Curly negatives

[pedrony]

I have been developing B/W film for the last 20 years, but just in the moment I am phasing out of the wet darkroom, all negatives come out very curly. A drag with my expensive scanner, which focus only on part of the negative. That was not the case before. I have tried developing only with bottled water, without success. Film is TriX, developer D-76. Very basic.

Thanks in advance for the tips.

Pedro

 

[Dave Parker]

I normally use clips of some type to hang them when drying, this seems to help with the curling problems somewhat, when dry I put in negative sleeves in a binder to also help keep them flat.

Hope that helps.

 

[srs5694]

I've noticed that films that are older (date since manufacture, not necessarily date since the emulsion was designed) and that have been wound on the film spool for all that time, tend to come out with some extreme curl. This often doesn't go away even with several hours hanging with a weight at the bottom.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I live in Minnesota, and it's very dry in the winter, which causes substantial curling problems. Normally I dry my film hanging above a room humidifier (not steam). That helps a lot.

 

[rbarker]

Depending on the type of negative sleeves or pages you use, I've found it helpful to roll them up opposite to the curl side (i.e. emulsion side out) and leave them that way for a day or two.