Drying negatives

[photobymike]

I make sure they get a good photoflo bath then hang up in my back room.... you cannot avoid the dust.... before scanning i blow off the neg very carefully with static neutral air...

how do you do that.... good question I electrically ground the air nozzle. If you do not do this you are charging the neg with a charge that attracts dust...moving air creates static, and grounding it bleeds this charge away. So i dont concern myself with dust. Between my cat sleeping on my computer, she likes it cuz its warm... and the dust of kids coming and going .... i really do not have a problem.

[Ian David]

Jobo sheet film hangers are expensive but they are pretty good. They hold each sheet with just a pin in the corner on the emulsion side. I hang all my films from a string stretched across the top of the shower cubicle, ad leave them undisturbed until completely dry.

[Lenny Eiger]

Binder clips. Yea, the ones from the stationery store. Mine say Boston No 0 on them. Get a piece of wire and string the clips on it, then attach it across the room, nice and tight. These little guys are strong, they hold 8x10's easily (haven't tried it with anything larger) and don't encroach into the image....

Get some Formaflo from Photographer's Formulary. I soak the film in there for about 3 minutes, you get a real nice sheeting action that way.


Lenny

[jcoldslabs]

I use old Kodak stainless film hangers (no. 6, I think). They grab the neg by two small pinpoints and keep it at an angle when hung. Lately I have been prewarming my oven slightly then hanging my negs overnight from the highest rack. Relatively dust free and out of the way.

Jonathan

[cyrus]

When I had a home darkroom: Turn on the hot shower and steam up the bathroom first, to remove dust. Then hang them up by their corners on a piece of rope or string using binder clips after first rinsing negs with steam distilled water. I use a drying cabinet now.

[Light Guru]

I use a clear plastic file box from Office Depot with some holes drilled around the top. The box is used to hang files inside. I use the metal parts of pendaflex file hangers as cross bars on the top. Then I take binder clips and attach paper clips to the top so that they hang down from the cross bars. I can fit 10 negs in one box. It takes a few days for my negs to dry, but they're dust free and the system is portable.

I do something quite similar however i also got a fan from radio shack and installed that on the top of the box. The fan forces air circulation and the film dried MUCH faster.