Drying Negatives

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I am back into the darkroom after many years away. I don't like my negative drying process. After soaking my negatives in Photoflo for about 1 minute I then attempt to remove the excess water from the negatives. I have used my fingers, a sponge and a squeegee and I don't really like any of them. My fingers, after dipped into Photoflo never seem to be straight or even enough to remove the water. The sponge seems to leave water on the negatives. Although the squeegee does the most effective job of removing the water I am afraid of scratching the negatives. I hang the negatives vertically to dry. This is the only area giving me problems. Your help is appreciated.

-- Robert Bedwell (rbedw51767@aol.com), June 29, 1999

Answers

Have you thought about just letting your film hang? I have used both Kodak Photoflo and Edwal LFN(?). I think that I like the Edwal product better. Anyways, you don't need to wipe or squeegee the film when you use a drying chemical. At least one guy on this forum just uses a distilled water wash and hangs it up.

-- Brian C. Miller (brianm@ioconcepts.com), June 29, 1999.

I grasp the opposite ends of the film and quickly pull it tight a few times. If you do it quickly enough it snaps & makes the beads of water jump off.

Cheers,

Duane

-- Duane Kucheran (dkucheran@creo.com), June 29, 1999.


LFN is definitely a superior product to Photoflo. Use LFN and let the film air dry. If you are in a very dry area with high static electricity, you will have to fashion a drying bag to keep the dust off.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@earthlink.net), June 29, 1999.

Here's the method I have perfected over the years for my 35 mm films after I scratched a few negatives using a squeegee:

1) Soak the film in a wetting-agent solution preferably made with demineralised water.

2) Put the spiral in a salad centrifuge (in Germany you can buy these things for something like 3 to 5 USD) and rotate it at the fastest speed you manage to maintain for a minute or so. The speed will be the faster the better the centrifuge is balanced. If you wish to process one film only, put a balancing mass into the centrifuge on the side opposite to the film. With two identical films in identical sprials it works best.

If you then take the film out of the spiral, there is no water left on the surface, so there are no drying marks, and the films dries fairly quickly.

With 120 films, the method should work, too, provided your centrifuge is big enough to take the spiral(s).

Years ago, I read the suggestion in a book to do the same thing with a spin dryer for laundry. Thank god, I tried it with a test film w/o anything on it, because the centrifugal force made the film collapse under its own mass.

I don't think you will be able to generate such forces using a manually driven centrifuge, because with such a lightweight plastic thing, even small deviations from perfect balance (as are inevitable) will have the effect of making it very hard to drive the thing faster than at moderate speeds. (The steel drum of the spin dryer will hardly feel an unbalance even if you fail to insert a balancing mass.) Still, even at these slow speeds, the surface water is extracted.

-- Thomas Wollstein (wollstein@compuserve.com), June 30, 1999.


I think there's one of those salad spinners in the kitchen somewhere, hasn't been used so don't think it will be missed :)

-- Nige (nlandgl@eisa.net.au), July 01, 1999.


or try photowipes by premiere...the little green lintless wipe...oh they do deposit some lint but it is never permanent and can be blown away by canned air after the film is completely dry...also your film will dry much more quickly with photowipes,,some rules apply for correct usage.. never use a wet photo wipe on film...wipe quickly and don't stop the wiping motion once you've started...use a clean photowipe on each successive wipe and save your used wipes for a hand towel or spills in the darkroom..they are green so remember to recycle... they won't work on plate film so don't even try....hang to dry your plates...

-- trib (linhof6@hotmail.com), July 01, 1999.

Here's my procedure:

After the photoflo, I wrap the reel in a papertowel (fold the papertowel over once, put the reel on one side, then fold the rest of the papertowel over the other), then use a hard snapping motion much like playing with a yo-yo. Do this about 10 times, then hang your film to dry. I rarely ever have problems.

-- Devin Shieh (shieh@toad.net), July 06, 1999.


Instead of Photoflo I use the liquid you put in the dishwashing machine to prevent stains on your glass, much cheaper. I add some of that to the last rinse and leave it 1 minute. Afterwards I hang my films (in case of 35mm) and use a sponge which is hidden in a piece of chamois leather, which works perfectly fine. My 4*5's I do not touch after the last rinse, I just hang it and use papercloth to suck the drips from it several times. Never had chalk-stains here either.

-- Lot (lotw@wxs.nl), July 06, 1999.

drying negatives

Robert, Many years a fellow photographer explained to me how to dry films & not have water spots. After fixing and running through Photo Flo, he would hold the film by the leader and crack it as though it were a whip. Seems to "Snap" the water/photo flo off the negatives and I have been doing this since the early 1970's. Hope this helps. David Huffman

-- H. David Huffman (craptalk@ix.netcom.com), July 06, 1999.

Robert

Rinse for a couple of minutes in distilled water and a couple of drops of photo-flo. Don't wipe or touch the film an any manner. After drying, handle with cotton gloves and put in sleeves ASAP. I've used other types of soaps or detergents in the past and these often leave a residue.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), July 07, 1999.



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