Insane negative curling driving me insane

Do you use phot flo or other surfactant in your final wash? Is your drying area very dry?

 

Can you roll them up backwards on a developing reel before you cut them up?

 

Are you using a fix with hardener? I am wondering if curling might be reduced if no hardener is used (and no heat during drying, too).

Are you contact printing these just for a record, or as a final product? If just for a record, then putting the negs in negative sleeves and contact printing them will be easier.

Vaughn

 

I have seen film curl badly if put in an overheated drying cabinet but even then cutting the negs up into strips and placing in a neg carrier with a weight on top such as a heavy book for a few hours did the trick. Mind you this is the U.K where even in Summer, humidity is well over 60%. Might be different where you are.

If you have access to a drying cabinet I'd try hanging the strip up and simply using the fan to blow ambient temperature air over the negs. Again from a U.K. perspective 15- 20 mins is usually sufficient. I also use Ilford wetting agent without any curl problem. Oh and while they are drying I have a neg clip attached top and bottom. I have never had to use the heat setting to get the negs dry in the times stated

pentaxuser

 

Just a sheet of glass will hold curly negs flat against the paper.

 

I reverse roll my 120 quite tightly and hold it rolled up with a wooden clothes pin just holding the very edge, then I put it in a cupboard away from the dust for about a week.
This works for me especially with Foma/Arista 200 which curls very badly.

 

"I was thinking about putting the neg stips back onto reels, emulsion side out, then putting it in a steamy bathroom for an hour. Sound good?"

Good Evening, Nick,

Yes. That will tend to work well, particularly when the curl is along the length of the film. In my experience, however, it may take a lot longer than an hour; I usually plan on leaving the film reverse-curled for a couple of days. Even with Foma 200, that normally does the trick. (You're right about the difficulty involved in contacting curled negatives. It is a real pain. Any decent negative carrier, however, should eliminate any printing problems.)

Konical

 

I've seen TriX that was left for *days* in a mildly heated drying cabinet. It wasn't curly, that would be an understatement. It curled both vertically and horizontally. Actually 3 pairs of hands were needed to make a contact print

 

Repeat question - have you tried rolling the film up with the emulsion side out in a film developing reel? Try it. Let it sit for a day like that.

Clarification after re-reading my own post... This is after the film is processed and dried. (Man, what's in my head and what gets put in print is sometimes not even close to being the same).

Sorry for the ambiguity.

 

Negative Curling

Hi. This is what I learnt in a news darkroom many years ago. We used to dry the plastic base of the film with good quality chamois leather. Make sure you get all the drops off, because you only get drying marks on the plastic base. You don't touch the emulsion side at all as you won't get drying marks on the emulsion. Using a drying cupboard is not necessary unless you are in a hurry.

 

"How about a dry mount press?"

Good Evening, Nick,

Probably not a good idea! It would, I think, be far too easy to damage film that way, either through excess heat or physical damage from the pressure itself if the platen has any slight irregularity. The reverse curling method mentioned in previous posts (either on a reel or some other cylindrical form) will handle the problem almost all the time. Just give it time to work!

Konical

 

May help. Humidify as well. With the film in reel, place the
reel in a sealable container. Elevate the reel, add some no
more than warm water, then seal. Give it a few days. Dan

 

Curling can be due to many issues bit I find humidity to be the biggest factor. Also, I recently switched to a hardening fixer and my longitudinal curling is definately more pronounced.