Blow dry your negs?

sparrow6224

sparrow6224

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After a due diligence search of the site I found no thread addressing this specific practice. I taught myself how to develop my negs over the last year and am getting a little better and more reliable but staining and severe dust were real problems. Indeed you could see from the patterns that the two issues were linked to the drying of the negs -- the dust would collect heavily in certain areas and not others on any given neg.

i tried a number of things. (And yes I was using Photo Flo). Any kind of physical drying off of the film ultimately was unreliable -- squeegee soft micro fiber cloths etc -- often these scratched the film or left their own detritus.

So now I put on surgical gloves before I hang the film, they get wet; when I hang the film I gently slide two fingers down to take off the real excess water. Then I blow dry the film for a few minutes at a cool and slightly less cool setting. Results have been great so far: not just minimal staining but minimal dust as well.

What are the pitfalls? Has anyone else done this? Any thoughts?

Many thanks

Vince
 
I agree with Chris and avoid the temptation to artificially dry them when I want to scan them before they are ready 🙂

I used to run a soft sponge gently down each side but I did scratch soft emulsions (Rollei 400s). I now just let the Photo Flo do its job. I always hang in the bathroom where there is little dust and carefully close the door to stop air movement. Negs turn out fine.

Cheers - John
 
I never blow dry. Have you seen the insides of a blow dryer after a few weeks of use, let alone a year or two? Gives you an idea of how much dust it eats and most likely churns out. I hang mine in the cellar and let them be for 12-24 hours. Cool, slightly damp air keeps the dust in the air to a minimum, as long as nobody stirs it up (as Chris so rightly states is a prerequisite)
 
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I just a Jobo Mistral 2, but on top of it, I fixed some of these filters that are used in a kitchen-appartus to evacuate coocking-damps (I don't know the word in English for this thing 😱). I have no dust at all at my negs, nor stains.

Before I had it, I often wiped off most of the moisture between my index and middle finger, very softly, after wetting them in Agepon (both the film and my fingers).

I would certainly not use gloves: you loose most of the feeling in your fingers: your skin is the most sensitive instrument you have: it will feel every sand particle that could cause scratches.

Stefan.
 
gliderbee said:
I just a Jobo Mistral 2, but on top of it, I fixed some of these filters that are used in a kitchen-appartus to evacuate coocking-damps (I don't know the word in English for this thing 😱). I have no dust at all at my negs, nor stains.

Before I had it, I often wiped off most of the moisture between my index and middle finger, very softly, after wetting them in Agepon (both the film and my fingers).

I would certainly not use gloves: you loose most of the feeling in your fingers: your skin is the most sensitive instrument you have: it will feel every sand particle that could cause scratches.

Stefan.
Click to expand...


The Mistral 2 is a film dryer that has forced air, filtered to remove dust, that blows down on film that hangs in a sort of enclosure made of a shower-curtain sort of plastic material. Was an inexpensive answer to costly metal film drying cabinets that pro labs used to use.
 
One handy way to make a small dust-free environment is to run the shower hot for a few minutes to get a good head of steam in the shower/bath room. When the steam has dissipated slightly, and dragged the larger dust out of the air, hang the negs on the shower rail (or a temporary piece of string etc.). Leave for a few hours with the door shut and that should do the job - it works for me anyway.

Alternate dust-free areas could include one of those collapsible fabric wardrobes, if your film will fit, hanging inside. Perhaps in that case you would want to go over it with a damp cloth a few times when first setting it up as they probably bring their own dust with them to some extent.

I recall a few threads at APUG on ways of drying negs so that could be worth a look.
 
I have an old Kindermann blow dryer. It's shoe box size with a round opening where I drop stainless steel reels immediately after last rinse in photo flo. I don't have dust problems and my negs are ready to be scanned after an hour in the dryer.
 
sparrow6224 said:
<snip> Then I blow dry the film for a few minutes at a cool and slightly less cool setting. Results have been great so far: not just minimal staining but minimal dust as well.

