How do you clean your negs or slides before scanning?

[John Hoang]

Before scanning, I use a hand blower to clean the slide; wipe the scanner glass, Anti Newton glass with couple pieces of lens tissue, then tape the slide to the AN glass. I also use cotton gloves to avoid finger prints.

Despite all that, I still have to spend hours using spotting tool on PS to clean dirts and specs and whatever... on a piece of 4x10 film. I wonder if that is normal for you all LF shooters. How do you clean slides or negs before scanning? Please share. Thanks.

[aphexafx]

This is normal especially if you do not use a film cleaner. The cotton gloves are the most important as it is difficult to paint out a finger print were it to show up. If you are doing all of this at home, this makes the dust worse, as homes/apartments/condos/places-where-people-live are many times dustier than say studio labs, etc.

I try to keep everything as clean as possible, and I too have a lot of spot work - it is just the nature of scanning film. However, I look at it as an opportunity to look over my scan in great detail and get familiar with it, find problem areas, etc.

I also have two very large Pixie Bob cats, and when a cat hair sneaks in its like a tree. Every once in a while a hair will show up in a delicate area and it is easier to just physically remove it and rescan.

Wouldn't trade my cats for all the perfectly clean scans in the world, though.

[bvstaples]

When I examine my film, and I see small spots, dirt, and hair (I too have a cat and his finest hair's are all but invisible—that is until you scan them). I do my best to clean the negs before they hit the scanner. I use film clearner and cotton gloves on the film. I also clean the glass after almost every pass.

Nonetheless, I get spots on my scans, most noticable in the sky region of my shots. I think the difference between analog enlargers and digital scanners is that the enlargers are more forgiving of small spots.

So after scanning, I can spend anywhere from 10 minutes to about 1/2 hour cleaning the image. But when I consider I might spend anywhere from 5 minutes to 1/2 hour retouching my analog prints, it seems to be a wash. Perhaps we just expect more with digital captures...


Brian

[Archphoto]

First I clean the glass plate with a micro-fiber cloth.
I have an oil-free studio compressor set at 4 Ato, it works great for removing dust from both the glass plate and the neg/slide.

If the air in your room is too dry you will have more problems with dust.
In that case put a damp cloth over the radiator to raise the humidity, it helps.

Good luck,
Peter

[Nathan Potter]

Yes keeping the humidity high helps reduce dust considerably. You can also put one of those stand alone HEPA air filters in the darkroom (if that's where you're doing the scanning) and wear a particle free lab coat. Filter the incoming air to the room by attaching an auxillary filter over the vent. I use a couple layers of wifes' used hose cut and stretched to fit a frame.

If the neg. or chrome shows dirt or dust I blow off first; then a fine brush; finally, if required, a clean room lint free wipe with alcohol and blow dry. Check first that no residue is left from the wipe and alcohol before trying this.

But the real trick I use is to do the cleaning and scanning in a laminar flow hood, which seems to give about a class 10 to 100 particle count. Under these conditions I've rarely had any dust show up on a finished scan.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Glenn Thoreson]

Anti static cloth and humidifier. Airborne crud is much worse in the winter.

[Bruce M. Herman]

I currently use a Microtek 1800f, so there is no need to clean the glass. After placing two 4x5 sheets in the holder, I use an old Zone VI anti-static brush to clean them. This device consists of a camel hair brush and a charge emitter. Sounds wacky, but it actually seems to work. To remove the occasional camel hair from the film, I finish with a blast of compressed air. I still find some dust, but not more than 15 minutes of work.

Two dogs and two cats in the house - no shortage of stuff in the air here!

[John Hoang]

Thanks all for your suggestions. I will try a humidifier and anti-static stuffs.

[Brian Ellis]

I give them a light brushing with an anti-static brush, then zap them with canned air. I still have a few spots but nothing that requires any great time to fix.