Dust. What do you do to limit dust

[cliveh]

How hard do I have to concentrate to make the dust go away ;^)

Concentrate is the wrong word, just relax.

 

[David Brown]

I agree with Parker Smith about cleaning the negative before placing in the enlarger. But, it does not hurt to have everything as clean as possible so that there is little to do to the negative. I am fortunate to have a dedicated, purpose-built, darkroom. All seams in the drywall and trim are caulked and painted. Semi-gloss and gloss paint for all surfaces (this helps with odors, too), and a tile floor. I flush and wipe out the sinks after printing. Those dried spots of developer, fixer, etc. not only add "character" but they also add dust. The floor gets swept and moped periodically.

For the negatives: first, they are stored properly and kept clean from the time of processing. When mounting in the carrier, I use a camel hair brush, which gets almost all dust off and is good enough for proofs and early work prints. (I am going to try PEC pads however.) When I get to making "public" prints, I use low pressure air supplied from a compressor - not canned air. The compressor is outside the darkroom with just the air line coming through the wall.

Do not under-estimate the effect of how clean your enlarger is - or is not. One can scrupulously clean their negs prior to insertion in the enlarger, and then have all kinds of crud settle down from inside the enlarger when the negative stage is closed. How do you know? Just turn the lamp on. open up the negative stage without a carrier and look inside! :eek:

 

[StoneNYC]

How hard do I have to concentrate to make the dust go away ;^)

Jedi master of dust "these are not the dusty slides you are looking for" lol


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[ParkerSmithPhoto]

The floor gets swept and moped periodically.

That must be one sad looking floor... :crazy:

 

[wombat2go]

My "DustHutch"
https://app.box.com/s/ugsv2xu8kxp50a9umb8m

 

[eclarke]

I take my glasses off and ignore it. If the subject matter doen't supercede the dust, it's a loser.

 

[paladin1420]

After a final rinse in distilled water with a drop of photo-flow, I hang my negatives to dry the the shower stall in my basement bathroom. Being a basement and a floor to ceiling tiled stall, it's humid enough that dust is not a problem on the negatives. I haven't used my enlarger in a while, but when I do I'll set it up in the same bathroom, where I assume the dust situation will be manageable.

My scanner, on the other, is near my desk, which is very close to the laundry. The clothes dryer is a dust generation machine so it's a big challenge to keep the dust down. I've had some success by building a plastic tent around the scanner and hanging a damp cloth in it to raise the humidity and reduce the dust . There is a limit, I assume, to the level of humidity and the proper functioning of sensitive electronics - I haven't hit it. Yet.

 

[Loren Sattler]

I try to cut and sleeve my negatives in Print File pages as soon as the negative strip is dry. This avoids the strip picking up excess dust while drying. Any dust issues I have are minor especially considering working in a laundry room that doubles as a darkroom. I have found that if a negative strip gets dusty while drying, it can be very difficult to keep spots to a minimum while enlarging (especially with 35mm negatives).

 

[StoneNYC]

I try to cut and sleeve my negatives in Print File pages as soon as the negative strip is dry. This avoids the strip picking up excess dust while drying. Any dust issues I have are minor especially considering working in a laundry room that doubles as a darkroom. I have found that if a negative strip gets dusty while drying, it can be very difficult to keep spots to a minimum while enlarging (especially with 35mm negatives).

Agreed, I saw someone say they don't use a wetting agent and it takes them a whole day to dry their film, it takes me a max of 2 hours and I hang mine in my shower...

Give that stuff a try, no squeegee just hang to drip dry.


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[Mark Fisher]

I have very little dust in my basement darkroom even though I do some woodworking in the basement. I think there are two things that make a big difference. I have a heavy duty ventiliation fan (Panasonic....mounts remotely) that blows through a HEPA filter into my darkroom providing positive pressure. The second thing I have is a film cleaner off of a Fuji Frontier printer otherwise known as the Kinetronic static vac. I found one on ebay for $50 or so.....best $50 I ever spent. After using that, I still look at the neg before putting it in the enlarger and blow off any remaining dust with canned air. Yeah, I hate spotting.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Sloppy is as sloppy does. Why even bother buying a nice camera and expensive lenses if you let your cat cough up hairballs in the darkroom,
and if you think your "image" is so "important" that it will be miraculously enhanced by all kinds of technical flaws. Or maybe you just happen
to love endless hours of spotting. Check out any cleanroom catalog or website. I use triple filtered air lines, plus a true HEPA vac (not one of those Cheapo Depot things), plus an electrostatic industrial air cleaner, plus a 100% dacron cleanroom smock, plus enameled walls, etc etc etc. And the whole nine yards probably cost less than another fancy lens which I didn't need anyway.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Jeez, Drew, you are way beyond my budget and what I can afford. Those of us that do this on a shoestring budget don't exactly have a choice.

