Tips on drying negatives to avoid dust, please

[icemendicant]

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I'm planning to start processing my own film again after a gap of about 20 years. I'll be doing this with B&W film only and using a changing bag and Paterson tanks. Sadly, I don't have the space (or free time) to set up a proper darkroom in my current circumstances with a fairly busy job and three young children.

 

My question is: what is the best way to dry negatives and avoid dust and scratches as much as possible? Any recommendations for drying cabinets? I don't mind paying for good equipment if necessary but the more compact the solution the better.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

All the best,

 

Dan

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[hm1912]

This is, I think, a perennial problem. If you search the forum I'm sure you'll find loads of advice. But I think the basics that you will find here are:

1) Use a wetting agent;

2) Don't use a squeegee (I must admit to being a moron and doing this from time to time -- but it is a sure way to risk scratching your negs).

 

Where I develop my negs there is a drying rack, with a heater in it. I find that it is very important for the negatives not to touch each other while drying. I've also been told on this forum that giving the negs a good flick to shake of any excess water can work.

 

I'm going to also say that my experience here is very, very limited. I'm a novice, so hopefully you'll get some more experienced people offering their suggestions. I think, though, that negatives are stronger than one might think.

 

Good luck, and welcome back to the dark room!

 

Best.

[batmobile]

IMO by far the best way to avoid dust is the simplest and cheapest:

 

In the bathroom, close windows. Turn on shower with very hot water, wait until steam fills the air. This does not need to be a steam room effect, just visible steam across the room. Should take a minute or two. Turn off shower. The steam damps the room down and ensures any dust about does not end up airborne (Bathrooms tend to be pretty dust free anyway. Hang up film. Avoid going into the room until dry, or if you have to, open door slowly and move slowly to ensure no dust is kicked up. If you do fill the rooms with masses of steam, this saturation makes the film take longer to dry.

 

I have done this in three houses and not once have I had anything other than the odd speck once in a blue moon. Perfect clean negs every single time. I use wetting agents but this has more to do with drying marks rather than dust.

 

Oh, another addition, when I hanging the film (whilst holding it to ensure it does not pop off the pegs), I pour the water from the tank down the vertical strip of film (both sides) which ensures that anything that has settled on the film in the tank or whilst I am hanging it up gets washed away.

 

Also I am very careful with how much wetting agent I use as I have found that too much causes marks! I just add about about 3-5 drops drops per litre or so (very casual) and that is plenty enough.

 

Rgds,

 

Tom

[rob_x2004]

Dust doesnt get on your negatives in the tank. You get it from airborne from the environment. Use wetting agent after rinse, carry your tank to where you will hang your negatives and strip from spiral as you hang them and dont flick off any water. With wetting agent the hung negative strip dries top to bottom with water flowing off the bottom edge and carrying any particles as it runs.

[icemendicant]

Thank you all your replies, Ilan, Tom and Rob.

 

Tom - the bathroom idea sounds like it could work well for me so I will give this a try. I think a small hook in the wall at the top of the shower cubicle would let me run a wire across when I need to and I can hang the negs from that, and the drips will have somewhere to run as well.

 

All the best,

 

Dan

[christoph_d]

Dan,

 

If you can - and have the space - get a drying cabinet, with inbuild heater / ventilator. I think Kaiser has new ones for a reasonable price, or, if money doesn't matter look for something like this: Marrutt film drying cabinets - 3 Film Drying Cabinet Models. Alternativeley look for used ones, they can go very cheap, now that digital rules.

An investment in such a cabinet should basically rid your negatives of dust, and free your bathroom or whatever other room for normal use. They really work a treat.

 

Kind regards, C.

[vic vic]

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i will summerise the procedure..

 

1. after washing the film - go to the place where u want to hang it... make sure that the place has clean air... no cotton/cloth little parts/dust in the air etc...

2. of course put your negative into the agapon/ilfotol according to manufacturers inspructions...

3. then.. remove the water from the negative either with fingers (two fingers and the negative between them , and slide your hand along the nagative) or with a very very good special squezer (how it is called??) - kaiser is very good... dont use cheap ones - not even jobo (jobos are ok for prints)...

dont be too close to the negative... put your hands away from your body and cloths when holding the wet film

4. in the botton of the negative clip the heavy weight clip so that the negative will be streight all the time when hunged ...

