Removing sellotape to scan at full size

[Skye]

Hi everyone, I recently acquired an old 8x10 photo negative, containing a narrow panorama. Unfortunately, sometime in the past a previous owner put red translucent Sellotape over the negative to reduce the size of the photo. As far as I can see it isn’t on the side with the emulsion – if I hold the photo up to the light the photo appears the correct way round with the Sellotape facing me. How do I remove the Sellotape safely before scanning? The remainder of the image is still visible through the tape but obviously I'd rather remove the tape and scan the negative as one whole image rather than fiddling with the colours in photoshop to make the tape invisible. I've added a photo below showing the tape. Sorry if this isn't in the right place - I wasn't sure which category would be best!

187934

[Ron McElroy]

If that is red litho tape it should come off easily. The wild card is how long has it been on the film and how was the negative stored. The gum on that tape will clean off easily with film cleaner.

[Gary Beasley]

To avoid damaging the neg once you have the tape started peeling pull straight back over the tape so the force is parallel to the film surface. This is more likely to come clean than pulling up from the surface and will be easier to control how the film is pulled on. Ive used tons of that stuff masking litho negs and masking the glass on the plateburner at the newspaper office.