StephenPG
Established
Can someone give me an idea of what their workflow is for pre-scanning when it comes to cleaning the negatives? I am having an issue with dust that seems more than excessive.
Do you use cotton or nitrile gloves to handle the negs? Cleaning solution or just canned air?
Steve
Do you use cotton or nitrile gloves to handle the negs? Cleaning solution or just canned air?
Steve
JPSuisse
Well-known
Hi Stephen
I eliminated dust with a wholistic work-flow approach. My suggestion:
1.) Shoot film
2.) Clean bathroom
3.) Develop film in evening
4.) Let dry in bathroom hanging overnight
5.) Get up next day and scan uncut.
This is of course requires you to develop yourself and that you have a film scanner. It works brilliantly, but until I had this workflow down it was time consuming struggles!!
Cheers,
JP
I eliminated dust with a wholistic work-flow approach. My suggestion:
1.) Shoot film
2.) Clean bathroom
3.) Develop film in evening
4.) Let dry in bathroom hanging overnight
5.) Get up next day and scan uncut.
This is of course requires you to develop yourself and that you have a film scanner. It works brilliantly, but until I had this workflow down it was time consuming struggles!!
Cheers,
JP
Paul_C
Established
Nylon gloves (cotton is nothing but lint), a rocket blower, and a booflet film cleaner.
Edward C. Zimmermann
Nerd
I don't scan but printing or mounting slides has the same demands.
First step is to make sure that your gear are all properly grounded to a true ground. If you have carpets etc. cover them with a more suitable material such as linoleum, cork (linoleum is also cork based) or appropriate PVC. The ultimate is static control floor coverings (clean room) but they are expensive and not really needed (but don't hurt). You should also strongly consider what clothing you wear--- important from the perspective of static electricity and dust. Some people might also want to wear a cap over their head.
I would not get an air ionizer (most of the household devices are not very good) but: http://www.venta-airwasher.com/
It does a very good job of getting dust and other air born particles out of the air. In the winter its also good to reduce the dryness in living areas (multiple function)--- something for the whole family
If there still is a problem with high levels of static electricity--- or during period where increasing the humidity is not possible or desirable--- then I've used ESD (electrostatic discharge) control fans (mine is from Simco) to neutralize the worktable. This works great for precision low voltage electronics (the design intent and can quickly pay for itself in security when working on electronic boards) but also for negatives.
For brushing off negatives use a high grade goat's hair brush and/or one of the specialty film brushes (such as sold by Kinetronics and others).
The next step up in dust busting is a film ionization cleaner. This are devices with ion jets (like the fan) but with a bit of suction (the fan pulls instead of pushes) and brushes. They work extremely well. Simco makes them but also others (mime is from, I think, Kinetronics).
There are more tools in the box. A very good negative cleaner is a Dycem roller. Its made of the same sticky Dycem rubberish material used for clean room floors--- following non-slip coverings it was really the first application of the material. I think those SpeckGrabbers(tm) are nothing more than a tiny piece of Dycem polymer on a stick.
Compressed air too works quite well but only when properly static discharged (and not as a replacement for the film cleaners above). No need, however, for (high voltage) ionization. Some of the professional units are nothing more than magnetic value and tiny holes as air jets. Their key is proper grounding. Some fancy units use little pins to increase static discharge rate. Works very well and without high voltage.
If I need cleaning solution I use PEC-12.