Spilled chemical on negative

[Gary Grenell]

I have a brown stain on my HP5+ negative. I am certain that this did not happen during development, but some time long thereafter. Probably, I laid the negative on some surface in the darkroom that I did not realize had a wet substance on it. So, it could be fix, developer, stop bath or selenium or hypo clear. I have used PEC-12 emulsion cleaner to no avail (absolutely no effect). At this point the negative is effectively ruined as it cannot be printed. So, I am willing to try something more drastic. I have no idea what to try, however, and I am open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance.
Gary

 

[photobackpacker]

negative cleaner will not always remove water soluble material. It sounds to me as if it might be developer. I would rinse the negative in stop bath to cut any alkalinity then refix the negative, followed by hypo clear and then a normal wash.

 

[Gary Grenell]

Bruce:
I tried your suggestion but it did not at all disturb the brown stains. I think that this stain is inextricably tied to the emulsion layer. I believe my only solution now is to scan this negative and go the Photoshop route. Fortunately, it is not the most critical part of the negative that is stained. It is a part of the negative (depicting water) that is probably amenable to using the Clone tool in Photoshop. Unless anyone else has another idea about what I might do directly to the original negative?

 

[boyooso]

Hi Gary,

I would try and resoak the neg in a photo flow solution. Let it soak for 30 minutes or more and gently rub the emulsion a little. I have let negatives soakfor an hour or more without problems, but have experimented by soaking for days and the emulsion just floats off. I tell you this just so you know that at some point you can have problems bo soaking too long. But I have had good results soaking for extended time and generally wouldn't worry about soaking for 1 hour or more. The photo flow solution is important becuase helps penetrate the emultion very well.

I have also heard of using denatured alcohol, but haven't tried it myself. If you do try it I would recommend trying it on a bad negative first just in case there is a problem. And if that fails I would try acetone and a Pec-Pad.

Is it possible the brown stain is from improper fixing or residual fixer staining??? if that is the case there is certainly no hope.

Good Luck,

Corey

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you have a good print of the neg, it might be easiest to dupe the print using a relatively neutral film like T-Max 100, ideally in a format larger than the original format.