Pursing the perfect negative

I just spent 9 hours in the darkroom yesterday, developed nearly 30 4x5 negs plu s some roll film with contact sheets - my back is sore today :-) Mixture of Tri- X, HP5+ and Bergger 200.

I noticed I'm still getting some white spotting on some of my negatives and wond ering where in my technique I'm falling down. I am meticulous about loading my h olders - blowing them out, putting them in sealed baggies and gently blowing the m before I load them into my crown graphic. I tray process 4 - 6 at a time. I'm using PMK with water bath stop and TF4 fixer all at 72 deg, resoak in used PMK t hen wash in tray in softly running water for about 15 minutes, photoflow then ha ng on line to dry with clothes pin. I will note that I have been doing a lot of beach pictures so it could be errant sand getting on to the neg.

Any suggestions on how to improve my technique?

John, Charleston SC

John I do sympathise, for it seems that know matter how careful you are DUST alw ays rears its ugly head. I do find however I get less dust when using roll backs (smaller surface area). I also believe a lot of the dust is from within the cam era, bellows etc.

Also like you I do a lot of beach photography and I try never to put the camera bag down always try to work from it hanging from the shoulder. I also keep the c amera covered between shots, using a draw string stuff sack I purchase from an o utdoor pursuit shop. These bags are also shower proof but do need replacing afte r a few years, but they are cheap.

All the best,

I hate dust, and I am loathe to spot.

A wet negative hanging to dry will stick ANY dust in the air onto the film. I now use a 'prepared' bathroom to hang the film for drying. I turn the shower head on hot and let the bathrrom steam up bigtime - this removes the dust in the room. I then keep the door shut and hang the film. I do not open the door until the film is dry - since it is soooo humid it takes overnight and I usually dab off the hanging drops that form on the lowest corner. I now only get dust on my negs if it was there at the time of exposure. I have also recently moved to using Kodak single-sheet ready loads with TMX 4x5 so that the dust problem is essentially gone. I also use hangers for film developing cause I'm concerned about one sheet corner scratching another.

I would agree with Keith. Overall, we should think micro-environment-I am sure there are other techniques, but in my hands, Ilford anti-static cloths and Ilford LFN (low foam non-ionic) wetting agent work great.

Thanks for the fine answers and my apologies for my spelling (that was pursuing . . . ).

I'm pretty sure I'm getting dust flecks at exposure not development but do find the bathroom suggestion intriguing as well as the other suggestions. I wish Kodak would put Tri-X in Readyloads.

John

John,

I thought that I would convey my procedure, not that its the best, but that it works well and might help you. I live in the dusty west and my wife complains about how quickly our home gets dusty. I never dust off my Riteway film holders and they are in very used condition. But what I do is pre soak my negatives for about 1 to 3 minutes and use the pre soak water as the water for my PMK mixture. I started doing this because my second Bergger negative had spots from air bubbles on it. I hope a pre soak helps.

Greg

Hi John -

Which beach? I'm in Charleston, too, and I've spent a lot of time scraping sand out of my tripod. Surprised I haven't seen you out there.....come to think of it I've never seen another photographer on the beach with anything other than 35mm. If a spot a Crown Graphic, I'll give a yell.

I used to have the opposite problem with PMK; little black specks. Sometimed they were smeared like miniature comets. I used distilled water from presaok to fix, and never could figure out what caused it.

Sorry, no help on the white spots. Could there be a fungus among us?

First, i don't know if I would blow air on the film holders once the film is loaded, because you will probably force any stray dust or sand accumualted at the top of the darkslide into the film holder. Second if the conditions are windy, do not remove the darkslide all the way. I mark mine so i know how far to pull to expose the entire neg, then slide it back in and put a pice of white tape on the slide to tell me that the film has been exposed. Third I load my film holders in the bathroom after I have run a hot shower to eliminate dust. And finally I built a simple drying tent out of '2x'3 wood frame from which hangs a shower curtain held in place by velcro and has a series of wires and clothespins for hanging 12 sheets. After washing the film i carry it in a tray with the photflo and then pull them from the tray inside the tent, keeping the negs in the dust free environment. This may sound totally paranoid, but it has eliminated 99% of dust spots during exposure and processing.

