How do you hang your film

[drgoose]

Hello, I have a stupid question. I currently hang my film to dry after washing in using some wooden clothespins from one corner. The problem I am having is that the corner from which they are held, once the film is dry always has some crap under the pin. Sometimes it is on the image area and sometimes it is outside of it. Am I missing something or should I just learn to live with the dirty corner on my film?

Thanks
Joaquin

[Bruce Barlow]

I do the same, and am careful to just clip the edge, so that the clip mark does not intrude on the image area. It can be done.

I also now use plastic clothespins, which seem to leave less junk. Good ones are hard to find, however.

[vinny]

Binder clips.
They should make this a sticky since there's a new thread like this quite often.

[Bruce Barlow]

Binder clips! Cool! Great idea!

[Roger Thoms]

I use dental X-ray film hanger clips which I bought off of Ebay. Here's a thread that will give you all kinds of great ideas. You'll find that there are many different product that will do the job.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?108799-The-*Perfect*-clip-for-hanging-sheet-film

Roger

[mdarnton]

I develop in hangers. I just did, last night, an experiment I've been meaning to try for ages. After Photo-Flo, I just hung my hangers up on the line, after draining and shaking them out well. The results were interesting. Carr hangers left some marks, however my Kodak hangers left none at all.

The difference is that the sides of the Carr tracks are parallel, so it's easy to get the film stuck to one side or the other, and that did show. On the other hand the tracks on the Kodak hangers are V-shaped almost to the bottom, so that only the bottom mm or so can get stuck. As I said, ALL of my film in Kodak hangers came out perfectly.

[mpirie]

If you have an Ikea or similar store nearby, try these:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/search/?query=+Curtain+hook

Thats what i use.(Riktig)

[Roger Thoms]

One thing I like about the dental film hanger clips is that that are stainless steel.

Roger

[Leigh]

After Photo-Flo, I just hung my hangers up on the line, after draining and shaking them out well. ...
Carr hangers left some marks, however my Kodak hangers left none at all.
I do the same, and have for many years.

Most of my hangers are Kodak. I've never had a problem.

Sometimes the bottom-most corner sticks, but no damage.

- Leigh

[ROL]

http://www.amazon.com/Clothespins-LED-Battery-String-Lights/dp/B00GNJHO5G/ref=sr_1_113?ie=UTF8&qid=1399825919&sr=8-113&keywords=clothespin :cool:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?113053-replacement-for-sponge-cloth-for-wiping-drying-film&p=1132994#post1132994 :o

[rcmartins]

I use dental X-ray film hanger clips which I bought off of Ebay.

+1
raul

[Kirk Gittings]

I use this with about half the clips removed. Will hold securely on to the tiniest of corners. Works a charm.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001E839U/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Steve Barber]

The UK may be a bit far for most of you to go, but this is the best illustration of the type of clip I found and it does a good job. Cut a bit of the hoop away, leaving a hook that you can hang over a wire stretched between two anchors. Use one clip on the corner of a piece of film so it hangs with the diagonally opposite corner down. Leaves no residue and will not get in the image area.

http://www.calicocrafts.co.uk/acatalog/Miniature-Metal-Clip-Holders.html

[ROL]

I forgot to add that most of my film isn't worth hanging. I just line them up and shoot them firing squad style, without so much as a blindfold or last cigarette. :)

[MIke Sherck]

I use plastic clothes pins but some of them don't hold tightly enough to hold the film. The best ones I've found were at the dollar store. Binder clips work very well also, but the metal ones will eventually rust.

Mike

[tgtaylor]

This is what I use for 4x5 and 8x10 film and fiber-based paper:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/123163-REG/Delta_58050_Stainless_Steel_Film_Clips.html

They don't require an extensive bite to hold the film but always grasp the clips firmly when transporting to the dryer as back and forward movement of the slippery film will cause it to drop out and onto the floor. If you shoot Fuji Acros, you can also use them to clasp a paper clip and run the end of the latter through the hole. If not, then clasp the film where the hole is and you won't leave any mark on the negative. Just be careful when transporting as mentioned above.

I've used two packs (20) of these constantly over the past 8 or so years and they hold as firmly now as they did when brand new. At a buck apiece you can't go wrong.

Thomas

[Bruce Barlow]

I forgot to add that most of my film isn't worth hanging. I just line them up and shoot them firing squad style, without so much as a blindfold or last cigarette. :)

+!, and well-said!

[Ian Gordon Bilson]

Ah, nuts - just use your cheesy old wooden clothespegs, and drive a thumbtack through one jaw to pin your sheet like an insect to a board. The bigger the surface of the grip, the more you are likely to end up with a compromised area in the corner ,which you will have to crop out later - losing "real estate" in the process.

[Renato Tonelli]

http://www.cpmdelta1.com/drying_cabinets.htm
Scroll down for the clips. I prefer them to other types - tiny footprint on the corner of the film, stainless steel.

It's the exact same clip as in the Post #16 (B&H link).

[Drew Wiley]

Want to rephrase that? I don't think hanging is allowed anymore. Lethally injecting your film????

