Oh no! I got white specs on the emulsion side

[thanos]

Due to a dirty tank that I didn't check before developing I got white specs on the emulsion side of my film. They are the size of little white hard bread crumbs but sort of stuck there and impossible to remove. I tried to clean them up by wetting the film again but not good.
Is there a way to remove them without damaging the film?

Thanks

 

[Ian Grant]

Sounds like calcium maybe from the water. You could try soaking the negatives in dilute Hydrochloric acid, they have dried into the emulsion slightly. A 2% solution should be OK. Here in Turkey it's sold in all the sores as a 40% soln for cleaning taps, kettles etc as the water like parts of Greece is excessively hard.

You need to rinse the negatives after washing with bottled water in future. I've had the same happen.

Ian

 

[thanos]

Yes, Ian. The water here is very hard and even though I use Ilford wetting agent on the final rinse, often I do have white spots and drying marks on the glossy side of the negative (hp5+) that I wipe with a soft cloth before printing. But never till now on the emulsion side.
Here's a scan.
Dead Link Removed

I didn't have this kind of problem till now.
I'll try the hydrochloric acid solution tomorrow and I hope the films will survive.

 

[Ian Grant]

Sometimes we get calcium particles in the water, the kitchen tap has a coarse filter on it's spout which blocks up slightly reducing flow.

There's always a first time for these problems, after same bad negatives I now rinse in bottled water with phoflo. I spotted the issue before the films died sowas able ot save them.

With 35mm I use my fingers as a squeegee to remove most of the water, and then use a piece of kitchen paper towelling I pull the film over it to remove all water on the non emulsion side, I've done that I'd guess for 30 years, and that way there's no drying marks.

Ian