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#1
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b/w negative curl
Wanting to scan old 35mm b/w negs of Kodak's Plus X and Super XX taken in
the early 1950s I removed the rolls from the metal film cans or the cardboad forms they were wound on and cut them into 5 or 6 frame lengths so they would fit into my scanner's (Minolta Scan Dual II) neg tray. Due to the lengthwise curl from 50 years of storage I have had all the lengths laying flat under heavy weights for over a year expecting they would flatten out. Such is not the case as it is a battle trying to get the still curled lengths to stay put long enough to close down the tray's top section. Since the Scan Dual II wants negs placed in the tray emulsion side up that makes it harder yet. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Ted Oregon -- Message posted via http://www.photokb.com |
#2
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On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 03:31:18 GMT, "Ted Quackenbush via PhotoKB.com"
wrote: Since the Scan Dual II wants negs placed in the tray emulsion side up that makes it harder yet. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Ted Oregon Wind them around something about the same or smaller diameter in the opposite direction. Refixing and washing in warm water (again wound in the inside-out manner) may help. Regards, John S. Douglas, Photographer - http://www.puresilver.org Please remove the "_" when replying via email |
#3
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" ... under heavy weights ... " What have you used to protect the
surface of the film? I've a similar problem. I plan to rewash, squeegee, then blotter dry with some weight the damp film. Of course some lint free, air permeable material will be needed. Dan |
#4
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"John" wrote:
Wind them around something about the same or smaller diameter in the opposite direction. Refixing and washing in warm water (again wound in the inside-out manner) may help. Excellent advice, John. I have had good success with this very procedure. A while back my brother and I discovered a large number of rolls of processed and uncut 35mm B&W negatives made by our late father in the 50s and 60s. They had been stored, several rolls together concentrically and tightly wound, inside their original metal Kodak film cans. The goal was to scan them for posterity and traditionally print some of them in a wet darkroom for fun. Their tight, slinky-link curl made both goals virtually impossible. We carefully removed the rolls from their cans and wound dry them in reverse onto stainless reels. Each roll was then pre-soaked, refixed, rewashed, rinsed in isopropyl alcohol and dried dust-free while remaining on the reel. Upon removal from the reels, the films were reasonably flat. Before they could recurl (the ambient humidity was low) we then cut them into strips and inserted the strips into traditional plastic negative pages. These pages were then placed under moderate, full-coverage weight for a few weeks, or so. The result was strips of negatives with a radius of curvature well within the (Nikon) scanner's engineering specs. Although I have yet to print any in my darkroom - they are still being scanned - I anticipate no problems using the negative carrier on my Omega D5XL. (Note: Due to their manner of storage, the negatives are very heavily scratched due to the binding effect when they were initially rolled up. The damage is such that the only technology with a reasonable chance of acceptable restoration will be digital. Traditional prints will have a pronounced "historic" look from the scratches, but would be a hand-spotting nightmare. The good news is that half a century in tightly sealed cans has left them pristinely clean.) Ken |
#5
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"John" wrote:
Wind them around something about the same or smaller diameter in the opposite direction. Refixing and washing in warm water (again wound in the inside-out manner) may help. Excellent advice, John. I have had good success with this very procedure. A while back my brother and I discovered a large number of rolls of processed and uncut 35mm B&W negatives made by our late father in the 50s and 60s. They had been stored, several rolls together concentrically and tightly wound, inside their original metal Kodak film cans. The goal was to scan them for posterity and traditionally print some of them in a wet darkroom for fun. Their tight, slinky-link curl made both goals virtually impossible. We carefully removed the rolls from their cans and wound dry them in reverse onto stainless reels. Each roll was then pre-soaked, refixed, rewashed, rinsed in isopropyl alcohol and dried dust-free while remaining on the reel. Upon removal from the reels, the films were reasonably flat. Before they could recurl (the ambient humidity was low) we then cut them into strips and inserted the strips into traditional plastic negative pages. These pages were then placed under moderate, full-coverage weight for a few weeks, or so. The result was strips of negatives with a radius of curvature well within the (Nikon) scanner's engineering specs. Although I have yet to print any in my darkroom - they are still being scanned - I anticipate no problems using the negative carrier on my Omega D5XL. (Note: Due to their manner of storage, the negatives are very heavily scratched due to the binding effect when they were initially rolled up. The damage is such that the only technology with a reasonable chance of acceptable restoration will be digital. Traditional prints will have a pronounced "historic" look from the scratches, but would be a hand-spotting nightmare. The good news is that half a century in tightly sealed cans has left them pristinely clean.) Ken |
