water marks on film

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Yvon

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I use ilfotol to treat my developed film as a last step before washing it with water. I have to admit that my ilfotol working solution has a bit higher concentration that it is supposed to be. After soaking my film with water for more than an hour(of course after the use of ilfotol and multiple times of washing and scrubbing), sadly I still see water marks remain. Maybe I was just to lazy to remove them with cotton wool, but I don't think it should become a part of standard procedure to remove water drops individually because it is just to time-consuming. Is there any more efficient and powerful way that works on the problem?

By the way, I will use freshly prepared ilfotol next time, with a much lower concentration.:bang::bang:
 
I use photo flo and I still see water marks occasionally. I don't know if there's a proper "technique" to completely eliminate all marks. I usually squeegee the rolls between 2 fingers after hanging them, works ok for me
 
Lauffray said:
I use photo flo and I still see water marks occasionally. I don't know if there's a proper "technique" to completely eliminate all marks. I usually squeegee the rolls between 2 fingers after hanging them, works ok for me
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fingers don't work for me, because I have a bit oily skin. My ilfotol is prepared with distilled water, however, it has been reused for closed to ten times, I guess it's time to change fresh solution now. I don't use distilled water for final wash, instead, I use unlimited tap water to wash my film, scrubbing chemical residues off like doing laundry. I feel sorry for my ill-treated film but comparing to tap water, distilled water isn't something comes handy in my place. Maybe this method isn't correct at all because I've seen the word"final rinse" quite a lot. I guess it means people do rinse their film and hang it for air-dry instead of using my method. What makes me skeptical about "final rinse" is that will such little amount of water used be helpful in removing the residual chemicals on film?
 
The marks your talking about are most likely residue from drops of water left on the film during drying, squeegeeing the film will sort this out, especially if you use photo flow, or a weak solution of water and dishwashing liquid works also. You can use your fingers as a squeegee but, Ive found using a rubber one is better, and I never have problems. You just have to make very sure your squeegee is clean first, I wash and soften mine under a hot water tap before using mine.
 
I haven't seen water stains in my negs... I don't know if wiping them with a dishwashing sponge helps or not, but since I don't have a squeegee, I use that instead. And Photo-Flo for 5 minutes too! :)
 
The marks appear around the edge of a water droplet on the film as it drys, any dirt in the water is left on the last part of the droplet that drys. so just fix and wash your film then use photoflo and a squeegee and hang it in a dust free area, and you'll have little or no problems.
 
I see you say you used ilfotol as the last step before washing your film with water, ilfotol is the last step after washing with water :)
 
d_ross said:
I see you say you used ilfotol as the last step before washing your film with water, ilfotol is the last step after washing with water :)
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I read the same thing...Ilfotol is the last step before hanging to dry...DO NOT wash after treating with Ilfotol...just hang it to dry...:D
 
Yvon said:
[...] After soaking my film with water for more than an hour(of course after the use of ilfotol and multiple times of washing and scrubbing), sadly I still see water marks remain. [...]
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Yvon, as the others have pointed out: the idea is to have the Ilfotol (or Photo-Flo) solution as very last step. In short: Develop, stop (with stop bath or water changes, your choice), fix, wash, Ilfotol/Photo-Flo, hang to dry.

Also: you wrote of soaking your film for more than an hour.... that does not sound like a good idea to me. You want to have your film in contact with developer, fixer, washing etc. just as long as is necessary.
And a question: what exactly do you mean by "scrubbing" ?
As long as the film is wet, the emulsion is very vulnerable to touch and abrasion - this is the reason why many users do not recommend a squegee before drying (while others swear by it - confusing, I know.)

Drying spots can be very irritating, but eventually the problem can be solved!

All the best, Ljós
 
Ljós said:
Yvon, as the others have pointed out: the idea is to have the Ilfotol (or Photo-Flo) solution as very last step. In short: Develop, stop (with stop bath or water changes, your choice), fix, wash, Ilfotol/Photo-Flo, hang to dry.

Also: you wrote of soaking your film for more than an hour.... that does not sound like a good idea to me. You want to have your film in contact with developer, fixer, washing etc. just as long as is necessary.
And a question: what exactly do you mean by "scrubbing" ?
As long as the film is wet, the emulsion is very vulnerable to touch and abrasion - this is the reason why many users do not recommend a squegee before drying (while others swear by it - confusing, I know.)

Drying spots can be very irritating, but eventually the problem can be solved!

All the best, Ljós
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well i have realized that i got the procedure wrong.:bang::bang:I wear rubber gloves to scrub my film with my thumbs in water bath, in order to physically remove the any residual chemicals on it. It was my brilliant invention.:D

I have one doubt. Ilfotol smells funny, and it is a bit sticky(that's why I always have problem trusting infotol, even wanting to stop using it). How can a sticky solution help removing water, I mean, at the meanwhile, do I have to worry about the stickiness when I store the film?
 
Yvon, rubbing the film while it is in the water.... or out of the water, for that matter - I would not recommend it. It sounds to me like you are using too much wetting agent, in your case Ilfotol. Try the dilution given on the package, and for most users, even LESS Ilfotol works better than more! This is important.

As to Ilfotol: yes, personally I too find it smells very funny, and the smell lingers for weeks after the negatives have dried. I switched to Kodak Photo-Flo, and I like it much, much better. If it is available where you live, Photo-Flo could be worth a try.

So: dilute the wetting agent more! :)

Greetings, Ljós
 
Ljós said:
Yvon, rubbing the film while it is in the water.... or out of the water, for that matter - I would not recommend it. It sounds to me like you are using too much wetting agent, in your case Ilfotol. Try the dilution given on the package, and for most users, even LESS Ilfotol works better than more! This is important.

As to Ilfotol: yes, personally I too find it smells very funny, and the smell lingers for weeks after the negatives have dried. I switched to Kodak Photo-Flo, and I like it much, much better. If it is available where you live, Photo-Flo could be worth a try.

So: dilute the wetting agent more! :)

Greetings, Ljós
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thanks, i will definitely give it a try. ilfotol reminds me some kind of syrup i've taken for cough.

By the way, I think it is also important to ask around, how do you rinse your film? Do you do it while the film is still on the reel? With a lot of running tap water or small amount of fresh distilled water?
 
Fotohuis said:
In the last step the squeegee is not always a good idea. Especially not on soft type emulsions.
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For this matter I use washed chamois leather (which I soak in water while I develop film). Use it gently to remove water from film (Neopans, APX's) and it dries clear without chemical treatments or distilled water.
 
Neopan (Fuji) or APX (Agfa), yes on these type emulsions you can do this. But on Efke films you will damage the emulsion. In a reel development you can do it without hardener but do not touch these emulsions with any mechanical treatment.
 
Too many things wrong here.

rince,
last rince with distilled water. add a few drops, and only a few drops of fotoflo, leave for a couple of minutes, hang to dry.
Do not touch the wet emulsion. it's very sensitive.
The only step I want to add is to try to find a salad spin dryer to get rid of most of the last rince water.
 
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