Watermarks on negatives...

jasonjoo · Mar 27, 2008

Hey all,

I made the mistake of taking down a strip of film before it completely dried and now I can make out spots of water on the film. Could I simply re-wet the film and then let it dry again?

And after a final rinse of photoflo, do I wash the film off with water or do I hang the film right after a rinse of photoflo? This sounds a bit dumb, but I thought I'd ask anywas. Sometimes I get a few small bubbles after pouring out the photoflo and was wondering if it was normal practice to rinse the photoflo off with some water.

Thanks,

Jason

Dennis S · Mar 27, 2008

photoflo

After the final rinse. Bath in a a tray with very little Photoflo and then slid it between fingers and hang. I have never any problems doing it MY WAY. I works for me so I don't stop.

jasonjoo · Mar 27, 2008

Thanks. I've been pouring the photoflo into the inversion tank, but in the process of pouring it in and pouring it out, small bubbles form around the negatives. I'll pick up a small tray the next time I'm in the photo store to pour the photoflo in.

Mark Fisher · Mar 27, 2008

I just use a distilled water rinse. I can reuse the distilled water so it probably costs me about a dime a roll. I've had problems with photoflo (even at low dilutions) so I just stick to distilled.

sun of sand · Mar 27, 2008

I don't bathe the film in photo-flo instead I hang it up and pour the photo-flo down the length of film
Seems to reduce those bubbles a lot
4x5 I always end up getting some bubbles no matter how hard I try to keep bubbles out of the rinse so I may try the finger wipe method one day here
I don't notice any bubbles once dry or on the contact prints, though ..maybe if enlarged?

Dennis S · Mar 28, 2008

photoflo

I've tryout many things. But what I've found was that since I found using cold water with tiny amount of PF I won't try anything different. For Me I will not develop a rl unless I have PF handy. Where I am @ we have very soft wtr so it works as the direction indicate. other places with different qualities of water it doesn't work the way they claim it should. So experimentation is a solution, it just takes a while.

jasonjoo · Mar 28, 2008

I can't remember how much photoflo I mixed up with water, but I followed the instructions on the label. I'll have to try the tray method with photoflo. It seems like this may be the solution.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try each one and stick with what works

Jason

ozphoto · Mar 28, 2008

I too use Photoflo. I remember reading somewhere that if the bubbles/rinse don't run down the negs, it's time to mix a fresh batch. I always check this and if the rinse sits on the negs, it gets put back into water and I mix a new batch, before rinsing again.
So far, I haven't had any problems, and it's so cheap, mixing new rinse every so often isn't a hardship.

Nanette

jasonjoo · Mar 28, 2008

Thanks for the tip Nanette! I'll definitely have to check and see if the photoflo is running down the negatives tomorrow.

After my negatives have fully dried, I can't make out any water marks, but I'll have to check again in better light. Either way, if they're still there, it shouldn't be too hard to run the negatives over water and some photoflo again.

Jason

Graham.b · Mar 28, 2008

Jason, i use a small amount of bubble bath, mind a small amount. Then as said run between the fingers, i find that the bubble bath adds a small amount of film to the negs, so less chance of to much pressure on the film, so less chance of marks. This after dev, stop, fix, then into the bath for a soak, with bubble bath.

Graham

dancqu · Mar 28, 2008

jasonjoo said:
And after a final rinse of photoflo, .... Jason

While still dripping wet with the Photo Flo solution
I slowly pull uninterrupted an eight blade film squeegee
the film's full length. The squeegee is first rinsed in the
Photo Flo. Negatives dry fast. I've lots of faultless 120
rolls which have been squeegeed. Dan

jackc · Mar 28, 2008

My water is also pretty bad. The so-called water marks are probably dissolved impurities in the water that end up drying on the film. So what I do is after washing, I soak it in distilled water or filtered water for 30 seconds. No more water marks! I mostly use filtered water for this step since it's cheaper than distilled water, and it seems to work just as well. You can drop couple drops of photo-flo in it if you like. I use this low-foam wetting agent called "L.E.N."

The interesting thing is that if I use tap water for this last soak. The water mark immediately and surely comes back. So I know it's the water.

BTW, I gave up doing fingers or sqeezies on the film long time ago. I find no benefits and it tends to leave other marks or scratch the film.

donbga · Mar 29, 2008

jasonjoo said:
Hey all,

I made the mistake of taking down a strip of film before it completely dried and now I can make out spots of water on the film. Could I simply re-wet the film and then let it dry again?

And after a final rinse of photoflo, do I wash the film off with water or do I hang the film right after a rinse of photoflo? This sounds a bit dumb, but I thought I'd ask anywas. Sometimes I get a few small bubbles after pouring out the photoflo and was wondering if it was normal practice to rinse the photoflo off with some water.

Thanks,

Jason

I use Photoflo with no problems mixing with a 60/40 mix of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol. Just be sure to use the correct amount of PF for the volume you are mixing. The alcohol allows the film to dry faster. I filter the used PF mixture for reuse. I have no spots. I use my fingers to squeegee roll film and allow sheet film to drip dry. I'll wick the corners of sheet film with a paper towel after it drips for a while in my drying cabinet.

Hope this helps.

jasonjoo · Mar 29, 2008

Hey Don,

Are there any negative "side effects" when using isopropyl alcohol on a negative? I have a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol in the cabinet... maybe I'll try mixing it up with some water and photoflo. Can the alchohol/water/photoflo solution be used on both prints and slides (color or b/w)?

Thanks,

Jason

donbga · Mar 29, 2008

jasonjoo said:
Hey Don,

Are there any negative "side effects" when using isopropyl alcohol on a negative? I have a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol in the cabinet... maybe I'll try mixing it up with some water and photoflo. Can the alchohol/water/photoflo solution be used on both prints and slides (color or b/w)?

Thanks,

Jason

I only use IA with PF on B&W film. And no there are not any side effects as long as the film is properly washed. Do not use this mixture on prints or color materials. I don't use a surficant on B&W prints either.

jasonjoo · Mar 29, 2008

Thanks Don. A technique mentioned on page one seems to be working (I just developed 2 rolls of 120 film. I'll have to wait a bit longer to see how the film dries up, but there were no bubbles on the film when using the photoflo).

If it doesn't work, I'll try the alcohol mix.

Jason

Watermarks on negatives...

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