Horizantal scratches - how to get rid of?

[LeicaFoReVer]

I have horizontal continuous scratches on my negatives on the polished side of the film. Here you can see on the photo, look on the car, to the middle of the shot...

My questions:

1-what can be the cause? probably the loading tank from the bulk loading as I have less on film from pre loaded cassettes...but which part of loading tank can cause it and how can I prevent it?

2-how to get rid of them during scanning? use of oil didnt help. Anything to cover the scratches?

3-would they be visible on a darkroom print?

Cheers,

 

[lawrence]

I have horizontal continuous scratches on my negatives on the polished side of the film. Here you can see on the photo, look on the car, to the middle of the shot...

My questions:

1-what can be the cause? probably the loading tank from the bulk loading as I have less on film from pre loaded cassettes...but which part of loading tank can cause it and how can I prevent it?

It's probably caused by dust or similar in the felt light trap of the film canister. Solution is to use canisters once or twice only.

2-how to get rid of them during scanning? use of oil didnt help. Anything to cover the scratches?

A traditional solution is 'nose grease'. Rub finger down side of nose then rub onto shiny side of film. A small amount of Vaseline is the alternative.

3-would they be visible on a darkroom print?

Yes (but see answer to 2 above as this should solve the problem).

 

[Dogman]

As stated by lawrence, nose grease worked for darkroom printing. But I don't know about scanning. If oil didn't work...?

 

[LeicaFoReVer]

Didnt help much, neither vaseline nor nose grease...any other suggestions? how much do you apply those two?

 

[Ronald M]

Photoshop.

Cause was letting the bottom end flip up when hanging to dry. One corner did it. Happened once to me. Printing on a diffusion enlarger made most of it go away.

If it prints black, bleach it (hard) or cover with New Cocine red dye so it prints white and spot it, (even harder) Etch the print and spot it back ( harder still )

Claim the car was scratched.

Make a large print, fix the defect, copy the print, make all subsequent prints from that. Special skills again.

Find an old time retoucher who remembers his skills, still can see, & does not shake, and is willing to work for something you can afford to pay.

Photoshop is dead easy which is why all the skills are gone.

 

[Steve M.]

They would be barely visible on a darkroom print made w/ a diffuser enlarger. Easy enough to clone out the scratches in your image editing program if you are scanning things.

And I agree w/ Ronald, whatever problems you run into, rule number 1 is "always blame your subject". Even if they're not in the pic, it's THEIR fault. "They moved", I told her not to blink" , "the light suddenly changed on me" and "the top is cut off because that mountain suddenly grew, just like that, wow, who knew they could do that?" are some very handy lines to memorize, and are used by many professional photographers. Use as needed.

 

[x-ray]

In your scan or print if the scratch is black it's in the emulsion. If the scan or print has white scratches it on the base side. Base side scratches can generally be eliminated with Edwal No Scratch which is an oil with the same refractive index as the base material. Nose oil might work but you're putting salt and who knows what on your film.

Emulsion, black scratches on the print, are hard to deal with. Retouching in Photoshop is about the best way but very time consuming. Oil or No Acratch will have no effect.

Scratches can certainly be caused by dust and dirt in the cassette felt or in the light trap of some bulk loaders. I've has something abrasive stick to the pressure plate and had lubricant of rollers in the camera get dry and the roller cease and scratch the film.

 

[LeicaFoReVer]

I have black scratches that means they are in the emulsion then!

They are so fine that are invisible to naked eye when look at the emulsion part... They probably have equivalent scratches on the polished side which I saw only.

Xray could you please repeat how you can prevent getting scratches on the emulsion side. I didnt understand what you explained above about lucricants and rollers etc.

It is very annoying...I have very nice shots but all got scratches...Is this a common problem? Do you usually get it? Should I worry about it?

 

[x-ray]

I have black scratches that means they are in the emulsion then!

They are so fine that are invisible to naked eye when look at the emulsion part... They probably have equivalent scratches on the polished side which I saw only.

Xray could you please repeat how you can prevent getting scratches on the emulsion side. I didnt understand what you explained above about lucricants and rollers etc.

It is very annoying...I have very nice shots but all got scratches...Is this a common problem? Do you usually get it? Should I worry about it?

You may have said what camera you're shooting but I mssed that. If it's a camera with rollers that the film runs over to keep the film flat then potentially that could be the problem. Most 35's don't have rollers though.

If you're bulk loadng then some loaders use felt as a light trap. The felt can collect dust and scratch either or both sees of the film. Some loaders have no felt trap and nothing touches the film so no scratches from them.

If you're reusing your film cartridges dust can collect in the felt light traps and scratch your film on either or both sides. Very likely where it's coming from.

When you scan or print do you pull your film through the film holder or do you open the holder, move the film to the next frame. I've seen people pull film through the negative carrier or film holder on the scanner. Pulling it through is a good source of scratches.

Another source of scratches is after the film is dry winding the film into a tight roll to store it without cutting strips apart and putting in negative files. Winding the film up this way causes any tiny particle of dust to scratch the film. Carefully cut your film into strips in a clean environment and put them in print file negative pages.

When you dry your film if you squeegee your film I've had squeegees that put fine scratches on the film. Wash all the Photoflo off your squeegee each time and before use run your finger down the edge of each rubber blade to make sure it's clean and isn't damaged.

Most everyone has had scratches if they've been shooting very long. Just try to eliminate possibilities one at a time. You might do a couple of test rolls to see trying different things.

In a camera like a Nikon or Leica there shouldnt be anything touching the emulsion other than at the edges so there probably isn't any possibility of emulsion scratches. I have however had some little fleck of dirt get on the pressure plate and scratch my film.

Good luck.