BW film developing - drying marks

BW film developing - drying marks

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I'm in hard water area and I'm trying to avoid long washing in tap water which seems to be the problem. Last two baths are in destilled water, first in recycled distilled water (I replace it once a while) and second with wetting agent. I've tried Foma, Ilford and Tetenal wetting agents and I like the last one the most, it's antistatic, antibacterial and does not smell that bad like Ilfotol.
 
Drying marks

Drying marks

berci said:
Hi Everyone out there,

I develop my own bw pictures, in my small tank kitchen sink type photo lab, everything is fine apart from the occasional drying marks on the negative. I even use a photo flo like thing (Jessops wetting agent) but that does not help either.

The most annoying thing is that sometimes it's ok, sometimes not.

Any idea?

Many thanks and happy shooting,

Berci
Click to expand...

I agree with the post that said to use distilled water for a rinse and with a few drops of wetting agent. Adelaide water is so high in mineral content that I've had to do this from the time I started developing my own work.

Best wishes,

Gary Haigh
 
I've changed my opinion on film drying. I was using a rinsing additive and hanging to dry but still finding the odd mark in my scans. I tried a genuine leather chamois which was a disaster ... the sharp edges of the sprocket holes was peeling bits off the chamois and leaving particles all over the film. I switched to one of those synthetic type chamois and have discovered it does a perfect job and can be kept wet in the container unlike the hide variety which have to be dried between uses. After hanging the negative with one of those stainles clips that pierces the neg so it won't slip I can put gentle even pressure on both sides of the film and pull the chamois down to the bottom. With virtually all traces of surface moisture gone the film dries very quickly and I've looked carefully at the negs and can see no streaks scratches or damage from this method. It also means that because the surface of the film is almost dry it doesn't catch dust particles if I hang it in a well ventilated spot. I realise that some film emulsions are supposedly very soft but I've had no trouble so far!
 
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Keith, when I tried that I got marks and scratches too! Perhaps I should have tried a new chamois, not the one I clean the car with!

I did my last couple of rolls with a little wetting agent in the final rinse with filtered water, and after I put the clips on the film, dunked it through the rise water again just before I hung the film, so the rinse water was running off it as I hung it up. Perfect results - no scratches or water marks!
 
ChrisN said:
Keith, when I tried that I got marks and scratches too! Perhaps I should have tried a new chamois, not the one I clean the car with!

I did my last couple of rolls with a little wetting agent in the final rinse with filtered water, and after I put the clips on the film, dunked it through the rise water again just before I hung the film, so the rinse water was running off it as I hung it up. Perfect results - no scratches or water marks!
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Because I'm a little new to developing waiting for a film to dry so I can scan it is torture. I've discovered that after the film has been chamoid (fancy using the car chamois 😱 ) if I hang it in a breezy doorway it's dry in under an hour.

By the way my Combi Plan will be here next week ... I was hoping for this week but no luck! 🙁 😀 The Crown Graphic is sitting on my tripod in the loungeroom where I have to walk past it constantly and the film holders are cleaned and ready to load! 🙂
 
ChrisN said:
Now your talking! You need to start another thread on this - what will you load them with?
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I have a choice of TRI-X 320 or HP5! 🙂

Both ideal for street photography of course. 😛
 
Last wash, wetting agent and water from a filter jug.
Started to do this when I was in an area of the Highlands of Scotland where the tap water was the colour of weak tea due to the peat soil!! (Tea made with it tasted just fine!!)
Used non fizzy non flavoured bottled water to make up developer and fixer. (Highland Spring!)
 
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Doing a final rinse with distilled water and a tiny touch of fotoflo does the trick. Like Slantface I also lived in CO. The water in Boulder was hard and had high dissolved particle levels during times of the year.
 
Wow. lots of great ideas. Just for the record, I wash my film in tap water, add a couple drops of Photo flo right at the end, let it soak for a few minutes, take out the film, wet my fingers with the photo flo solution, run them down the film and let dry. 45 years now and never a streak or a mark. I must be very lucky.
 
My tap water is also very bad for rinsing in, always leaves marks on the film.

I started buying the big 5l bottles of water from the supermarket. For £1 I can rinse 5 35mm films, so its definately worth the price
 
I use a brand new kitchen sponge.....wet and rung dry. After the rinse I run the film through my pointing finger and my social finger quickly. This takes a lot of the water off. I then fold the sponge in half and run the film through there only once. Never get streaks with this method.
 
I just got back into this stuff after a couple of decade hiatus, and have learned some new tricks. I used to use tap water and photoflo, then leave the film to hang. I used to get spots. From that, I learned to use a folded paper towel lightly and slowly against one side of the film at a time, which worked better.

Sponges like to hold on to crud. I would never use a sponge.

Coming back, I learned about distilled water, so I tried that, alone, and it worked good. Then I added photoflo and that worked fine, then I added back the wiping, and that worked fine. I think the big step, though, was the distilled water. I'm sold on the stuff now, and can take the photo flow or leave it. Don't try to wipe negs that have just the bare water, no photoflo--they're a bit stickier, and wiping doesn't work so nicely.

I'm inclined to say bare distilled water is the best, though.

One thought: you don't want film in your tank at the same time as concentrated photoflo--take out the film and mix in the photoflo well, then put the film back in. If you get even a droplet of concentrated photoflo on the negs, that will cause you pain. Sure, you can be lucky most of the time, and maybe it hasn't happened to you yet. . . .

Second thought: I grew up a few miles from one of the world's largest holes, a limestone quarry, and my town made cement. Back then, in the 50s, it coated the whole north side of town. The only way you could get it off your car windshield was with vinegar. I imagine that might remove water spots, and if you wiped it off carefully after, you'd be fine--it's not inherently dangerous to anything in the film.
 
I rinse the film after developing it for 2 minutes, do a proper wash by shaking it and t hen rinse again.
I finalize by adding then wetting agent (10ml for 1l of water).

Just be sure if you don't have calcareous water in your zone.. if you do, do the final step with distilled water. 🙂
 
I agree that wetting agent recommended dilutions are too high. Maybe they are trying to compensate for the hardest water around. Cut it in half or less, and mix with distilled water, not tap water.
 
This is a very good old thread, thanks for resurrecting it.

First measure to take is to throw away any type of squeegee or cloth wiping device; there's no need to introduce an unnecessary physical force to your negs. Now, bear in mind, I live in an area with tap water that will leave terrible marks after drying. These are the steps I used to eliminate them as much as possible:

1. do my LFN final rinse in distilled or filtered water

2. keeping the film on the spool, use a lettuce/salad spinner to get most of the residual rinsing water off of my negs before hanging them to dry; i use a counter-balancing technique of four spools held in place by rubber elastics

3. use a drying cabinet, hanging the negs at a bit of a slant

I have eliminated drying marks or scratching with these measures.
 
Dry marks are dissolved crud in the water that does not sheet off. Use enough wetting agent so water sheets off before drying. Alcohol will make matters worse.

Clean distilled water or highly filtered wash water will get rid of dissolved solids. Use the Ilford method and very little water is required.

Every thing needs to be super clean, chem bottles, tanks, reels, room, water, air, everything. Then all this goes away.
 
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