Spotting negatives with red dye

[David A. Goldfarb]

If Edwal No-Scratch doesn't work, I'd probably spot the print on that one. It's slow and painstaking work. My favorite brush--Richeson Miniature Series 9131.

 

[Charles Webb]

Please remember, a white or light defect/mark in a print is caused by damage or a scratch to the Base side of the neg.

A scratch on the emulsion side of a neg will always print Black! Dust, dirt, hair or any thing else that blocks the transmited light through the negative will be light or white when printed. Nothing new here, it has always been this way. In past posts I have gone into more detail
so I won't waste more time and space explaining.

For you who choose not to believe me, run the test for yourself. The only way a scratch on the base side could
possibly print Black would be because the scratch goes
completely through the negative! A scratch on the emulsion side can be toned down and sometimes eliminated by light etching/abrading on the Base side of the film. Etch with a sharp needle directly over the over the scratch. This creates a slight diffusion when printed. A dust mark, hair or air bell can be treated in this fashion.

Also remember from past posts that you can cut an overlay out of Crystolean (Frosted acetate). Place it over the base side of the negative on a light table with the frosted side
up. Do your pencil/Dye work directly on the overlay.
Be sure to keep everything in registration by tapeing the edges. Large areas can be lightened with plain grafite and a paper stump. Don't have a paper stump, just cut several strips of paper 4 inches wide or so (typing) and roll it into the tightest 4 inch by a half or three quarter roll you can get, glue the outer edge. When dry use sand paper to round off both ends of your roll.
Rub the stump into your grafite the slowly beguin to work it in to hide defects, or build a little dinsity in an area.

Charlie, Fact, not opinion!

 

[Phil]

The six bottle bit is a great idea, but I found that to mix up a stock solution with plain old tap water will last for a lot of years.
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Another suggestion, is when the mixed drop drys just leave it alone until the next time you need to do some dye work. Just dip your tiny brush in clear water and apply it to the dried scarlet, it instantly comes back to life. I have a plate covered with different dry dye mixtures that I use for a pallet. Keep the dust off of it, it will work for a long time.

Charlie,

Thanks for this suggestion; it sounds much simpler. I do a similar thing with Spotone for spotting prints - I learned to let a few drops dry then pick it up with a damp brush.

Do you mix your stock solution the same? (5 grams dry power to 1 ounce water.)

Phil

 

[Charles Webb]

Jim,
I am sure that it would be possible to use what I call opaque. It came in red and black, but our strippers liked the red the best because they could see it easier.

To use it on a continous tone negative would work I suppose, but you would have to work very carefully. The neat part of opaque is you can completely wash it off if you don't like it. I think I would try the frosted acetate overlay I mentioned earlier with the opaque. I'll be honest I have never tried it, but I cannot see why it would not work if thinned enough. I also have never tried thinning it with water for my work, but it just might. Iwill guarantee
that if used with a #5 or 6 ought brush on the base side it
would turn any scratch in the emulsion to white in the final print. As I have said before I have repaired many scratched negatives for printing using a Sharpie. Sharpie has a pen that has a regular tip, and a very fine one on the other end. Sorry can't give a part number or catalog number for it. It was availible in Red & Black. I always
work on the base side when doing this because the thickness of the film sheet will cause a slight diffusion if you are focused on the grain. I also works with the larger negatives. Give it a try, let us know!

Charlie...........................

 

[Charles Webb]

Phil,
I have never considered retouching or repairing negatives to be rocket science. When you are working on thousands of negatives, one needs to try to cut some corners when and where he/she can. To be honest I have never measured how much powdered scarlet to a certain amount of water for a stock mixture. I simply use a one to two ounce clear bottle filled nearly to the top with tap water (today I might use distilled water since it is easily obtained.)
Then I use a triangle pallet knife and dip it into the powder, ( mybe a quarter inch on the blade) then slowly feed it into my bottle. Instant deep red. put the top on the bottle and wrap in several turns of paper towel then shake it until it is totally desolved. Unwrap it and check for red stain on the paper towel. If the bottle leaks you should try to find one that doesnt. The stuff seems like WD40 and finds it's way out of the bottle like Houdini. Also the stain on clothing usuall don't wash out. I have a red spotted white tile floor in my kitchen that I am sure will last forever. I then hold the bottle up to a light and see how strong it is. If the stain is dense enough it will stick to the sides of the bottle for a few seconds and gradually
runs down . The mixture at that time is what I use. If too thin and transparent add a bit more powder, go easy a little goes a long way. Don't fill the bottle two full of water,
you don't want it to be displaced when you add the powder.
A little bit on the tip of a kitchen knife would be just fine. As I say, alittle bit goes a long way.

The only bottle of Crocein Scarlet I have ever purchased is still about half full and I have been working on it for more than fifty years. (Hmmm, quite possibly why Kodak no longer offers it for sale)

Like most things in the dark room, it's pretty simple.
Have fun


Charlie............................

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Charlie, thanks for the answers. I tried thinning the opaque but it was difficult to get it to adhere to the base of the negative. The scratches in the neg are bad. They are in the water of a landscape shot. I think I will try to lightly etch the neg to see if that helps. I'm going to attach a print so you can see what I mean. I don't seem to have much success spotting an image when there is a lot of white. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all of your help and expertise.


jim

 

[Charles Webb]

Jim.
This is a tough one! Your best bet in my opinion is to work on the print. With the soft background of the flowing water it is nearly impossible to get the sharp scratches to blend in. If this negative was mine and I absolutely had to print it, I would make the best possible an enlarged print and then go back to how we did it fifty years ago. The AB air brush and Winsor Newton water color black and white paint. Reproduce the tones surrounding the scratched area and try to get the light and darks of the flowing water to match as close as possible. It is not too difficult, but is time consuming. Once I felt that it was a pretty close match and you had to really look close to see your paint work I would make the best copy negative of the print I could. And make a new print with with the copy neg. You can do several things to soften and hide the retouching on both the copy neg and the new print. This is one area where digital is supreme, with a few minutes using the cloneing tool on the print and you would be done. Remember that anyone viewing the print will most likely never see your air brush work, unless he/she knows in advance that there are blemishes to look for.

Another approach would be to crop the bottom of the print exactly at the top of the first scratch. I know, it's not what you want, but it would be the easiest way to get a display print from this negative. No one but yourself will know that there is a bit of information cropped out. If you are one of those that think your print can only be "Pure" when you include the ugly rebate border, well I will drop it here.

I can't really remember a more difficult negative in all my years playing the picture making game! Good luck!

Charlie........................................

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Well, Charlie at least it is nice to know that when I blow it I do a really good job! I thought that cropping was the easiest answer but thanks for the air brush ideas. this is an 8x10 contact print and I think cropping would for me be the easiest thing.


Jim