Bent negatives

[photorat]

No matter what I do, I can't seem to get my negatives nice and flat. The curve and twist in my negatives is a pain when scanning (see distortion across middle of attached photograph).

Any tips anyone?

[kmerenkov]

To avoid that I put something (some fabric, tissues) in between scanner frames and scanner's "door" (hatch?) (if you know what I mean, I don't know how to call it properly).
This way there is more pressure to frames and thus to film => film becomes somehow flat when scanning.

Maybe there is a better way to scan, but it works for me.
Plus, I don't scan much nowadays, rather I print and then scan prints.

[maddoc]

Which kind of scanner do you use ? For a flat-bed type, try the ANR glass inserts from better scanning. If it is a dedicated film scanner like the Coolscan V ED, you could get the FH-3 holder, which holds film flat. Otherwise, press the film inside a heavy book or something similar for a couple of days. In case you develop your film yourself, my experience is that negs become more bend / curled when they dry in low humidity air (winter) compared to quite humid air (summer).

[kmerenkov]

Originally Posted by maddoc

... my experience is that negs become more bend / curled when they dry in low humidity air (winter) compared to quite humid air (summer).

A bit offtopic. Do you mean that one need to leave hot water running when drying negs during this time of year? Because I am about to develop a roll now :)

[maddoc]

Originally Posted by kmerenkov

A bit offtopic. Do you mean that one need to leave hot water running when drying negs during this time of year? Because I am about to develop a roll now

...

I dry the negs in our bathroom and in winter the negs are less curly / bent when somebody took a hot bath just before I hang up the negs and the air is still quite humid.

[mabelsound]

I roll them backwards over themselves, fasten them with a rubber band, and wait about six hours. Then I press 'em in my Photoshop book in strips of 6 while scanning.

[Al Kaplan]

Some films are just more likely to curl than others. Usually the film straightens out pretty good after hanging overnight with a weighted clip. Putting them in sleeves helps also. Negatives stored in sleeves for a few days and kept flat will retain their flatness.

I use a dryer that dries the film on the stainless steel reels and they do get curly. Hanging overnight solves the problem, but if I'm in a rush I try to get them off the reel when they're still a bit wet along the bottom edge, outside the perforations. I then rewind them on the reel emulsion side out to finish drying.

Supposedly glassine sleeves aren't "archival" but back before modern negative pages hit the market we all used them. I think it's a rumor started by the makers of the more expensive plastic pages to get us to stop buying glassines. I have negatives stored in glassines going back to 1961 and I still regularly print negatives shot back in the 1960's. The glassines have yellowed a bit but the negatives show no signs of damage, and you wouldn't believe how flat they get after nearly half a century...LOL

[photorat]

Originally Posted by mabelsound

I roll them backwards over themselves, fasten them with a rubber band, and wait about six hours. Then I press 'em in my Photoshop book in strips of 6 while scanning.

I was about to buy a glass insert until I read this overwhelmingly simple but effective tip. It's been about 2 hours rolled backwards now and my recent roll is already as flat as a pressed pancake! Thanks a lot...

[kaiyen]

the issue here is not bending lengthwise - if you are getting newton rings in the middle (and those are newton rings, I think), then it's width-wise bend.

Weights on the end of film, rolling backwards, etc, should not do anything for width-wise roll. Again, the best way to dry flat is in a humid environment. Running the shower for about 2-3 minutes before you hang to dry works to decrease dust, as it pulls it down and out of the air, and increases humidity. That helps only a bit for width-wise but a lot for length-wise.

I put my film in printfile sleeves, and then under a book or two. It's difficult to keep an entire room humid but that would be the only way to really help the book flatten them out completely.

[kmerenkov]

My Delta 3200 came out perfectly flat just now. I haven't tried delta in almost a year, so I don't know whether it's delta or maddoc with his hot water.
At least it didn't hurt for sure.

[kemal_mumcu]

Magnum's books are perfect for flattening.

[Pherdinand]

i always get a bit of curling in my film, although humidity is always high here in my shower (Netherlands...) and I always leave the film for a few days under heavy books.
The curl is not enough to cause a problem in the original 35mm film holder of my epson v700.

You can try to put the film in upside down, so that it curls away from the scanner glass, preventing Newton rings to form.

[Pherdinand]

By the way: Would it help if i put the neg with the emulsion side OUT on the developing reel?
Would it cause dev problems, i guess not!
Maybe then one can compensate for the years long sitting in the film canister.

[photorat]

Clever idea. I'm going to try it (on a test roll ). Thanks to everyone else for the helpful hints. Rolling the film backwards for a few hours certainly helps both lateral and longitudinal curl/curve. But if this can be achieved while developing, why not cut some corners?

Originally Posted by Pherdinand

By the way: Would it help if i put the neg with the emulsion side OUT on the developing reel?
Would it cause dev problems, i guess not!
Maybe then one can compensate for the years long sitting in the film canister.

[Al Kaplan]

Supposedly W. Eugene Smith would often wind two rolls of film back to back on the stainless steel reels, then seperating them to finish fixing in a big tub of fixer. He could get more rolls developed in a hurry that way, but I never heard of any difference in which roll of negatives curled which way. I suspect that a lot of the problem would go away if somebody would market a scanner that used Omega negative carriers pressed down by a lamphouse with five pounds of glass condensors to hold the negative nice and flat.