How do you remove black spots on prints?

[wildbill]

I've always got a couple black spots in the lighter tones somewhere in my prints. The white brightener doesn't bleach the area so I started with an exacto and went to a needle after that to make fewer gouges. With the spot removed i then tried to patch the area with "touchrite" retouching and a 00 brush. My scratched out areas look just as bad or worse than when i started. I'm using fiber paper.

 

[jovo]

It sounds like you're trying the right things to do, but not having much success doing them well. The exacto bit needs to be done very carefully with a good magnifier and a lot of paitence. Les McLean recommends holding the print over a steam kettle and letting the steam soften the emulsion some in order to have it swell and, sort of repair itself. Then the retouching fluid needs to be applied very carefully as well. I wet and then blot the brush and pick up a bit of dried dye. I then use the margin of a reject print to test for value and, when it's okay, stipple it onto the spot I'm working on. It's a major pain to do well, but worth it when you succeed.

I plan to try using a developed sheet of the same size film to try to make a mask that will cancel the black spot with a white on by using ink to draw over the offending white area on the negative. If that works, the whole exacto part will no longer be necessary.

 

[Donald Miller]

I have used both bleach and retouch and also scrapping. I have never had success in scrapping the spot off and then retouching the area...if one scrapes very carefully, there is a point in the scraping at which you can match the tonality of the surrounding area without needing further retouching.

Depending on the type of spot, I usually like a very light touch from an exacto or razor blade the best.

The bleach always seems to create a bigger area to be retouched...at least in my experience.

The other alternative that I have used is to retouch the negative. Red dye works better then black...it creates a more seamless repair. Doing this you end up with a white spot on the print with undamaged emulsion which is then retouched...a much easier repair.

 

[Monophoto]

Black spots are tough. There are three choices - and you have already ruled out the first ("knifing" or etching the print).

A second choice is to spot bleach the spot. A little ferrocyanide on a brush - or better yet, sharpen a toothpick with sandpaper, soak the sharp tip in ferro, and use that to carefully apply small dots of bleach.

Note that the objective is to reduce local contrast around the spot - you want to render it less obtrusive, but not necessarily invisible. If you try to make it invisible, you will almost certainly go too far and then have to spot to restore tonality to match the surrounding area.

The third option works if you are dealing with a larger negative. Actually, it works on any negative, but if you are working with 35mm, the required precision will be pretty intense. A black spot on the print indicates a spot of very low density on the negative, so you can make the spot go away by spotting the negative. You probably don't want to tinker with the original negative, so a trick is to take a scrap piece of undeveloped film, fix it out without development, wash and dry. Then, carefully tape this to the back (non-emulsion side) of the negative. Place it on a light box and, using a magnifier, apply spotting dye to the blank film to raise the density in the area of the spot. Again, you don't have to match the surrounding area exactly - just get close enough that the black spot is less intrusive.

 

[Loose Gravel]

I like retouching the negative the most. Carving into the print always left the print damaged, but I never tried steaming it. I have bleached the prints back, too, and this works, but spotting the neg (and then the print) works well. Sometimes I use red dye or black opaque for this. If I'm spotting pinholes, then I use a needle on the base of the neg above the pinhole to diffuse the base. Little stabs in the base is all it takes. This is an amazing technique and very safe.

 

[Gerald Koch]

A little ferrocyanide on a brush - or better yet, sharpen a toothpick with sandpaper, soak the sharp tip in ferro, and use that to carefully apply small dots of bleach.

First aid iodine solution on a tooth pick works well and does not go bad like the ferricyanide solution. BTW, the print should be refixed after either bleach.

 

[doughowk]

Adorama sells a black spot remover pen set that is very convenient to use. Pen A starts the bleach & pen B stops the process. Then do normal touchup.

 

[Charles Webb]

A black spot in a print can only come from a pinhole, caused by an air bubble during development or dust/hair on the emulsion side of the film nowhere else! The easiest and without a doubt best way to recover from the situation is to spot the negative on the base side of the negative. Don't fool around trying to match dinsities etc. just use a tiny 4 or 5 ought brush with spotone, india ink even a new sharpie will work and make a tiny opaque dot over the black spot. Print the negative and the spot will now be white. Now worry about getting the correct dinsity
of the surrounding area of the spot. Only use a knife on the base side of the film, put the tip exactly over the black spot and turn the knife with your fingers. This abrades the base of the film and somewhat diffuses the the spot.