How do you clean really grody negatives?

dmr · 07-31-2005

I think this has been discussed before, but I sure can't find it. I have a box of old negatives and slides, 70's-80's vintage which has {blush} really not been taken care of.

This has survived one major move across the country and countless minor moves and years in attics and cellars.

Anyway, this is mostly B&W negs, but some color slides and a few color negs too.

The big thing is dust, although some have more gunk of nondescript origin on them, which looks like water soluble.

Now that I have (access to) a good film scanner, I want to scan and print some of these. I tried a couple slides blowing off with canned air, which helped but not totally. I'm tempted to use like a damp cotton ball, but I thought I would check the collective expertise before I did something that can't be un-done.

Thanks in advance, gang.

jlw · 07-31-2005

The canned air is a good starting point, as you want to remove all the loose dust you can to reduce the risk of scratches.

After that, your best bet may be to re-wash and re-dry them. Soak them in room-temperature distilled water for an hour or so, gently agitating them occasionally, then treat with Photo-Flo and carefully hang up to dry. Especially with the b&w negs, this may be all you need to do.

If that doesn't get them clean enough, you'll need to use a film cleaner, such as Delta-1's C-100 Emulsion Cleaner. You can apply this with a cotton bud.

(Read the labels when you're shopping for these; often the cosmetics counter will have bags of things called "cosmetic puffs" that look like cotton balls, but actually are made of synthetics such as Rayon, and these are more likely to scratch your film. You may need to go to a pharmacy to get actual cotton buds.)

The drill: Moisten a cotton bud thoroughly with emulsion cleaner; make ONE smooth pass along the negative strip with the cotton bud; then make another pass with a clean cotton bud to dry off the cleaner, so there's no chance of it leaving a haze. Discard both cotton buds; you don't want to re-use them, because any gunk trapped in them might scratch another film. This process may leave behind a few cotton-bud threads, but these should blow off easily with canned air.

Some films, especially color films, may not be compatible with some emulsion cleaners, so test on a no-value piece of film first to make sure there isn't any streaking or color change.

Roger Hicks · 07-31-2005

PEC film cleaner. But if you're scanning, just brush off with Kinetronics (there's one model where two brushes go bristle-to-bristle so you can pull the film between them) and use Digital ICE for the colour.

Cheers,

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)

Poptart · 08-01-2005

I suggest a thorough licking of each negative surface.