Scratched-to-hell negative repair?

lifein2x3 · Aug 7, 2007

A few months ago, I did a stupid. I had a piece of crud stuck to a black and white negative (this is why I need to stick to doing my own instead of sending it out). So, instead of sending it back to the lab and having them clean it, I tried to clean it off myself and this was the result:

Dead Link Removed

Enlarged: Dead Link Removed

Anybody know of a place it can be sent to for repair? The scratch is on the emulsion side. Or possibly a place I can have it sent to have a retouched copy negative made?

bdial · Aug 7, 2007

Dare I say it?
Photoshop can resolve this pretty easily, and a digital neg could be made. A good place to ask around would be Hybridphoto. How big is the negative?
Anything smaller than 4x5 would be difficult to retouch directly.

Or, just say it's a UFO.

dmr · Aug 7, 2007

Have you tried Edwal No-Scratch?

Pinholemaster · Aug 7, 2007

Make the best print you can. Spot what you can. Then have it professionally retouch. After that make a 4x5 copy neg of the retouched image. This will be your new master negative for all future prints.

A professional retoucher will use PhotoShop to repair the damaged area.

lifein2x3 · Aug 7, 2007

bdial said:
Dare I say it?
Photoshop can resolve this pretty easily, and a digital neg could be made. A good place to ask around would be Hybridphoto. How big is the negative?
Anything smaller than 4x5 would be difficult to retouch directly.

Or, just say it's a UFO.

Yeah, I've thought about that; I think I'd rather try to re-shoot it. :-\

The negative is 6x7 in size, btw. Should have put that in the post. It's Pan F+.

lifein2x3 · Aug 7, 2007

dmr said:
Have you tried Edwal No-Scratch?

Yeah, no dice. My local b&w lab (Action Photo) has gone digital, and so they don't have an Adams (?) machine anymore, either.

drpsilver · Aug 8, 2007

07 Aug 2007

Tom:

Oh bummer!! I would agree with Pinholemaster regarding making a copy 4x5 negative, or trying to re-shoot the photograph. If you were on the west coast I could recommend a person that could repair this negative for you.

BTW, I really like the image.

Regards,
Darwin

HerrBremerhaven · Aug 8, 2007

If you have a glass negative carrier for your enlarger, you might try using an unusual item to minimize the scratches. There is drum scanning oil made by Prazio or Kami that will flow in the scratch area. Both oils will evaporate off the film, making for minimal to no clean-up. Then you can either make a print, or re-photograph the original. Outside of that, perhaps going to the same location and trying to repeat a similar shot.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
Dead Link Removed

MattKing · Aug 8, 2007

I can't resist....

Scan it into Photoshop, and replace the scratch with an image of a fighter jet - an F15 looks like it would be perfect

Matt

Jon Shiu · Aug 8, 2007

Hi, the black lines looks like where the emulsion is scratched off. One way is to cover the lines over with opaque on the neg and then spot the print. Another way is to actually scratch the base side of the neg, which will diffuse the light (I'm not sure why this works and have not tried it) and then spot the print.

Jon

forgot to say, the white lines would not be too hard to spot on print.

Ray Heath · Aug 8, 2007

the composition would be improved by cropping up the scratch, so just crop when printing

raucousimages · Aug 8, 2007

I have an Adams machine. They are great for removing material from a neg, build up is harder. That scratch looks like it goes to the film base. Retouching would be almost impossible. Scan and photoshop or re-shoot.

keithwms · Aug 8, 2007

How about enlarging it to film, then retouching before you contact print. Or if you enlarge to paper, then you can even more easily work on the paper negative, with a pencil on the back side. Havign to go through paper negs won't give great sharpness but who knows it may work. And then of course there is the digital negative process, which may well be your best option here.

I have a similar issue with one of my favourite negs and my plan is to enlarge it (using edwal on the negative) to 10x12 ilford ortho +, retouch if necessary, and then contact print once i have a good duplicate. We'll see how that goes...

Curt · Aug 8, 2007

Shoot it over and do everything yourself.

Scratched-to-hell negative repair?

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