Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/09/07

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Subject: [Leica] How to deal with old negatives
From: kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney)
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 18:03:55 -0500

Adam,

Are these b&w silver negs?  If so, and if you have darkroom experience, you
might try re-washing them (I have read that a little Photo-Flo in the wash
is useful in this case, but have not tried it) and rinsing with distilled
water and Photo-Flo, if you have a dust-free place to hang them to dry.  A
bathroom usually works fairly well if you take the towels out, and don't
tear off any TP while they are drying.  You might try this with an
expendable neg first.  I would be pretty careful about using your fingers or
a squeegee, which is not needed in the final rinse anyway - the negs may or
may not have been fixed with hardening fixer.  If the debris is set in the
emulsion, nothing will help except Photoshop.  Good luck.

Ken

> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+kcarney1=cox.net at leica-users.org [mailto:lug-
> bounces+kcarney1=cox.net at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Adam Bridge
> Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 1:01 PM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: [Leica] How to deal with old negatives
> 
> After my wife's mother died a few weeks ago I was handing a large
> envelope of negatives which have been living in the backs of drawers -
> but clearly not in the envelope!
> 
> Should I gently clean these before I scan them? They are all sizes
> and, well, filthy is the operant word. I'll be scanning them on a
> flat-bed scanner.
> 
> Thanks for your suggestions
> 
> Adam
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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In reply to: Message from abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge) ([Leica] How to deal with old negatives)