Spoting black spots!..

[Gundus]

Hi there,

I would like to know some information about spoting black spots on a lighter background like a sky.

In this case my black spot is on the negative itself. I use spotpens..but using lighter tones to mix with the sky, doesn´t seem to afect the black spot!

Any advice?

Thanks

[BetterSense]

You are pretty much screwed.

If you have a big negative, maybe you can spot the negative. I've heard of people bleaching them out if they are in a light area, but that sounds pretty hard to come up with something that looks better than the black spot. Me, I don't try anymore. I try to keep dust off my negatives and if it's a shot with lots of sky I will take multiple shots. Then I realize if you stand back a reasonable distance the blacks spots aren't really that bad. Even the Ansel Adams prints I saw recently at the Amon Carter museum had some black spots in the sky.

[brad martin]

In Ansels book The Print it shows a method where a black spot is scraped off the surface of the print with an exacto knife. Then the resulting "white spot" is spotted like any other white spot in the sky.

Looks like it would take a lot of practice.

Never tried it myself.

[Nathan Potter]

Black spot on negative! OK; is the spot silver or foreign debris? If silver and surrounded by clear film with zero density you could risk a spot of reducer and rewash the film. If foreign debris, you could try a needle probe or hypodermic needle and excise it but that damaged spot will show in the final print.

The whole problem is solved using photoshop toolset, if you're set up to do that.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[memorris]

Jodie Forster was at our LF class this week and talked about the clear spots on negatives which resulted in black spots on the prints. He said he spots the negative but makes the clear area black then spots the print as usual.

[Bill Burk]

Hi Gundus,

You'll need to spot the negative in order to get rid of the black spot. Where you overdo it on the negative you can spot the print.

Do you use a condenser or diffusion enlarger?

If you use a condenser you can etch the back with a pinpoint tool. But with a diffusion light source this has no effect because diffusing light sources (which minimize dust and other artifacts) probably wrap around the etching and the light gets through.

[Scotty230358]

Another way of solving this problem is to use photo opaque which can be obtained from many art supply shops. You spot the negative which will give you a white spot on the print and then retouch the print. It is, IMO, the easiest solution to this problem.

[Jim Noel]

I either spot the negative or use a #10 scalpel on the print. An Exacto is not sharp enough.

[Jon Shiu]

I've spotted the negative with a red extra-fine tip Sharpie. I've also used on the print a bleaching pen set called something like Spot Pen that has an A and B part, which bleaches out the print to white.

Jon

[Gundus]

Thank you for the tips guys!

I made my option to bleach the spot, since it was the only thing on hand. Now the spot is white and i'm waiting the print to dry so i can spot and see the results!

Once again thanks..oh i've a diffuser enlarger Bill.