Hello and the obligatory silly question

[wintoid]

Thanks Doug. I probably was overly hasty about drying the negatives. From the moment the negatives came out into the light and I saw that there were actually images on them, I was pretty excited 😀 I think next time I'll leave them to drip dry and see if that help.

I had real problems getting the negatives off the reel too, so perhaps that could be part of it.

 

[wintoid]

The scratches on the face were wiggly. Here's a bigger version, linked rather than embedded... http://photos27.flickr.com/37613840_3e54d8c239_b.jpg

But a few had lines, such as this one... http://photos21.flickr.com/37640453_7ff78fd636_b.jpg

 

[Doug]

Looks as much like hair and/or bits of lint on the surface as it does scratches. If those are scratches, I'd think they're most likely from wrestling the film on/off the reel and getting it hung up. I'd been looking at your big metal fish (?) as posted and didn't see any scratches, but they do show (lint?) on the larger image...

 

[wintoid]

Doug,

You were right! I washed the film in fairy liquid and used my fingers to dry it, and the crud shifted, whatever it was. Now I need to work out how I can tell whether a negative has crud on it in future before I scan it. Anyone have any tips?


Here's the larger cleaner version anyway. Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Doug]

Looks great now (and I do love to be right)! 😀 You may want to take steps like filtering your wash and final Photo Flo rinse water, and make sure that the place you remove the film from the rinse and hang it to dry are also free of lint and dust.

I do this while leaning into the shower, having run the shower first and spraying all around the walls. With slow economical movements, I try not to stir up further junk as I hang the film, then pour the rinse water down its length before using the squeegee (that was dipped in the rinse first) and close the shower door. I then move slowly out of the bathroom and gently close the door for the duration of the drying. Anything you can do to prevent stuff from getting onto the film will save trouble and work later!