"New" marks on negatives?

Hi All,

I have recently noticed a new kind of artifact on some negatives, something I've never seen before.

They're faint, long "tongues, " open like a tulip on one end. Two pictures attached: one shows a straight scan (two frame fragments--one light, one dark--combined in a single picture); the other has the contrast set higher to improve visibility.







They don't look like drying droplets of hard water, which I remember from my accursed water marks days. They almost follow gravity, but not perfectly straight-down, could be also following, for example, the direction of rotation in the tank (I rotate, not invert). They extend lengthwise, not across the film strip.

I'm scratching my head heavily. Any suggestions appreciated.

Vilk

They DO look like drying marks to me. It doesn't always follow exact direction of gravity as when it's ...almost...dry... there is very little weight to it. It's sticking to the film with surface tension. (either that or by will power....) Could it be your wetting agent (photo-flo) is too strong? There was a recent thread about that too.

Can you soak it in stop bath for few minutes (to dissolve calcium) then wash, then photo-flo and see if you can eliminate it?

To avoid these marks, there are two things you can do:
1. It's not a bad idea to remove the excess water from the film right after you dunk it in wetting agent. I do this with (believe it or not) an old windshield wiper blade. Never had a scratch, but some will undoubtedly call me crazy.
2. Do your final rinse of the film in distilled water, and also mix your wetting agent into distilled water. That eliminates a lot of the minerals and deposits that form the marks.

what Thomas said ... I only wipe down the non emulsion side with a wiping blade and do not touch the film emulsion side... YMMV.

Gentlemen, thank you for your insight!

Toronto tap water is unbelievably hard (as in "it will file your teeth flat in less than a year" hard) but I thought two post-rinse rinses in distilled water might be enough.

I'll double the distilled, halve the flo for a while and see where that takes me. I'll try to "gently remove excess water" too.



Vilk

PS. Thomas, I won't call you crazy until that first scratch, deal?

Vilk said:

PS. Thomas, I won't call you crazy until that first scratch, deal?

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Good deal. And if you get a scratch, I might call you crazy too.

Keep in mind, if you decide to take the windshield wiper route, that some blades have text on them that runs along the blade to identify it. Avoid touching the film with that. Apply only a teeny weeny bit of pressure. I hang it up from a clothes pin on a line, and run the blade from top to bottom, while stretching the film strip with my hand.
The idea of using an old wiper blade is that it has been smoothed by the windscreen. But make sure that there are no deep gouges in it too. Once you find a 'good' blade, it'll last a long time.

I think Andy meant that he doesn't touch the emulsion side, and only wipes the film base side. I actually wipe both sides, but I also only use films with hardened emulsions. If you shoot Efke, Foma, or something other than Kodak, Fuji, or Ilford, you may not want to wipe the emulsion side.

Good luck!

Get an an Anco 31-12 or equivalent. Short, cheap and easy to handle so it should be effcient. Compliments of your forum parts guy.

Call me crazy but I dip my index and middle fingers in photo-flow and use them as a squeegee

thx again. off to homehardware!

Mark Antony said:

Call me crazy but I dip my index and middle fingers in photo-flow and use them as a squeegee

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Mark, I always had a hunch you were a little off the rocker...

Mark Antony said:

Call me crazy but I dip my index and middle fingers in photo-flow and use them as a squeegee

Click to expand...

That makes two of us!!