getting negatives flat

[chris_dilenardo]

hi again,im having trouble getting my negatives to lay flat, no

matter how long theyve been hung up for, they always curl up into a

tightish roll making it very difficult to do contact prints and

basically avoid damaging them, how do i get them like from the 1 hr

lab?iron them? any answers much appreciated( ive already been put

right within 20 min on this forum! keep up the good work

chris

[frank_a._bridges]

When you hang them out to dry do you put a weight at the bottom of the roll to make it dry taunt?

[chris_dilenardo]

yes, a weight at the bottom,had some hung up for 2 days, un clip the weight-curl up! how heavy a weight do you hang? mines only about an ounce. any more?

[ronald_moravec1]

Try taking an old roll and cutting off 6 exposures. Put it in one of the clear pages with slots for strips of film. Place a book over the sheet for a week or so.

 

My guess is they are drying on a reel under heat causing the problem.

 

If the book trick doesn`t work, rewet with distilled water for five minutes, add a bit of photo flow for 60 sec , rehang to dry in a clean area. It the negs are color, you will need to rewet with stabilizer instead of whetting agent.

[chris_dilenardo]

cherrs for the help, ronald, how do you mean drying on a reel?when ive fixed them and and added the wetting agent and squeegeed them, they go straight to hang, full length, im not drying them coiled if thats what you mean. as soon as i un clip the weight, they curl up, and when i cut them into strips of 5 or 6 they curl right up on themselves, making it tricky to get into neg holder or in the storage slips. im really at a loss as to why

[omar_ozenir2]

When the negative is dry (the whole 36 exposure strip), I roll it up in the anticurl direction, i.e. emulsion side out, and secure it with a clothes-peg. I leave it like that for the night, and the next morning I cut the roll into strips. With this method I always get perfectly flat negatives.

[john_finch]

Sounds like the emulsion is 'shrinking', maybe a product of where or how they are drying..

too fast? I dry mine in the bathroom after running a hot shower for a few minutes and

making it all steamy. This does two things. Makes all the dust particles fall to the floor so

they don't stick to the film, and also makes the room nice and humid so the negs dry a

little more slowly but stay flat afterwards.

[ronald_moravec1]

Chris- I thought these were commercially processed. There are driers that take reels of film, Sen Rak or something similar.

 

Slow the drying process down so both sides finish at the same time. Squeege the back side only- carefully and make sure the blade has NO dirt on it.

 

Still having a problem? Try rewetting the emulsion side with the photoflow about half way thru drying cycle. A rubber ear syringe from the drug store picks up about four ounces easily. Wash down the emulsion side only so the base keeps drying.

 

Where do you live and what is the humidity? Humidity about 50% works well.

 

Try a different film to see if things change.

[kaiyen]

For some other perspective...I do try my film on the reels, in my version of the senrac (actually it's my version of the Shutterbug $20 dryer, which is itself a version of the senrac). My negs are ridiculously curly when I take them off the reel. Like hits you in the face when you take them out kind of curly.

 

I put them into the sleeves, and then put a good 30 pounds of books on top of them on my dining room table. After just a day, they are pretty flat. They can recurl though sometimes, so leaving them under the books for a few days is even better.

 

I use a contact proofer for making contact sheets, and leave the negs in the sleeves. Slap the glass on top, no problem.

 

allan

[robert_marvin]

What kind of film was it?--I've found that Fortepan 200 film, for example, curls

up like a spring, no matter how I dry it. Efke film curls the other way to form a

tight tube (although I've read that recently manufactured Efke film dries much

flatter). IMO both brands of film produce excellent images, but are a PITA to

handle. I've never had problems with Ilford, Kodak, or Agfa film not drying flat

[elek_ludvigh]

Hi Chris,

 

I have had that problem at times for no obvious reason that I know of. I have tried a number of solutions, but find that the method mentioned above by Omar works best for me. The only thing I do differently is to put the reverse-curled roll of 36 negs in a clean dry drinking glass about 3 inches in diameter to keep them from unrolling.

 

Jay

[peng_kit_wong]

I have the same problem with Fortepan films and what I always do is the advice from Ronald. The book method. Try it out, it works. No mess and very easy. Put lots of heavy dictionary, encyclopedia, phone book etc and voila you will have a flat neg!

 

Good luck!

 

Kit

[al_kaplan1]

I've had a home made version of the Senrac for over thirty years. I plug it in to my Gra-Lab for auto shut off and it has a fan but no built in heat. If I need faster drying I hit the filtered air intake with a hand held hair dryer for a couple minutes two or three times while it's on. The dry film will hang straight overnight once off the reel. If I need it faster I've discovered two ways. One is to hang it while only the edge that was on the bottom of the reel is still a bit wet and then go over the film with a hair dryer for a couple of minutes. The other is to take the half dry film off the reel and put it back on emulsion side out. It'll finish drying with a slight but manageable reverse curl.

[chris_dilenardo]

cheers for all the help guys, developed a roll last night(paterson phototec 100) and its flat as a pancake! havent done anything different. i dont know what to think, one of the negs looks blinding ( my first playing with filters!)thanks again

chris

[walterh]

Just be aware that Al knows what he is doing. If you use *any* hair dryer in *any* room try it out first with a spare film - you may be shooting lots of dust particles into the emulsion and will never get them out again.