My darkroom is a corner of our unfinished basement, so not a separate room. It is a combined space for wood working, fixing things, laundry, storage, and also where my furnace and water heater are located.
Funny thing is, in most 16x20 prints from 35mm I rarely have more than a handful dust spots. That's 16x enlargement roughly.

Good enough for me. I don't have any hepa filters or special smocks, and vacuum once every six months. If I came into some extra cash I would make it warmer there. In the winter the room is about 45 degrees.

You are far from the norm, Drew. You are one of the lucky few.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I started out with the enlarger in a carpeted bedroom and a cheap roller drum in a spare bathroom, and managed to plug a one-man show of
20X24 Cibachromes, which are basically unretouchable. So I've paid my dues and know what hell is. A cleanroom smocks costs about thirty
bucks; but merely avoiding linty cotton clothing in the darkroom helps. Sponge down surfaces and walls. A simple household circulating air
cleaner will help - and those things cost very little too. But woodworking in the same space is really pushing your luck.

 

[StoneNYC]

I started out with the enlarger in a carpeted bedroom and a cheap roller drum in a spare bathroom, and managed to plug a one-man show of
20X24 Cibachromes, which are basically unretouchable. So I've paid my dues and know what hell is. A cleanroom smocks costs about thirty
bucks; but merely avoiding linty cotton clothing in the darkroom helps. Sponge down surfaces and walls. A simple household circulating air
cleaner will help - and those things cost very little too. But woodworking in the same space is really pushing your luck.

Drew, your next challenge, a combined woodworking, down comforter making, Sheetrock producing factory that also makes and develops film ... Hehe


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[Thomas Bertilsson]

But woodworking in the same space is really pushing your luck.

And strangely I get almost spot free 16x enlargements...

 

[drkhalsa]

"Drew, your next challenge, a combined woodworking, down comforter making, Sheetrock producing factory that also makes and develops film ... Hehe"


Lol. A little absurd humor to brighten a rainy day!

 

[DREW WILEY]

I will admit I now have a few advantages. I have separate room for color film and printing work than from processing, and even from typical
black and white printing (fiber-based prints do produce lint). My drymounting room is also separate. But my picture frame equip and small cabinet shop area are in fact within the same building. The level of dust control gets better and better as I approach the inner sanctum.
But I am a major Festool dealer, so even my woodshop is remarkably clean compared to the average. When I use my older traditional routers
or sanders, I work on a bench outdoors.

 

[StoneNYC]

I will admit I now have a few advantages. I have separate room for color film and printing work than from processing, and even from typical
black and white printing (fiber-based prints do produce lint). My drymounting room is also separate. But my picture frame equip and small cabinet shop area are in fact within the same building. The level of dust control gets better and better as I approach the inner sanctum.
But I am a major Festool dealer, so even my woodshop is remarkably clean compared to the average. When I use my older traditional routers
or sanders, I work on a bench outdoors.

A few advantages, including owning your own building and business... lol

Inner Sanctum hehe... who else is a member??

 

[DREW WILEY]

There's nothing really glamorous-looking about my various darkrooms. Everything is pretty crammed in, including one very big enlarger (12ft tall), with a vac easel strong enough to stand on, and various other enlargers. It's all functional, but not spacious enough for anything like teaching. Gotta know your way thru the little passageways in the dark. I don't really have enough spare energy right now to aggressively pursue the
business end of it. I feel luck just to find time to print once in awhile. Just trying to build up a little inventory again until I retire in a couple of
years from my regular job pushing quality shop and construction gear.

 

[Ronald Moravec]

3 micron water, hepa air filter. wash darkroom down, ceiling walls, shelving, paper boxes, enlargers clean and ground, floor, everywhere. If you have forced air heat, 8 mir air filter. If not, then filter over darkroom air intake.

Wear a lab coat that does not lint.

That will get 99% of it. You will not believe me, so start with wash down and air filter. Then do the rest.

 

[Kawaiithulhu]

Lab coat is a great idea! I didn't even think about how dusty street clothes, or even casual sweats to work in, actually get.