Breath and cotton gloves to clean up water streaks?

Hey guys,

Last weekend I printed a photo that I wanted to do for a while. I looked at the Neg , and there where a few water streaks on it. So took a chance and breathed on it and wiped it while wearing cotton gloves. It took it off no problem and got a beautiful print. Is this treatment a viable way cleaning a neg. Has anyone else done this or do advise NOT doing this for fear of scratching? What do you think?

ToddB

It's okay for the base side, but I wouldn't recommend doing it on the emulsion side.

As the previous post says, you must never wipe the emulsion side, but water marks always form on the base/shiny side. Even if there aren’t any, after the negs are dry I always breathe on the shiny side and wipe it with a soft cloth.

Please read the above two posts.

Remove the water spot using a damp cotton swap on the base side. I've been doing this for the past 40 years without any adverse effect.

You are supposed to inspect when

- you hang
- five mins later
- when dry

If you got a drip or mark back in distilled/deionised

Negatives are like butterfly wings