I don't know what your experience is with dust, but up until recently I considered dust my worst enemy. I did everything I could think of to keep dust off my negatives. I kept my film holders clean as a whistle, store them in plastic bags, blow off my film before development and dry as dust fre environment as I could find. In post process, I clean my scanner religiously, blow air over my flat bed and each negative every time. Still, nothing seemed to work. I was beginning to accept the fact that I had to spend a ton of time in photoshop spot retouching on each image.

A few days ago I was finishing a set of negatives. Getting ready to hang a soaking wet one I accidentally dropped it right on my floor. Frustrated, I picked it up and sure enough it was caked with dust, dirt and hair. My only option was to run it under water. Under the stream of running water I saw most of the particles coming off; however a few stubbron bits remained. With a gentle sweeping motion of my tips fingers I rubbed the negative clean. I took utmost care to be as gentle as possible and removed everything I could see.

After I scanned the negative I was amazed to find my cleanest negative ever! Hardly a speck of dust to worry about. I have been doing this ever since. After photoflo, I put the neg in running water and ever so gently wipe it with the tips of my fingers. It works like a charm. My negatives scan nearly dust free.

I am not sure if most of you know this or have another strategy that gives you nearly dust free scans, but this was a revelation for me and I wanted to pass it along to anyone struggling with dust. If you have other ideas I'd love to hear them too.