Scratch on negative, how to remove defect from print?

[Ethan]

Hey guys,

I’ve got a negative I shot recently that I’d really like to make some prints of. However, it got a single scratch on it while I was tray processing. When I made a contact print, the scratch is very noticeable. In thinking about how I might fix this, I recalled an old video I saw of Ansel Adams Printing in his darkroom, where I think he used an x-acto knife to scratch at the emulsion to make the area lighter. I tried that, but it just scratched off the complete emulsion and made it pure wight. (I might be completely mis remembering the video). How do you guys deal with scratched negatives? Is there anything like white out that is archival and comes in various grays?

Thanks,
Ethan

[Tin Can]

Pencil

[Paul Ron]

what was the red paint used to block areas on a negative called?

or scan the neg and fix it in photoshop?... go digital print?

[Dugan]

Opaque.

[Tin Can]

Look at what William Mortensen did with pencil on print or negative

Many of his prints were one offs he spent forever making the print what he wanted

http://50watts.com/Monsters-and-Madonnas-Looking-at-William-Mortensen

[Ethan]

For pencil on the print (I'm wary to try anything that goes on the negatives, damaged prints can be re made, damaged negatives can't), do you just get a white pencil and go over the mark a few times?

[Tin Can]

It’s not easy for me

Everybody learns by doing

Try fixing the print that’s what Mortensen did

But my wife hand touched up Playboy chromes with paint. Marnie could touch up anything


For pencil on the print (I'm wary to try anything that goes on the negatives, damaged prints can be re made, damaged negatives can't), do you just get a white pencil and go over the mark a few times?

[koraks]

How do you guys deal with scratched negatives?
Curse, weep, and make sure it doesn't happen with the next negative.

[John Layton]

The "red paint" is called Crocein Scarlet - which actually comes (or came...not sure if still available) as a powder to be mixed a various dilutions (depending on the desired extent of visible density build up/contrast flattening desired to chosen areas of the final print) and carefully applied to those areas of the negative. Used "extra-strong," Crocein Scarlet can also become an effective means of retouching negative areas of lighter to medium densities - as these densities can be matched by the scarlet...but this takes practice as the red color, very close spectrally to "safelight red," adds quite a bit more density than visual inspection might indicate. But I, personally, have had very little success in using Crocein Scarlet to retouch in very dense areas of a negative. I can get close if I make the mix as strong as possible - but the problem here is that such a strong mix tends to build up the surface of the negative physically, which can lead to newton's rings in my glass negative carriers.

Then there is Kodak Liquid Opaque...which would be great for spot retouching, if only if it were actually, truly opaque! (Oh...how I would love to find something - truly, absolutely opaque, which would add no dimension to the negative...and which could be applied...precisely with no bleed-out...to those very small, clear spots on my negatives - usually too small to be noticed unless the print is very large...which mine often are. Does this exist? I'd pay dearly for this!)

The problem with scratches such as you describe is following them precisely with a given retouching media...much the same issue as following a long, skinny clear area where dust had fallen on the negative prior to exposure - although scratches are somewhat easier due to their tendency to wick the media into themselves. Theoretically one should be able to wipe certain "washable" media crosswise over a scratch, and it would just be left in the scratch and nowhere else - but I've never gotten this to work with any consistency.

There is (or was) a solution made by Edwal called "No Scratch," of which I still have two bottles...to be applied by wiping sideways over a scratch with the idea of filling it in while leaving the rest of the negative pristine. Note my use of the word "idea," which is why my two, thirty-odd year old bottles are still full.

Finally...there is the blade! Yes, with some practice, a very steady hand, nerves of steel, and preferably a great and powerful binocular loupe...one can become somewhat adept at slicing the negative - on the opposite side of the scratch, but following the scratch precisely...not for the faint of heart!

My advice? Create some "disposable" negatives, go ahead and scratch them...and then practice!

[Tin Can]

Adams Retouching Machine (https://petapixel.com/2014/10/19/adams-retouching-machine-helped-old-school-photoshoppers-retouch-negatives-hand/)

I have one

never use it

[Jim Noel]

If in the emulsion , retouch with india ink, spotone, pencil or whatever you prefer. It will print white, then you can spot back to correct density on print.

[Paul Ron]

another good reason to take a couple photos of the same scene.

[Fred L]

If it's a base scratch, I'd just use nose grease and make prints. if it's emulsion, I'd probably adopt a hybrid approach. Hi rez scan, touch up in PS and make a killer print. Scan that, or output the digital file onto film and make a clean negative.

[JMO]

I had one good TXP 4x5in film of a composition from Joshua Tree NP on one of my road trips that I really liked, but the film had a tiny clear white spot (which prints black) in an important place in an otherwise clear sky. I carefully tried the soft pencil technique, but was not satisfied with the outcome (and never tried to reverse course on the pencil mark). There is a good photo and film restoration service near me in Milwaukee, that probably could have fixed the issue in the film, but I thought I would try having the film scanned at high resolution by a good lab so I could (easily) Photoshop out the defect. Since I hoped to make a silver gelatin print of this repaired image, I considered having the lab make a digital negative that I could use in my darkroom to make a silver gelatin contact print. However, I ended up having a really nice 28x35in B&W Piezography print made by Cone Editions Press that I am very satisfied with. CEP could also have worked with me to make a digital negative(s), but that would have taken added time, back-and-forth and more expense. Net/net, there are a couple of other paths to a good B&W print if its worth the effort and cost to you.

[Jim Michael]

Edwal No Scratch is great stuff. A diffusion enlarger also helps.

[Rod Klukas]

B&H seems to still have Edwal No scratch available, though it is special order. It is quite good, though you have to wash the negative after using it to print. So if you get the print you want after applying it, make several prints of your image.

Depends, for the future, but the old guys for a small scratch, actually used nose grease from the side of their nose, and it did a credible job if the scratch was not too huge. The old watch repair guys used this same grease to lube small gears in a watch, as well. This grease was only available from your human nose, and from sharks liver, I believe. Its big plus was it did not migrate and it did not dry out like petroleum based lubricants.

Hope this helps.