Pursing the perfect negative

[John Welton]

I just spent 9 hours in the darkroom yesterday, developed nearly 30 4x5 negs plu s some roll film with contact sheets - my back is sore today :-) Mixture of Tri- X, HP5+ and Bergger 200.

I noticed I'm still getting some white spotting on some of my negatives and wond ering where in my technique I'm falling down. I am meticulous about loading my h olders - blowing them out, putting them in sealed baggies and gently blowing the m before I load them into my crown graphic. I tray process 4 - 6 at a time. I'm using PMK with water bath stop and TF4 fixer all at 72 deg, resoak in used PMK t hen wash in tray in softly running water for about 15 minutes, photoflow then ha ng on line to dry with clothes pin. I will note that I have been doing a lot of beach pictures so it could be errant sand getting on to the neg.

Any suggestions on how to improve my technique?

John, Charleston SC

[Trevor Crone]

John I do sympathise, for it seems that know matter how careful you are DUST alw ays rears its ugly head. I do find however I get less dust when using roll backs (smaller surface area). I also believe a lot of the dust is from within the cam era, bellows etc.

Also like you I do a lot of beach photography and I try never to put the camera bag down always try to work from it hanging from the shoulder. I also keep the c amera covered between shots, using a draw string stuff sack I purchase from an o utdoor pursuit shop. These bags are also shower proof but do need replacing afte r a few years, but they are cheap.

All the best,

[Chad Jarvis]

I hate dust, and I am loathe to spot.

[Keith Baker]

A wet negative hanging to dry will stick ANY dust in the air onto the film. I now use a 'prepared' bathroom to hang the film for drying. I turn the shower head on hot and let the bathrrom steam up bigtime - this removes the dust in the room. I then keep the door shut and hang the film. I do not open the door until the film is dry - since it is soooo humid it takes overnight and I usually dab off the hanging drops that form on the lowest corner. I now only get dust on my negs if it was there at the time of exposure. I have also recently moved to using Kodak single-sheet ready loads with TMX 4x5 so that the dust problem is essentially gone. I also use hangers for film developing cause I'm concerned about one sheet corner scratching another.

[Brian Ellis]

A wet negative hanging to dry will stick ANY dust in the air onto the film. I now use a 'prepared' bathroom to hang the film for drying. I turn the shower head on hot and let the bathrrom steam up bigtime - this removes the dust in the room. I then keep the door shut and hang the film. I do not open the door until the film is dry - since it is soooo humid it takes overnight and I usually dab off the hanging drops that form on the lowest corner. I now only get dust on my negs if it was there at the time of exposure. I have also recently moved to using Kodak single-sheet ready loads with TMX 4x5 so that the dust problem is essentially gone. I also use hangers for film developing cause I'm concerned about one sheet corner scratching another.

It's also a good idea to remove any towels from the bathroom before turning the shower on.

[David F. Stein]

I would agree with Keith. Overall, we should think micro-environment-I am sure there are other techniques, but in my hands, Ilford anti-static cloths and Ilford LFN (low foam non-ionic) wetting agent work great.

[John Welton]

Thanks for the fine answers and my apologies for my spelling (that was pursuing . . . ).

I'm pretty sure I'm getting dust flecks at exposure not development but do find the bathroom suggestion intriguing as well as the other suggestions. I wish Kodak would put Tri-X in Readyloads.

John

[Richard Wasserman]

I found that the key to my dust problem was having clean film holders. After trying anti static cloths, brushes, compressed air, etc., I bought a small shop vacuum with a brush attachment that is about 1.5 inches wide. I now vacuum all the holders thoroughly each time I load film, and have virtually eliminated dust on my negatives. Of course the few dust specks I get on rare occasion still manage to find the sky. I hope this

[Greg Rust]

John,

I thought that I would convey my procedure, not that its the best, but that it works well and might help you. I live in the dusty west and my wife complains about how quickly our home gets dusty. I never dust off my Riteway film holders and they are in very used condition. But what I do is pre soak my negatives for about 1 to 3 minutes and use the pre soak water as the water for my PMK mixture. I started doing this because my second Bergger negative had spots from air bubbles on it. I hope a pre soak helps.

Greg

[Kevin M Bourque]

Hi John -

Which beach? I'm in Charleston, too, and I've spent a lot of time scraping sand out of my tripod. Surprised I haven't seen you out there.....come to think of it I've never seen another photographer on the beach with anything other than 35mm. If a spot a Crown Graphic, I'll give a yell.

I used to have the opposite problem with PMK; little black specks. Sometimed they were smeared like miniature comets. I used distilled water from presaok to fix, and never could figure out what caused it.

Sorry, no help on the white spots. Could there be a fungus among us?