Picked Up my Negatives From the Lab and negatives have water spots on them

[RGS122]

I picked up my negatives from a lab that does black and white and I looked at them and noticed something was wrong. When I scanned the images, I saw that the spots had a uniform pattern to them. I have'nt had this happen with them before. Can they do something to get rid of the spots? Also, I saw that other people have the same question as me, but they were developing the film themselves. Included are two pictures to show what I am talking about.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

It's just uneven drying. Get yourself some Kodak Photoflo (or equivalent) and give the strips a thorough rinse in it (1 part PF to 200 parts water), and then hang them up to dry and they'll be fine. I got some water marks on some negs a few days ago for the first time ever, because my old bottle of Agepon was getting low and a bit gluggy. So I did the Photoflow thing and now they are fine.

 

[RGS122]

Thanks for the reply, do you think I should give them a heads up that they are getting uneven drying?

 

[Christopher Walrath]

If they seem like the type of lab where they would accept constructive criticism from a 'non-professional' (read: someone not being paid $7.50/hr to perform this service) then by all means inform a manager. I would want to know if there was something needed to be improved in my parts store.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Certainly. Take them back and demand if you have to that a manager look at them.

 

[RGS122]

Ya, I'll do that. You know, this whole thing makes me want to just do everything myself. I mean, if I buy photoflo, I might as well buy some D76, some fixer, etc.

 

[Ian Grant]

Looks more dirty than water marks which tend to be shaped like a dried water droplet be bigger with more defined edged. In the first image the marks are in slight lines in places.

You're not the first on APUG to have received dirty negatives from a lab.

Ian

 

[fotch]

Ya, I'll do that. You know, this whole thing makes me want to just do everything myself. I mean, if I buy photoflo, I might as well buy some D76, some fixer, etc.

You got that right. It might be something else but its not suppose to happen. Once you get the hang of it, its not hard to get good results.

 

[RGS122]

I went over to talk to them about my negatives and at first they were doubtful that it was there fault. But when I showed them some prints from the last time I went to them and they were surprised about having that issue. As they processed someone elses negatives the same moment they did mine, because the other customer didn't pick up their negatives yet, and they saw that it didn't have the spots as bad as mine. They said that they would re-rinse the negatives and see if the spots go away.