#6
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Looks like main consensus to fix my problem will be to opposite wind any
rolls I've not yet cut into strips. The strips I have cut and are under weight are in the plastic pages made for neg strips. I have no darkroom experience so won't try any of the washing techniques. I have purchased 99.9 % Isopropyl alcohol to wipe dust, etc., before scan attempts. I was also guilty of putting away many negs rolled concentrically so 2 or more rolls could fit into one can. Thanks to all who responded to my question. Ted Q -- Message posted via http://www.photokb.com |
#7
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Looks like main consensus to fix my problem will be to opposite wind any
rolls I've not yet cut into strips. The strips I have cut and are under weight are in the plastic pages made for neg strips. I have no darkroom experience so won't try any of the washing techniques. I have purchased 99.9 % Isopropyl alcohol to wipe dust, etc., before scan attempts. I was also guilty of putting away many negs rolled concentrically so 2 or more rolls could fit into one can. Thanks to all who responded to my question. Ted Q -- Message posted via http://www.photokb.com |
#8
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It's probably late to jump into this but some films have more curl than
others, I usually try to cut and file my negatives within 24hours of drying into file pages. The weight of the stack of pages in my negative file albums will usually flatten any slight curl. I hesitate to "backroll" any but the most curled films, there is some danger that you will scratch the negatives, if I have to backroll I usually cut the film into strips first, sleeve each strip in poly sleeving and rack them emulsion side out into 35mm bulk film cans. -- darkroommike ---------- "Ted Quackenbush via PhotoKB.com" wrote in message . .. Looks like main consensus to fix my problem will be to opposite wind any rolls I've not yet cut into strips. The strips I have cut and are under weight are in the plastic pages made for neg strips. I have no darkroom experience so won't try any of the washing techniques. I have purchased 99.9 % Isopropyl alcohol to wipe dust, etc., before scan attempts. I was also guilty of putting away many negs rolled concentrically so 2 or more rolls could fit into one can. Thanks to all who responded to my question. Ted Q -- Message posted via http://www.photokb.com |
#9
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In article ,
"Ted Quackenbush via PhotoKB.com" wrote: Wanting to scan old 35mm b/w negs of Kodak's Plus X and Super XX taken in the early 1950s I removed the rolls from the metal film cans or the cardboad forms they were wound on and cut them into 5 or 6 frame lengths so they would fit into my scanner's (Minolta Scan Dual II) neg tray. Due to the lengthwise curl from 50 years of storage I have had all the lengths laying flat under heavy weights for over a year expecting they would flatten out. Such is not the case as it is a battle trying to get the still curled lengths to stay put long enough to close down the tray's top section. Since the Scan Dual II wants negs placed in the tray emulsion side up that makes it harder yet. Any suggestions will be appreciated. If you have film spirals I'd suggest winding them onto these emulsion side out or tape the end of a film to a film canister and roll the film around this. For the strips you've already cut into strips, cut short strips of paper approx 40mm wide and apply these over the top of each strip on the canister of add them one at a time to the spiral. As for the neg tray on the scanner. cut a length of heavy card the same size as a film strip, wedge one end down, unroll, edge out the card with the hinged flap almost closed. BTW please remember it is very easy to flip an image in Photoshop. |
#10
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In article ,
"Ted Quackenbush via PhotoKB.com" wrote: Wanting to scan old 35mm b/w negs of Kodak's Plus X and Super XX taken in the early 1950s I removed the rolls from the metal film cans or the cardboad forms they were wound on and cut them into 5 or 6 frame lengths so they would fit into my scanner's (Minolta Scan Dual II) neg tray. Due to the lengthwise curl from 50 years of storage I have had all the lengths laying flat under heavy weights for over a year expecting they would flatten out. Such is not the case as it is a battle trying to get the still curled lengths to stay put long enough to close down the tray's top section. Since the Scan Dual II wants negs placed in the tray emulsion side up that makes it harder yet. Any suggestions will be appreciated. If you have film spirals I'd suggest winding them onto these emulsion side out or tape the end of a film to a film canister and roll the film around this. For the strips you've already cut into strips, cut short strips of paper approx 40mm wide and apply these over the top of each strip on the canister of add them one at a time to the spiral. As for the neg tray on the scanner. cut a length of heavy card the same size as a film strip, wedge one end down, unroll, edge out the card with the hinged flap almost closed. BTW please remember it is very easy to flip an image in Photoshop. |
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