Restoring old B/W Negatives

[kate swart]

I have a bunch of old B/W negatives I wish to restore. Its making brown spots on the negative but when I try to rewash it the emulsion seperates from the film.

Whats the best way to restore old negative film ?

 

[koraks]

Unless you have good connections with a major museum who can help you with the necessary procedures, I'd suggest (1) scanning or printing the negatives so that a viewable copy exists and (2) optimizing storage conditions of the negatives to counter further deterioration.
Given what you said about washing them causing irreparable damage, these negatives are apparently already deteriorated to such an extent that very little can be done for them. Moreover, usually it's not really possible to actually reverse the effects of deterioration, with the exception of mild fungus which can sometimes be washed off.

 

[Europan]

I have some experience with motion-picture negatives. I think the best approach you can make is to produce contact duplicates. That stresses the negatives the least and yields the truest restoration step. You will have duplicate positives of equal size of the originals. From these you can enlarge, print, continue duplication work, scan the image, whatever you want.

The first cut is the deepest.* Contact dupe positives should be made on microfilm. You can buy microfilm in various sizes. Bring it together with the negative under a not too thin glass pane, shine light on. You can try out ultraviolet, violet, blue through red or infrared besides white light. You can use a point light source or diffused light. You can use liquids to prevent Newton rings, glycerin for example (a water-soluble alcohol) or microscopy oil. Before development of the exposed microfilm you simply rinse it in water or wash it with a detergent and a synthetic sponge (doesn't contain sand grains), in the dark, of course. Feasible. The trickiest part is to develop the microfilm to an acceptable contrast overall but that is also feasible.
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*That comes from turning steel bars on a lathe where you need to remove a scale skin with the first pass.

 

[snusmumriken]

Making a digital copy is a good idea even if you get good advice on how best to conserve the original negatives. It's quite challenging to keep the feel of a vintage photo in a digital image, but you gain controls to correct fading, retouch blemishes, etc. Editing out the evidence of antiquity will seem sacrilegious to some folk, but it can really make the image come to life again. This example (one of my ancestors!) is from a glass plate negative scanned on a domestic flatbed printer/scanner. I haven't finished retouching yet.

 

[Don_ih]

Scanning is the most reasonable option. Copy photographing them is the second best option (backlit negative, use Tmax 100 film, camera with 1:1 macro setup). Making enlargements is the third best option. (Defects that are really irritating when you scan a negative can be less noticeable when you make an enlargement - scratches, for instance.)

Only clean if you can't get a decent image any other way. If the "brown spots" are actual deterioration, they can't be washed off.

 

[Jojje]

Scanning speeds up fading and deteriorating - photographing is more safe. Not touching the emulsion side alcohol/water mixed gentle wipe may be applied.

 

[Don_ih]

Scanning speeds up fading and deteriorating

How significant would fading and deterioration from a single scan be? Is there any reference for this?

 

[Kino]

Scanning in RGB at a high bit depth colors will allow you to manipulate the color layers to minimize spotting.
If you have colored spots, concentrate on the color layers that are most close to the color of the damage.

Scanning speeds up fading and deteriorating - photographing is more safe. Not touching the emulsion side alcohol/water mixed gentle wipe may be applied.

This is totally untrue about the scanning. It is no more damaging than printing it in an enlarger.
Bad information!

 

[MattKing]

Whatever you do, do your best to handle the originals carefully, and as few times as possible.

 

[koraks]

Scanning speeds up fading and deteriorating

Yeah, maybe if you scan film repeatedly more than 1000 times you might get measurable deterioration. Visibly so maybe after 10000 iterations or so?
Could be quicker if it's color film, but B&W definitely not.
Scanning it once obviously doesn't do any damage at all unless physical defects occur from mishandling the film. Not quite sure where you got your idea from, but it sounds like a typical dose of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt).