How to fill pinhole/scratches in negatives?

James Drukeli

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I have a few ortho litho film negatives that I will be contact printing onto paper. My question is, how do I fill the small pin holes and scratches in the black areas of the film? I've found Nikken addition and deleting pens but from what I understand these are only for metal printing plates. Can these be used on a film negative (ortho litho 3.0)? What is usually used to touch up these negatives?
 
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James Drukeli

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Feb 25, 2019
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Japan
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I've just discover Lithco Correct-A-Neg pens. Is what I should be using?
 

AgX

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In the long past there was special red ink for such retouching.

Today one may consider black drawing ink applied by technical ink-pen.
 

L Gebhardt

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The pens look useful, though they will almost certainly create a white hole you will need to fill with spotting fluid on the prints (though with litho negatives maybe there isn't much tonality there). With crocein scarlet (see https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?99980-Mixing-Kodak-Crocein-Scarlet) you can build up density and potentially get a perfect repair (I've never mastered that and usually need to spot the print too). I don't think it's available any more, but probably pops up from time to time. If you were
 

Andrew O'Neill

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I was lucky enough to inherit a jar of Kodak Crocein Red off of a retired screen printer. It's the best stuff I've ever used for covering up holes and scratches on negatives. You can build up thin layers until it disappears. Before that, I used Spot Tone dyes.
 

Jerevan

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For whatever it is worth, I remembered now that Rohrer & Klingner, www.rohrer-klingner.de has photo dyes in various colours. I also seem to remember they at least used to have a red dye, specifically made for retouching negatives, but I can't find it on their site anymore.
 

Andrew O'Neill

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faberryman

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Five decades ago, I was taught nose grease. I think Edwal use to offer a solution in a bottle with a brush called Scratch-Off.
 
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