I found that the key to my dust problem was having clean film holders. After trying anti static cloths, brushes, compressed air, etc., I bought a small shop vacuum with a brush attachment that is about 1.5 inches wide. I now vacuum all the holders thoroughly each time I load film, and have virtually eliminated dust on my negatives. Of course the few dust specks I get on rare occasion still manage to find the sky. I hope this

One more suggestion that has helped me: Before you load the film into the filmholder, tap it two or three times edgewise on the counter (somewhere relatively distant from your holders) to remove any particles remaining from cutting the film. Many times there are small burrs and strings still attached to the sheets which detach upon loading and cause pinholes. The film manufacturers are not nearly as clean in this respect as they would like you to believe. You'll be surprised at the pile of little black specks you get doing this that would otherwise have been loaded in with the film. Hope this helps a bit in the war on dust! Regards, ;^D)

Thanks for all the great suggestions!

j

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Originally Posted by Doremus Scudder

One more suggestion that has helped me: Before you load the film into the filmholder, tap it two or three times edgewise on the counter (somewhere relatively distant from your holders) to remove any particles remaining from cutting the film. Many times there are small burrs and strings still attached to the sheets which detach upon loading and cause pinholes. The film manufacturers are not nearly as clean in this respect as they would like you to believe. You'll be surprised at the pile of little black specks you get doing this that would otherwise have been loaded in with the film. Hope this helps a bit in the war on dust! Regards, ;^D)

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Doremus, that is a great tip. I never would have thought of that. I wonder if that is the cause of pinholes in the "cheaper" films. My favorite film tonality wise is Fomapan 400, but I am always afraid of using it due to the pinholes and the aggravation they cause.

give the bellows a good clean out, a vacumn cleaner is a good idea, be gentle though.

also when the film is loaded , pull the slide in the dark and give the surface of the film a blow off with a puffer blower thingy.

and make sure that your drying room is dust free

this should sort out all the different shades of dust spots.

i personally dont do these things as i like the dusty look lol

White spots on negatives that won't come off = dust during drying
White spots on negatives that come off = dust after drying
Clear spots on negatives = dust on film during exposure
Black spot on negative = uncommon

Way, way back when, I used a changing BAG to load holders. I had dust on the negatives at the time of exposure. I later changed to a Harrison film TENT........bye, bye dust.

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Originally Posted by John Welton

Thanks for all the great suggestions!

j

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I have to use my kitchen for a darkroom. When the film is finished in the photo-flo, I transfer it directly to a kitchen cabet that I only use for drying film---I have a string pulled tight from one side of the cabinet to another, about two cabinet widths wide. The cabinet doors remain shut. I rarely have dust issues----I believe drying the film in a small confined space has its merits.

I dont remember where I saw it, but I started drying in a rubbermaid storage bin. No more dust. Simple and cheap.

H John,

I went to Brooks over 50 years ago and this was the way we cleaned film holders, first don't use a vacuum, it spreads more than it cleans, I'm not terribly fond of spray cans either because among other things they cometime blow out the light trip of the holder.

Use a 1" or 2" paint brush with Natural Bristles, and wood handle, preferably un painted (the paint chips off). Take both the dark slides off, rap the corners of the holder sharply with the brush handle, brush off the dust that I guarantee you will see fall off. Do this on both of the corners for each side. Now rap the light trip sharply with the brush handle and brush off the dust which will appear. Now after doing this on both sides, wipe the dark slides one at a time and push it in and out of the light trap there is a strong chance that you will see trash coming rom there also.thefirst time or two that you do this, you will be astounded at the trash that comes out of the holders. After you have done this a few times they will become surprisingly clean. YES this will dent the corners of the film holders, NO there will be no fogging. All fo my fillm holders have many dented corners but dust spotting is very rare for me.

Lynn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Keith Baker

A wet negative hanging to dry will stick ANY dust in the air onto the film. I now use a 'prepared' bathroom to hang the film for drying. I turn the shower head on hot and let the bathrrom steam up bigtime - this removes the dust in the room. I then keep the door shut and hang the film. I do not open the door until the film is dry - since it is soooo humid it takes overnight and I usually dab off the hanging drops that form on the lowest corner. I now only get dust on my negs if it was there at the time of exposure. I have also recently moved to using Kodak single-sheet ready loads with TMX 4x5 so that the dust problem is essentially gone. I also use hangers for film developing cause I'm concerned about one sheet corner scratching another.

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It's also a good idea to remove any towels from the bathroom before turning the shower on.