Avoid Dust and Watermarks on Your Negatives

Did you get your first film developed on your own? It must have been a great feeling to see the images developing right in front of your eyes! But did you have dust and watermarks stuck on the negatives? Read this article to find out how to avoid them.

You’ve done everything you can to clean up your work area to avoid the dusts, but they just love your negatives so much that it’s hard to keep them away at all. Well, Here’s a couple of tips on how to avoid them when you’re processing your film at home!

Use Photo-Flo. According to its description, it decreases water-surface tension, minimizes water marks and streaks on film, and promotes faster, more uniform drying.

Use distilled water. Filtered water sometimes still has dissolved minerals, which are usually what causes the water marks on your film.

Use the bathroom to dry your negatives. Run the hot water in your bathroom and steam up the place to remove the dust. You can then dry your negatives in the bathroom without worrying about those nasty flying dust bunnies!

• Dry negatives at an angle.* This will help the water to run to an edge of the film and run down to the end, avoiding it to dry in the middle of the film.

Do you have any other tips? Let us know by writing them on the comments section below!

written by ilkadj on 2012-10-02 #gear #tutorials #negatives #dust #tipster #development #film-processing #watermarks