkroom cookbook has a recipe for a quick drying solution. I use Kodak Photoflo, others may use a different wetting agent. Mix your final rinse per your normal formula and add approximately one fluid ounce or 30ml of isopropyl alcohol per liter of solution. I use 91% isopropyl alcohol from a pharmacy.
After you wash the film, soak in this new solution for 4 minutes without agitation. I do not squeegee my film. Hang up to dry in a dust free environment. This cuts the drying time in half. I have been using this formula with Kodak photoflo for years. I found it has all but eliminated my dust issues.