What are the pitfalls? Has anyone else done this? Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Vince: you should continue to do what works for you without regard to all the people who say something else. I don't use your method. But damn, so long as it works for you, don't change a thing.
 
My negs always hang in a toilet with a small 5-fin oil column heater. Such a small low dust space heats up by the time the film's developed and will dry negs perfectly within half an hour. Thankfully the negs don't smell at all afterwards 😀
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
The Mistral 2 is a film dryer that has forced air, filtered to remove dust, that blows down on film that hangs in a sort of enclosure made of a shower-curtain sort of plastic material. Was an inexpensive answer to costly metal film drying cabinets that pro labs used to use.
Click to expand...

And a very effective answer too: my films dry without stains or dust at all. I don't know if the filter I added on top is really necessary, but there are clamps on top made for just that (I suppose), so just for safety ...

When using the first position of warm air, films dry perfectly in 30-40 minutes. I haven't used the second position (warmer air) yet.

Stefan.
 
Sorry if I'm a little late...
I just thought I'd say that using water with a tiny drop of washing liquid, then quickly hanging the film in the shower without touching it seems to work for me. From some threads on other forums, I gather that some brands seem to work better than others.
 
Your prints and scans will look like they were taken in a snowstorm. If that's a plus, blow-dry all you like.
 
Here's an old trick I heard from a guy who had to get negs dried really fast when he was in the army: run the wet neg through a bath of alcohol. Apparently the neg comes out as good as dry, and what remains of the alcohol evaporates almost instantenously leaving no residue. No swiping or blow drying required, so there are no scratches or dust.

Mind you, the guy I heard it from was Russian, and he had numerous tales about illegally distilled liquor. So it's entirely possible that he took equal measures of Wodka himself while in the darkroom, and the negs only appeared to dry faster...
 
If you try that approach make sure you use the purest alcohol you can find. Most rubbing alcohol found in pharmacies, in the US at least, are either 70% or 90% alcohol.

pvdhaar said:
Here's an old trick I heard from a guy who had to get negs dried really fast when he was in the army: run the wet neg through a bath of alcohol. Apparently the neg comes out as good as dry, and what remains of the alcohol evaporates almost instantenously leaving no residue. No swiping or blow drying required, so there are no scratches or dust.

Mind you, the guy I heard it from was Russian, and he had numerous tales about illegally distilled liquor. So it's entirely possible that he took equal measures of Wodka himself while in the darkroom, and the negs only appeared to dry faster...
Click to expand...
 
Another vote for the Kindermann "shoe box" if you can find one. It takes up a lot less room than hanging the negatives up and also leaves the bathroom free for others!

I don't find that drying on the reel leaves the negatives any curlier either as long as you don't leave them in for more than an hour or so.

I replaced the original crumbly foam-rubber which covered the intake fan with the filter from a dust mask cartridge, and now I get virtually dust-free negatives every time.
 
pvdhaar said:
Here's an old trick I heard from a guy who had to get negs dried really fast when he was in the army: run the wet neg through a bath of alcohol. Apparently the neg comes out as good as dry, and what remains of the alcohol evaporates almost instantenously leaving no residue. No swiping or blow drying required, so there are no scratches or dust.

Mind you, the guy I heard it from was Russian, and he had numerous tales about illegally distilled liquor. So it's entirely possible that he took equal measures of Wodka himself while in the darkroom, and the negs only appeared to dry faster...
Click to expand...

It seems to work fine, and really reduces dust problems. If I don't have a clean enough place to let the film dry, I'll give it a 30 sec bath in 90% alcohol (which you can of course reuse). It dries really fast: you hang it up, and it seems almost instantly dry. Give it a few minutes for the emulsion to dry out better.

Not sure if it has an effect on the quality; the negatives still print fine, and I haven't noticed any systematic problems. But I also don't do this when I have a clean space to dry them in.
 
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