No scratch is rubbish.

G

Guest

Guest
Well after following the instructions and using a negative that I damaged for the test, I have wasted my money on this No Scratch stuff, it did not do a bloody thing on the scratch and produced a darker area where the oil was placed, so do not waste your money like I did.
One thing that has pleased me is the negative cleaner, it does a superb job of removing tiny particles that have landed on the negative when it is drying, the bits that can not be brushed off because they seem to be stuck there, well the cleaner moves them straight off.
 
A diffusion enlarger can make them less noticeable than they would be with a condenser enlarger. That might be enough to save a neg if you printed 10x8 or smaller.

Shouldn't that scratch-camouflage liquid go over the whole of the neg? Then you don't get a different tone at least.
 
And for the rest is spotting and bleaching. get good at this stuff and even seriously ugly negs are rarely a source of stress as long as you dont have to produce 50 copies!
 
...and a diffusion enlarger. I have not printed on a condensor in years. The reduction of grain was my initial reason, but it has a big impact on scratches and other imperfections too. I dont find the prints lack bite of sparkle either, but I guess my whole process is set up for this.

Nose oil is not a scratch remedy I have heard of before!
 
+1 nose grease. We used nose grease at the lab I worked at all the time. Anything that diffuses helps. Aforementioned diffusion enlarger helps as well as stopping down the enlarger lens to f11-22. A combination of things can make most scratches unnoticeable.
 
parafin grease/vaselin saved a bunch of negs, all with an ugly scratch at the same place, courtesy of a damaged hexar AF.
 
JSU said:
One of the best remedies I have learned for helping scratches, especially on the base is "nose grease" which is the skin oil on the surface of the nose.

I lightly touch the neg to my nose or lightly rub it across my nose and then lightly with a finger tip wipe it across the scratch. I also use neg cleaner to remove the oil prior to returning the neg to its sleeve.

This does work.
Click to expand...

brings back memories i was taught at college to do that with drying marks :)
 
I'm glad that I happened upon this thread!
There are a couple frames from a recently developed roll that I wanted to print, but being a n00b, did not on account of a scratch down the middle of that part of the roll.
Post-nose grease, is there anything that could be used to clean a negative from the inventory of common darkroom and household chemicals? I really don't want to buy anything else if I don't have to!
 
You could just scan the negative, repair the scratch marks with a clone stamp tool, and have a new negative made. I am not sure how expensive this service is but I have heard of pros using this method before.
 
No-Scratch should go on the entire negative, not just the scratch. It acts as a diffusion layer, thus hiding the scratches. Something deep is not going to be hidden no matter what one does, but on small scratches it does work when used correctly. I've not used it in years and years, but it was a staple when I printed in one commercial darkroom.
 
Spleenrippa said:
I'm glad that I happened upon this thread!
There are a couple frames from a recently developed roll that I wanted to print, but being a n00b, did not on account of a scratch down the middle of that part of the roll.
Post-nose grease, is there anything that could be used to clean a negative from the inventory of common darkroom and household chemicals? I really don't want to buy anything else if I don't have to!
Click to expand...

Isopropyl Alcohol will clean it...:D
Apply with a cotton ball dry off with another...
 
Many years ago I worked for lab and then in another lab that was part of a camera store. We used a no scratch made by Edwal's. It worked pretty well. I've also had luck with the nose grease. Most of our prints were fairly small, so that may have helped.
 
The bottle's instructions say a thin line of oil on the scratch only and on both sides of the negative. So the suggestion of doing this with my 6x9 and 6x6 negatives all over the emulison, would involve a gallon of the stuff, an air compressor and a bloody pain sprayer, not to mention a spray booth as well. Anyhow, as I said in the beginning, it did nothing to hide the scratch at all, the test strip scratch was the same as the untreated neg strip.
 
Waaaaaitaminute...

Your scratch is in the emulsion?
as far as I know, and please correct me if I'm wrong, you're doomed.
A scratch in the emulsion means that part of the image is gone. No way around that.
The grease solution is meant to fill scratch on the film back with something with a refraction index close to the film itself, thus eliminating the breaking of the light at the scratch, before light goes through the emulsion.
 
JSU said:
One of the best remedies I have learned for helping scratches, especially on the base is "nose grease" which is the skin oil on the surface of the nose.

I lightly touch the neg to my nose or lightly rub it across my nose and then lightly with a finger tip wipe it across the scratch. I also use neg cleaner to remove the oil prior to returning the neg to its sleeve.

This does work.
Click to expand...

Ok, just curious, which side of the negative do you do this to? the emulsion or the other one?

As mentioned above, I use a diffuser (color head) enlarger and I've never seen scratches transferred on my prints, but then again I haven't tried to print a negative that has too much scratches.
 
I never put No Scratch on the emulsion side of a negative, as noted above a scratch in the emulsion is going to print black no way around it bar retouching the neg. I tend to paint in those things on the negative, then spot out the larger white area on the print- I'm much better at that than trying to scratch or bleach out black lines in a print.

As JSU says, the nose grease or No Scratch goes on the base side to fill in the scratch in my experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom