Retouching negs

[jonathan smith]

Any recommendations for what to use to retouch negs? I have the occasional dust-spot on some favorite negs and would like to minimize or eliminate them before printing.

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Try Spot Tone with a VERY fine brush. Lay the neg on your light box and use a magnifying glass. Use the smallest brush you can get.

[John Cook]

Back in the days when we routinely retouched 8x10 b&w negs destined for contact printing, we used a drafting pencil. The heavy lead was extended about an inch, spun and twisted between fine sandpaper folded over into a sandwich. This produced a needle point. The film had a tooth, designed to accept pencil marks. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that enlarging retouching is not a good thing...

[paulr]

would it make sense to make an enlarged copyneg, and work on that?

[Al Seyle]

Another technique is to put a 6-penny nail in a drafting pencil holder and grind to to a needle-sharp point. Use it as an abrading tool on the film BASE side under magnification. This creates a white spot on the print that can be dyed back in with Spotone. I prefer to cut off all the bristles but one of a 0000 sable brush for very small areas.