5. in the place where u putted the negative for drying - dont walk there if not really needed and if u do walk dont do it fast ...

 

6... another cabinents are meopta and jobo that are smalls and nice.. and of course kindermann (but they are more to the real equiped darkroom).

[icemendicant]

Thanks for the advice Christoph and Victor - I have a couple of rolls of Tri-X on the go now that I'll try first, and I'm waiting for a new set of negative clips to arrive. The rest of my old darkroom kit seems to be in good order.

 

Now I just need to practice loading film onto the spiral again - it's been a while :-)

 

Thanks again,

 

Dan

[rob_x2004]

You want to scan sqeegied negatives, go for it. It aint like the old days with the enlarger.

[jgwill1]

Re drying marks, i've tried just about everything and finally found the method whith seems to work best for me. No squeegee, no chamy, no wetting agent, just two final rinses in distilled water, a quick shake to rid film of excess water and hang the negs up to dry.

 

As for dust, a drying cabinet would be the best solution, though not neccessarily with the heat on. I just try to hang the negs in a dust free enviroment, though i do give the room a few blasts with a plant spray beforehand which hopefully takes any dust particles out of the air. I don't know where i picked up this tip and i couldn't swear that it works, but it certainly doesn't do any harm.

[AlexEs]

Hi Dan,

 

a few weeks ago, I started developing films again too and had nearly the same question.

 

Some experts from the german forum said the following... one of the best and cheapest way to dry films is to put them into the bathroom (shower-cabin - no dust). Before you hang the films, put them for one minute into distilled water with a kind of soap like "Maco Masterproof" (1:100). Don't wipe the films, just hang them with a little weight (not to heavy, a clothespin works good, because the films keep plain).

 

I made good expierences with this way...good luck,

 

Alex

[batmobile]

Dust doesnt get on your negatives in the tank. You get it from airborne from the environment. Use wetting agent after rinse, carry your tank to where you will hang your negatives and strip from spiral as you hang them and dont flick off any water. With wetting agent the hung negative strip dries top to bottom with water flowing off the bottom edge and carrying any particles as it runs.

 

It may not be dust in the water but debris can be present unless filtered. I dont filter water, but find that just to be sure that nothing has fallen of me (hairs, eye lashes, lint etc) whilst unrolling and hanging film, I do the rinse with remaining water to be sure. I mean you are going to pour it down the plug in any case.

 

Another useful tip is never to subject your spirals to wetting agent when the films are on - it can gunk up the spirals and make them more trouble to load esp with 120 (big time). I do my washes on the spiral and then remove them to a tupperware tub with final water plus wetting agent. Since I have deon this with new spirals they act like new every time and I have not had a single snag or sticky spot since. With the spirals I have heavily used with film and rinse aid together, despite cleaning attempts they remain an utter pain with 120 but are passable for 35mm.

[rob_x2004]

Tom you must shed badly.

 

One of the ideas of wetting agent (and for those who shed on their neg in the half second it takes to remove from the reel and hang) is to get the neg to dry top to bottom while it hangs and as the water flows down the neg and off the bottom it carries bits and pieces with it. Guess that is why some people call wetting agent "water flow". Anything, and um, dust that gets on after the neg tacs off, doesnt bind with the imulsion. If you need to you can blow the dried neg down if you shed on it again or drop it on the floor Tom.

 

Dont get me wrong, before I scanned my negs I used to shake off the reels and strip the neg through my fingers. No problems at all for twenty years whilst using an enlarger. It was the film scanner that changed all that. Now one has to be anal about 'not touching'. If I worry about water slopping in the bottom of the cabinet I put a bit of towel under the hanging neg.

 

The main thing, is not to keep going back to the still soft neg and moving it about or handling it, because that is when you get air moving past it and you get crap embedding in the soft neg.

 

Your reels will get scungy whether you rinse in wetting agent or not. That is why you clean them occasionally.

[tobey bilek]

Senrak or Senrack dryer.

[Kaneo]

Hy Dan, after trying serval methods, i`m satisfied with this:

 

After washing, a 2 minutes bath in deionized water and then a 2 minutes bath in deionized water with some TETANAL MIRASOL. Mirasol seems to be a very good wetting agent, before I have tried other brands, but with them there were still marks and dots on the film. Mirasol works fine. Then I let the wet negative slide through 2 Fingers one or two times and hang them up in the bathroom. No dust, no scratches, perfect. _Kaneo