Hanging Sheet Film To Dry

[Michael Kadillak]

After using the perforated alligator clips to hang my sheet film for a long time, I took some recent advice to look at an alternative for accomplishing this objective that has worked out better than I thought.

I acquired a Fiskar 1/16" hand operated punch and use it to put two small holes in the outer film area and after using a wire cutter to clip small paper clips to a hook configuration on both ends, I use these to hang my sheet film. No more bent film or excessive holes that could intrude into the image area. The punch cost me $10 online. Just thought I would pass this along.

Cheers!

[Bruce Watson]

Wooden clothes pins work fine for me. I'm only hanging 4x5 though.

[Eric Rose]

I've gone to a more moderan and updated version of the cloths peg. Plastic ones! Come on Hogarth time to get out of the dark ages.

Eric

[Jim Rice]

The wooden ones seem to leave more diffuse marks......just sticking up (sorry for the pun) the old folks.

[Larry Gebhardt]

Binder clips work for me. No need to punch your film and no marks in the image area. I have also never had one drop a sheet, unlike clothes pins.

[ronald moravec]

I got the plastic and now I went back to wood. The plastic breaks hanging film, can you believe it?

[Bruce Watson]

Think about it a minute Eric. You're asking a large format photographer to "get out of the dark ages." That's irony, yes? Next you're going to want me to give up the Artars. Sacrilege!

Besides, my wooden clothes pins have been working great for years. It'd be disloyal of me to toss 'em. And, they're paid for already ;-)

[David A. Goldfarb]

Ansel's trick was to turn the two halves of the wooden clothespin around in their springs so that they clip at the handle end instead of the usual end, reducing the contact area with the film. Works for me even with 11x14".

[Doug_3727]

I'm still using wooden clothes pins on 8x10 that I got from home 30 years a go. Can't ask for much better than that. Plastic what?

[CP Goerz]

I have these small plastic clips that have a spike like the 4mm point of a push pin, the pin can pierce the film holding it super securely. I found that with wooden clothes pins the slimy emulsion could slip out and land-always emulsion side down-on a small patch of grit that was exactly where the sky would be.

CP Goerz

[Jan Nieuwenhuysen]

For me, it's wooden clothes pins on a taut piece of string. Perfect.

[Francis Abad]

My concession to modernity - stainless steel clips by Patterson. Very secure and allows extremely fine footprint so as not to touch the image area.

Francesco (www.cicoli.com)

[Robert A. Zeichner]

Kodak 149 2594 Color Film Clips do it for me. I discovered these at a photographic estate sale a couple of years ago and bought enough to hang more film than I'd care to process at one time. They were drilled so I hang them from some wire I strung across the darkroom and so far have never failed to do the job while leaving only a trace of teeth marks on the very corner of my B&W negs.

[Andre Noble]

Jobo Sheet Film Clips are nice because they have only a very small surface area of a sharp needle and you can postion this to the very corner of the sheet, far outside the image area. Also, when hanging on a wire/string, they orient the sheets at a 90 degree angle from the way a clothspin orients them. This has a couple advantages as well, such as space saving and better dust control, I feel.

Finally, they are great for pulling finished 4x5 sheets out of the Jobo Expert Drums.

The down side is that ten of them cost like $35US at B&H.

[Mark_3632]

The wife had this amazing round hanging thing to hang her undies on. I confiscated it and can hange ten sheets of 5x7 or 10 rolls in a very small area. The plastic clips grip right to the edges and hold firm. Had the wife conviced she lost her prized undi hanger for about a year. Then she noticed it in the processing box one day, oh well.

[jonathan smith]

I also believe in punching holes, I use a push pin though, one in the top corner and film hangs diagonally.

[Diane Maher]

I use the binder clips as well. The medium sized ones work for 8x10 negs. I use larger paper clips bent into a hook (hard to describe) to hang them in the shower to hang the clips on. I just watch out for the inevitable rust on the clips.

[Alec Jones]

Like Robert, I highly recommend the Kodak Color Film Clips. Powerful enough to hold the film. Small enough not to intrude into the image area.

[Norm Johnson]

In the 60's I owned a large furniture photography studio. All our furniture and most other projects were 8X10 and some of the outside commercial was 4X5, used a wire clothesline and wooden clothespins. Hung the film Diagonaly at 30 to 40 8 X 10 on a day and more at furniture market time. Never had one drop or marked the image.

Admit I often feared it though.

Norm J