Transporting Wet Negatives

hughitb · Mar 18, 2009

Here 's my problem.

I shot a couple of rolls of film yesterday that I am eager to see the results of. I use a darkroom that is about 10 minutes drive from my house. I can get in there tonight to process the film. I usually hang the film there overnight to dry and then swing by the next day to pick it up.

But, I'm going away for a few days tomorrow so won't have time to do that. Am I crazy to go in tonight, do the processing, and transport them home in some way while still wet? e.g. throw them wet into a plastic bag, and then hang them up at home? Am I going to potentially ruin them in this way?

trexx · Mar 18, 2009

do you have a developing tank to transport them in? If so make your 10 min. drive home part of the wash. I would not recommend transporting them partially wet, either dry or submerged in water. A snap top plastic tub may be the thing. Finish washing at home and dry.

Bob-D659 · Mar 18, 2009

Ziplock bag full of distilled water and a tiny bit of rinse agent.

Solarize · Mar 18, 2009

I would keep them spooled up in the developing tank with water, as trexx suggests. Taking them off the reels or transporting them partially wet is asking for trouble. If you are struggling for a dust free environment to hang them at home, try using the shower.

Ciaran

SuzanneR · Mar 18, 2009

I would keep them spooled on the reels, completely submerged in the water in the developing tank, and dry them at home. Transporting them without being spooled seems like a recipe for scratches.

hughitb · Mar 18, 2009

SuzanneR said:
I would keep them spooled on the reels, completely submerged in the water in the developing tank, and dry them at home. Transporting them without being spooled seems like a recipe for scratches.

Hmnnn ..... that makes sense all right.

Problem is - I use the developing tanks in the darkroom that belong to them. I probably can't bring them home ....

catem · Mar 18, 2009

hughitb said:
Hmnnn ..... that makes sense all right.

Problem is - I use the developing tanks in the darkroom that belong to them. I probably can't bring them home ....

I agree it wouldn't be the best thing to do, but if you're desperate to get them home (I've had that) then this is what I would do - if you have some black inners from a print paper box. Often there are spare ones hanging around in darkrooms, but make sure it's clean - best straight from an empty box.
wash the film fully at the darkroom, take them off the spiral and let the film curl back naturally, put it straight into the black bags, one film per bag, and fill the bags about a third with water. As long as the film is completely covered. Like a goldfish in a bowl. They won't leak.
I've never done this with film, but in times past have done it with prints.
I would wash again fully when you get them home - was the case with prints, so I would do it with film too.
Your main problem is transporting - it's fine as long as you can keep the bags closed at the top and upright. On public transport you get funny looks
I used to carry prints home like this all the time.
If this is hard, or you can't wash properly at home, maybe you could borrow the tank?

hughitb · Mar 18, 2009

I do that thing with the bags regularly with prints all right. With film I suppose you have the danger of scratching. I think I am going to see if I can borrow the tanks (or at least the reels and put them into some big plastic container with water in them).

eye_of_wally · Mar 18, 2009

just use a Tupperware type bowl and fill it with water then loosely coil each roll in a different bowl. As long as it is filled with water you should not really have anny issues. I have done this several times in the past

Dan Williams · Mar 18, 2009

I have never tried it myself but I have read that film can be dried quickly by dipping it in alcohol after the normal wash. The alcohol displaces the water and will evaporate quickly. Newspaper photographers are said to have done this when they needed to process and print in a hurry.

Dan

Edwardv · Mar 18, 2009

I would wait. The questions I would ask, "is the location I plan to dry my film at home dust free and do I have a water filter in place when washing my film?" Or you could just use distilled water for the wash, lots of it!

fschifano · Mar 18, 2009

eye_of_wally said:
just use a Tupperware type bowl and fill it with water then loosely coil each roll in a different bowl. As long as it is filled with water you should not really have anny issues. I have done this several times in the past

Same here. Once in a while we have a film developing session at our camera club. Everyone with a roll of film to develop brings a plastic tub with a lid. Everyone goes home with the film in the tub with water and a little Photoflo. No one has complained of scratches yet, and neither have I.

hughitb · Mar 18, 2009

So I did the Tupperware container thing. Only problem was, I grabbed an empty reel as a measure to figure out which tupperware containers were big enough. I forgot to set the reel for 120 and left it at 35mm size. So I brought along a load of tupperware containers that were too small to close over a 120 sized reel. Is there any point in your film using life when you stop doing stupid things like this?

So I just left the films on the reels, put them in the containers (without water) ...... got home as fast as I could, rewashed them a bit and now they are hanging up to dry ... hopefully they will be grand.

Thanks for all the tips ...

Transporting Wet Negatives

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