Drying Spots

[Kevin Crisp]

I don't know that this will help anybody but maybe it will. I have tried many things to eliminate water spots over the years. Photo-flo, the Edwal product, distilled water, spraying distilled water, and so on. The Edwal product, used at a higher dilution than recommended, with distilled water, was what I settled on for decades. Usually worked, but sometimes I got streaks that were hard to remove, always on the base side. Some of these didn't show up when printing with a cold light head, but they were sometimes a problem.

Last week I was testing a 35 mm camera for light leaks after a repair. I shot a short roll of film with it, all test pictures I didn't care about. I developed the film and figured doing anything about water spots was stupid for my purposes in the test. I just took the roll out of the wash and hung it up in the darkroom. It was covered with water drops on both sides. When I looked at it later after drying it had NO water spots anywhere. It was perfect. And our tap water has plenty of minerals in it, I was using a cold humidifier one winter with tap water and everything was covered with mineral dust.

I tried the same thing again (basically, doing nothing but hanging the film up) with different brands of sheet film, with the same results.

I had assumed that with my occasional problems despite the precautions I'd taken that beaded tap water would be a disaster. In fact it works great.

[Ulophot]

Stranger than fiction. Not something I would bet important images on.

[Willie]

Was turned to using a shower stall for drying negatives. Last two rinses were in standing distilled water for a couple minutes each. Final soak in dilute Photo Flo, then run the shower on HOT for a couple minutes to steam the room. Hang the negatives to dry and don't open the door for a few hours. Clean, no spots, no dust. Works well if you have a shower room you can close up and not open until all is dry.

[Kevin Crisp]

I have now tried this with 5x7 Tri-X, TM100 and TM400 and Foma 200. Hung them up beaded with tap water. No spots whatsoever.

[Ornello]

I use Photo-Flo in the tank, then hang up the film to dry. Tight after I hang it up, I pour the water from the tank over the film from the top. This gives a nice even sheet of water flowing over the film. I have very few spots.