I have some negatives which have been kept in plastic sleeves over 40yr. A lot of them have developed some yellowish marks on them. Below is one of the examples:
I have tried the following ways to remove the “dirt” on the negatives:
(a) swipe with isopropyl alcohol;
(b) soaped in water for 30min, then swipe with isoproply alcoholo;
(c) soaped in isopropyl alcohol for 5min, then swipe with isoproply alcohol.
However, all failed to remove any at all.
Are there any other ways that I could try to clean them?
Not sure if it can be done without destroying the film. Film in plastic sleeves can react with chemicals in the plastic and/or some leftovers from production and such.
Maybe you can get in touch with someone working for restoration/museums to get more detail about what to do and use. First step could be to switch to paper (pergamin) sleeves that are made for archival purposes. Possible manufacturers: Hama and others.
I have the same issue of yellowing in 2 1/4 Kodacolor film that is 55 years old. I don’t think there is anything you can do about that by cleaning the film. Cleaning only works when there is dust or finger prints of the film. For film cleaning, the standard process is to use something like the Pec Pad system. Link to the product on Amazon. . If the dirt is embedded in the film, nothing is likely to correct that. If the negatives are not too dirty/dusty, I just do spot removal when in Lightroom Classic or Photoshop.
I don’t have a solution. The first image looks like staining produced by a chemical reaction. The second image seems to show an undamaged emulsion surface, but a bleaching or staining of the image itself. The pattern of the damage suggests contact between film and sleeve has caused image breakdown that spreads. I can’t think of any explanation for the spread across the film (thin lines) or for the similarity of the patterns as you go along the roll. It looks like it started with some kind of mechanical process in film production or processing that resulted in a susceptibility to eventual age or environmental degradation. SO it doesn’t look anything like what is usually cleanable. Darn. A film chemist could help, if you could find one these days.
I have a couple of negatives that I don’t mind to sacrifice, so I experimented on them by wiping them with JIF Cream (the most aggressive cleaning agent that I used in the kitchen). Sadly, the yellowish staining persists. This confirms what most you suggested - the yellowish staining was produced by a chemical reaction and is irremovable.
My Plan B is to scan the photos instead of the negatives. Any suggested set up? Particularly how to light up the photos without glaring?
A typical setup can look like this
Lights should be positioned to the sides of the image and pointed downwards at an angle that prevents glare/reflections. Light should be from diffuse sources rather than from point sources in order to provide even lighting.
You need to look into the work of Peter Krogh. A photographer out of Bethesda, Maryland, he has done a lot of work on this topic. I bought his two books on Digitizing Photos and Using Lightroom. I highly recommend them. Here’s a link.
I would recommend getting in touch with a professional photo restorer. I’m certain they can help with your problem. Additionally, Mr. Krogh’s books include some information on how to recover old negatives and photos. I’d look into that as well.
There’s also Ctein’s “Digital Restoration from Start to Finish”, the latest Volume 3 was published in 2017. Here is a list of contents and some examples covered:
Here’s a Plan C: Assuming you converted the negative digital file to positive using NLP and you are in Lightroom, create a soft brush mask on the positive conversion in Lr and brush over the yellow-stained areas. Then, using the Temp slider in the white balance panel, very gently shift the slider toward yellow. Because these actions are operating on the pre-conversion negative file, the effect of this move will be to add Blue, which will neutralize the yellow cast. Because it looks as if it may be a bit orangish, you may also need to use the Tint slider, moving it very gently toward red, which will tend to back of Red in favour of Green. By playing very gently between these two sliders in this way, you may be able to neutralize the cast that the damage created. Whether you end-up with correct colour in those areas remains to be seen, but if not, with further adjustments you may possibly come close. That could require experimentation. Don’t be afraid because it’s all non-destructive (i.e. reversible if you don’t like it).
I keep some PEC • 12 from Photosol on hand to clean fingerprints and oily substances from film with their PEC Pads. (These products were the most popular in the optical/film-based photo lab world of the 20th Century and are still available.) You could try that, but I think this looks like chemically damaged emulsion. PEC • 12 might remove physical goo and fingerprints, but if the dyes have been altered by exposure to out-gassing plastic sleeves or environmental chemical vapors, I’d scan the negatives with my camera or high end scanner and then work on the parts of the files that need attention. Masking and selective color adjustments with the usual tools is about all you can do. It may be enough. Of course, you can always convert color images to black-and-white to hide as much of the mess as possible…