[Richard Wasserman]

Some of mine have been suicidal and never showed up for their execution, hanging or otherwise. I've found them the next day lifeless and in the trash.

[StoneNYC]

I had that problem, so I switched to plastic clothes pins...that fixed it

[Richard Wasserman]

I use a combination of JOBO (that I found fairly cheap) and dental clips—they both work great.

[DennisD]

Wooden Clothespins drilled and strung on piano (stainless) wire between darkroom walls. Turnbuckle at one end to draw wire very tight.

115312

[Kirk Gittings]

The clothes pin thingy I mentioned above http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001E839U/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) goes in this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000TQF1Y/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 with a rough service lightbulb on a lightweight wooden frame at the bottom. For about $30-40 or so it makes a great, virtually dust proof, collapsable drying cabinet.

[Drew Wiley]

Besides my fishing line above the sink, with its ordinary wooden clothespins, I also have a drying cabinet for very fussy negs. In the latter case, these have been punched for registration as masks or color separation negs, and a little brass wire shaped into a hook hangs these from the punch hole. It's rarely needed, however, cause when I finish a sheet film dev session, I simply turn off the air exchanger in that room until the film is dry, so dust is rarely a factor. With the drying cabinet, the air is highly filtered. But the little hook idea does have the advantage in that it is unlikely to affect any of the image area itself. With clothespins you need to be careful. I also notice that Acros sheet film has a little hole off in one corner right from the factory for some unknown reason, so I sometimes use that in a similar manner.

[ROL]

...I simply turn off the air exchanger in that room until the film is dry, so dust is rarely a factor.

As do I. For some reason dust is not a factor when sheets are hung (screams are mother matter) in the open in my lab once the ductless AC (no air exchange) is turned off. However, I still hang 120 rolls (using film clips) in my portable wardrobe "dryer" within the lab.

[Kirk Gittings]

New Mexico is very dusty. Even when I run an air cleaner on a regular basis there is a lot of dust. That's with no forced air period. Sooo I gave up on hanging negs over my darkroom sink and built one of these with my own twist to it. http://www.shutterbug.com/content/do-it-yourselfbrbuild-low-cost-film-drying-cabinet

[Drew Wiley]

I use a separate drying cabinet mainly to ensure exact dimensional matching of the dried film. Hanging from exactly the same spot, in the same manner, becomes important when registering one sheet of film to another. You're working in tolerances of thousandths in this case - not like general photography at all. But I also have
a true cleanroom for dustless film work per se. Getting a speck of dust on a precision interneg or interpositive pretty much ruins that sheet of film and all the work
that went behind it - and you all know by now that 8x10 color film isn't getting any cheaper. Same goes for process control. For ordinary black and white work a
simple passive water jacket is perfectly adequate. For critical matching of negs one to another (like matched color separation negs), I pull out the thermoregulator
that keeps that water within 1/10 degree F.

[alavergh]

I hang my film in a shower-only basin, no tub. It's narrower than a tub of course. I use large picture hanger hardware and have a string strung between the two sides of the shower. Every 6 inches or so I have tied a small metal binder clip, the clips that you would use to clip together a small or large stack of paper. They are very tight and do leave impressions in the film, but it doesn't matter to me because either that part of my shot is still inside the negative carrier or I crop it out when enlarging. I can usually get it on the edge of the film though.

[jonesp]

I dry my negatives using alligator clips attached to a standard film clip. The alligator clips have a very small, but strong footprint and can hold the tiniest area of the film surface.115691

[StoneNYC]

I dry my negatives using alligator clips attached to a standard film clip. The alligator clips have a very small, but strong footprint and can hold the tiniest area of the film surface.115691

Nice, x-ray?

I use these clothespin things with a nice hook

Holds 11x14 x-ray just fine

115693

And 4x5 of course

115695

And for tiny formats I use Paterson clips

115696

[jnantz]

plastic cabinet with shelves removed, and string/wire strung across work great
clothes pins have never given me trouble

http://www.google.com/shopping/product/11305990038859440524?client=safari&rls=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=sterilite+storage+cabinets&oq=sterilite+storage+cabinets&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.67229260,d.cGU,pv.xjs.s.en_US.gRoiL82AyiQ.O&biw=1532&bih=940&tch=1&ech=1&psi=0_Z7U6qbE9PHoATkr4CQCw.1400633044645.9&ei=8PZ7U-WREczxoASBh4HAAg&ved=0CIwBEKYrMAI

[ic-racer]

115697

[Michael Kadillak]

Tried the clothes pins, alligator and the dental clips. Far to much surface area to deal with since I contact print right to the edge of the film.

I use a pin register punch to place to small holes in the edge of the sheet film pre development and then use paper clips through the holes that have a side clipped out of them to hang the sheet film from the racks in an closed Arkay dryer. Zero contact with the sheet film since the paper clips hold an inside edge of the 1 mm hole and absolutely zero dust spots.

[cyrus]

Binder clips rust.
Stainless steel or plastic work. So does dipping the wooden clothes pin holders tips in some liquid latex
But your clip should not be in the image area anyway