Dust and water marks, possible to remove them?

<p>Hi</p>

<p>I started photpgraphy in 2007 and as a child of the computer world, I mainly use digital equipment.</p>

<p>I am an enthusiast though, so I have a great fascination for film processing and I do have an analog camera which I shoot a few rolls of black and white film in, then I normally scan them with my Nikon LS-50 and touch-up the photos in photoshop. (dust and scratch removal, watermark removal and some contrast adjustments).</p>

<p>I have been curious about trying to develop on paper since I first started (I did some of that in high school in the 80's), and I just saw an ad where someone was giving away an enlarger, trays and stuff for free(!).<br>

Even though I really don't have the room in my apartment for this stuff, it would still be cool to have it, should my living situation change etc. But then I got thinking; How am I going to edit out the dust specks and water marks from my amateurish negs when I am developing on paper?</p>

<p>I know about burning and dodging, but that is as far my knowledge goes about "retouching" film media.</p>

<p>I know that film and paper is becoming a niece these days, but it doesn't have to be negative (=) ), because every print is unique and therefore possibly more valuable than prints from digital files, which can be replicated over and over.<br>

So, how do you get nice clean enlargements from negatives? I am normally quite careful about dust and water residue while developing my negatives, but I cannot seem to get them 100% clean, no matter what. (even with filtered water, I still get a few specs on my negs).<br>

Does anyone here have some good tips on how to get clean and nice prints? Can you sort of clean the negatives after they've dried out?</p>

<p>They make negative cleaner, also after the wash use a foto flo it helps to reduce water marks.</p>

<p>Spotting. Basically paint in the white spots from the dust with dark ink. </p>

<p>The best solution to water marks is a final rinse in distilled (not "spring") water.<br>

The best solution for dust is to either use a dedicated film drying cabinet, OR use your bathroom after you steam up the place by running the hot shower to remove dust.<br>

If you have a negative with dust/water marks you can try to soak it in fotoflo and rerinse in distilled water. Sometimes wiping with PEC as well as alcohol helps too</p>

<p>Filtered water still has dissolved minerals, which are the usual cause of water marks on film.</p>

<p>So try this, a soak in 2% stop bath for a few minutes, the acetic acid will help dissolve the minerals, hopefully before it does any damage to the emulsion. Wash the film for a good while, then a 2 min soak in distilled water with 1 or maybe 2 drops of photoflo or similar added to 160z/500ml of distilled water. Hang to dry at an angle so the water runs to an edge and then down to the end of the film. </p>

<p>PEC(which is mostly alcohol) won't dissolve the minerals left behind from the drying process.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Actually, it's been my experience that optical enlargements are significantly less sensitive to dust and water spots on film. For some reason, a non-drum scanner will pick up and magnify every little spec of dust, watermark or scratch, whereas an optical print would often come up almost perfectly clean.<br>

For the few remaining white spots, you can buy spotting dyes, or just use a sharpie. But really, once you start printing you'll be surprised how few of those dust speckles show up on the final print.</p>

<p>Hi again, thank you all for excellent information.</p>

<p>I usually rinse my negatives well with filtered water (I have a mug with a carbon filter on it, which removes most things from the water) and in the last rinse, i usually use a drop of dishwasher ehm......glass clear(?)...you know, the stuff you can use to prevent water spouts on glass etc during a machine wash.<br>

After that, I actually do hang my negatives inside my shower curtain, after I've run the water for a bit to clean out the dust from the shower room.<br>

My negatives do hang straight down though, thank you for the tip about hanging them at an angle, I'll try and see if I can manage to hang them a little to the side, to get the water to run on the edge of the negative.<br>

(But my experience is that there are usually always water drops that simply just sticks to the middle of the negative frames and when these dry, they usually leave behind a bit of residue.<br>

I'll check to see if I can find some proper photo-flo and not use the dishwasher drying agent =)<br>

After drying, I insert the negatives into plastic sleeves designed for film, to keep the dust out.<br>

I have been wondering if my scanner may pick up more than a regular enlarger would, because some times the grain characteristics of my negatives can seem pretty hard/rought, even with PanF+. (negative scanners seem to scan a negative differently than, say a flatbed scanner, afaik).<br>

Thank's for the rinsing tips, I'll do some ordering of chemicals needed =)</p>

<p>Man, I love this site =)</p>

<p>I use something called adoflow which helps with drying negs. I suspect it's just dilute soap. If you use too much it will leave a residue, you only need one drop per tank. Make sure you get as much water off as you can before you hang them, I use a squeegee made for the purpose. Others suggest your finger is safer from scratching. But my squeegee gets more water off than my fingers do, and I have lime or some other mineral in my water, so I prefer the squeegee. I have been meaning to switch to distilled water for the final rinse but haven't gotten around to it. You can reduce dust problems by getting the negs into sleeves as soon as they are dry, 1-2 hrs. If I leave mine hang overnight I have more problems.</p>

<p>At least for my diffuser enlarger I find not all dust and even scratches show up in the enlargements. Depends though.</p>