Some hints. My own film room, where critical color work is done too, has all the walls and counter surfaces washable, including enamel paint (latex or acrylic
paint is prone to static). I wouldn't dream of having high-end enlargers and lenses in the same room as a sink line. I wear a 100% dacron cleanroom smock
which is lint-free (and only cost about $30 - and don't confuse it with an ordinary cotton lab coat or Tyvek suit). Recently I've been printing fiber-based
prints in that room, which produce lint, so I'll have to sponge the whole thing down before doing any tricky masking or color film work. But it's the best
insulated room in my lab, so easy to heat in winter. I have an small oiless pro air compressor in an adjacent room, with sub-micron triple inline filtration,
until the airline reaches the blowgun in my film room. I live in a foggy climate, so static is a minor issue; but when humidity does happen to be low, I have
an ionized antitstatic gun optionally available right there, to attach on the air line. My work station has a true industrial recirculating air cleaner with a lot
of expensive copper plates inside. Someone actually gave it to me; but one could use a simple residential circulating air cleaner too. It sits atop my black
Formica work station. For the purist, you can also buy antistatic Formica itself, like they use in electronics cleanrooms, but it's expensive, and would have
been overkill for my needs. I wipe my surfaces down with a lint-free chamois routinely. I have a halogen machinist's inspection light atop the air cleaner,
and a light box beside it. The air gun has a soft rubber tip, with the air pressure set at about 20 PSI, and the negs are blown off toward the air cleaner.
With the inspection light and a good pair of reading glasses, every little bit of dust is visible. I have things like microfiber cloths and PEC20 film cleaner on
hand for problems, as well as lens cleaners for things like filters or negative carrier glass (which I blow off after cleaning into the sink next door - filtered
air works much better than any cloth or chamois). All this might sound like a lot of fuss and investment, but actually, the whole nine yards cost less than
a typical SLR lens - and just how much film and paper can one afford to waste anyway? Since I work mainly in 8x10 format, being as clean as possible pays back pretty quick. But yeah, I know, this would just spoil the whole day of anyone who just loves to spend hours on end spotting negs and prints
either by hand or in PS. Hate to rain on your parade.
