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Eric Brody
28-Feb-2008, 22:35
Lately I have noticed some randomly placed scratches on my 4x5 TMX 100 readyloads. They are linear and parallel to the long side of the film and of course are most noticeable in the sky areas. They are very narrow, only a few pixels wide, but about 1/2 to one inch long, they are visible when viewed at 100% in Photoshop. They are fairly easy to repair with the healing brush but they are making me nuts.

I have had the same Kodak Readyload holder for a number of years; it appears to be clean. I develop the film in Xtol made with distilled water, 1:2, in a Jobo 3010 Expert drum; I use no squeege, just a distilled water rinse. I wash the film in the Jobo, multiple rinses with no handling of the film. The film is placed carefully in Printfile plastic pages. The film is scanned on a Microtek 1800f. I tried scanning one of the affected negatives on an Epson 750 scanner and they were still present, so it is not the scanner. I tried squeezing the filmpacks open when I unload the film so as to avoid having anything touch it as it is withdrawn from the envelope but still had the problem with my last batch. It has occurred with film from different boxes. My only thought is that it could be the holder in some way but I haven't a clue.

Any thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

Eric

domenico Foschi
28-Feb-2008, 23:35
Emulsion side ?

cotdt
29-Feb-2008, 00:21
you can use healing powder and apply it carefully onto the film.

Peter Lewin
29-Feb-2008, 09:04
you can use healing powder and apply it carefully onto the film.
Is this sarcasm, or is there really such a thing? I'm getting some small scratches which print white, always in only one place - emulsion side, corner diagonally opposite the film notches. Obviously it is something in my technique, so "healing powder" would be kind of nice to have! (I tray process, but have been using that technique "forever" and no matter how careful I try to be, the scratches are random (i.e. not in every batch, or every neg, I develop) and always only in one place, that diagonally opposite corner. Since I rotate the negs every three minutes in PMK, my logic says it is not my shuffling, because the corners "shift" their relative positions, but the scratches if they occur are always in the same place.)

Kirk Gittings
29-Feb-2008, 09:40
Eric, FWIW you will find in scanning LF film that the scan will pick up defects that you never ever saw before or showed up in traditional prints. As a result scanning becomes a great tool for re engineering everyones development methods. For instance everyone I know that has done a comparison has found from scans that rotary processing produces a much cleaner negative than the most careful tray processing. There is simply less abrasion. I was a very practiced tray processor for 25 years before switching to tubes. When I started scanning my older tray processed film, the differences were astounding.

cotdt
29-Feb-2008, 12:29
Is this sarcasm, or is there really such a thing? I'm getting some small scratches which print white, always in only one place - emulsion side, corner diagonally opposite the film notches. Obviously it is something in my technique, so "healing powder" would be kind of nice to have! (I tray process, but have been using that technique "forever" and no matter how careful I try to be, the scratches are random (i.e. not in every batch, or every neg, I develop) and always only in one place, that diagonally opposite corner. Since I rotate the negs every three minutes in PMK, my logic says it is not my shuffling, because the corners "shift" their relative positions, but the scratches if they occur are always in the same place.)

I use Kodak Crocein Scarlet to retouch my negatives. Also works on prints. You apply it to completely eliminate the white stratches, very effective stuff. It's removable too, but also permanent as long as you don't use the remover. People call it healing powder. Works great in the darkroom so it should work for scanning also.

Dave Langendonk
29-Feb-2008, 17:19
you can use healing powder and apply it carefully onto the film.

First wondering whether silver prints will eventually rust and now using "healing powder" on negatives???? What's up with your posts?