Can I trim a negative?

I have a 4 inch by 4 3/4 inch B & W negative from probably the early
1960's. It's on "Kodak Safety 482". Two quick questions. 1. Was there
anything special about this film, as in was it generally used by
professionals, or was it pretty common? 2. I would like to trim this down
a bit on all for sides. Do I risk flaking on the edges, and would a sharp
exacto knife be my best bet?

(I think that was three questions posing as two?

Thanks

Why not just crop the print? If you have a 4x5 enlarger use your Xacto
knife to make a carrier out of scrap matt board or poster board and crop the
prints. I hate to mess with anything original.

The type 482 does not ring a bell. Might be possible to guess if I knew
what the subject of the image was. Just a wild guess, it may be some kind
of copy negative or direct duplicating product and the format sounds like
possibly aerial or some other specialty camera system.

--
darkroommike

"Pat Harkin" wrote in message
...

I have a 4 inch by 4 3/4 inch B & W negative from probably the early
1960's. It's on "Kodak Safety 482". Two quick questions. 1. Was there
anything special about this film, as in was it generally used by
professionals, or was it pretty common? 2. I would like to trim this down
a bit on all for sides. Do I risk flaking on the edges, and would a sharp
exacto knife be my best bet?

(I think that was three questions posing as two?

Thanks

"Mike King" ) writes:
Why not just crop the print? If you have a 4x5 enlarger use your Xacto
knife to make a carrier out of scrap matt board or poster board and crop the
prints. I hate to mess with anything original.

There is something on the negative that devalues the entire image. If I can
cut it out without causing ANY damage to the image that I am
keeping, that's the way I'd like to go. Can I?





The type 482 does not ring a bell. Might be possible to guess if I knew
what the subject of the image was. Just a wild guess, it may be some kind
of copy negative or direct duplicating product and the format sounds like
possibly aerial or some other specialty camera system.

--
darkroommike

"Pat Harkin" wrote in message
...

I have a 4 inch by 4 3/4 inch B & W negative from probably the early
1960's. It's on "Kodak Safety 482". Two quick questions. 1. Was there
anything special about this film, as in was it generally used by
professionals, or was it pretty common? 2. I would like to trim this down
a bit on all for sides. Do I risk flaking on the edges, and would a sharp
exacto knife be my best bet?

(I think that was three questions posing as two?

Thanks

Pat Harkin wrote:
"Mike King" ) writes:
Why not just crop the print? If you have a 4x5 enlarger use your Xacto
knife to make a carrier out of scrap matt board or poster board and crop the
prints. I hate to mess with anything original.

There is something on the negative that devalues the entire image. If I can
cut it out without causing ANY damage to the image that I am
keeping, that's the way I'd like to go. Can I?

If you're going to make the print yourself in a darkroom, you can
dodge/burn out the offending section without difficulty. Or (even
easier) just crop it out if it's on an edge.

If you're going to have someone else make a print, you could just tell
them which section you want dodged/burned/cropped out.

If you physically cut the negative you might make it more difficult to
put into the negative carrier/keep flat in the negative carrier, or
scratch it or otherwise damage it.

Tim

I hate to even suggest this in a wet-chemistry ng, and beg everyone's
forgiveness in advance, but... why not scan the negative, digitally remove
whatever it is you don't like and use that to make your image. Put the
original neg away somewhere dark, cool and quiet and if sometime down the
road you decide the offending portion wasn't so offending after all, well,
you haven't done anything permanent to the original.

Cheers,


Gabriel

[...]


There is something on the negative that devalues the entire image. If I
can
cut it out without causing ANY damage to the image that I am
keeping, that's the way I'd like to go. Can I?

[...]

Pat


Sounds like lantern slide size. ( An early projector that typically
used glass slides.) Omega made a negative carrier for this. Be hard to
find one though.

Beyond this make a scan and a copy of the negative. Mask as desired.

Maybe make a slide or glass negative from it by mounting it in glass.

Bob AZ

"Gabriel" ) writes:

The negative in question has great commercial value if sold on it's own,
* as long as the offending small image has been removed. I suppose I could
make a negative of the negative, and then cut it out, but then it wouldn't
be the original.

I made a very small scratch in one of the corners, and now realize that if
the xacto cutting is not done perfectly, there might be very small chunks
on the edges of the negative that might flake off.



I hate to even suggest this in a wet-chemistry ng, and beg everyone's
forgiveness in advance, but... why not scan the negative, digitally remove
whatever it is you don't like and use that to make your image. Put the
original neg away somewhere dark, cool and quiet and if sometime down the
road you decide the offending portion wasn't so offending after all, well,
you haven't done anything permanent to the original.

Cheers,


Gabriel

[...]


There is something on the negative that devalues the entire image. If I
can
cut it out without causing ANY damage to the image that I am
keeping, that's the way I'd like to go. Can I?

[...]

Pat Harkin wrote:

"Gabriel" ) writes:

The negative in question has great commercial value if sold on it's own,
* as long as the offending small image has been removed. I suppose I could
make a negative of the negative, and then cut it out, but then it wouldn't
be the original.

Just for clarification. Do you want to sell the physical negative and
rights to it or prints taken from the negative?

Pete



--
http://www.petezilla.co.uk

That's a great question.

"I will be selling 1-500 prints, and then I thought I would sell the
negative", wondering why he asked.

Peter Chant ) writes:
Pat Harkin wrote:

"Gabriel" ) writes:

The negative in question has great commercial value if sold on it's own,
* as long as the offending small image has been removed. I suppose I could
make a negative of the negative, and then cut it out, but then it wouldn't
be the original.

Just for clarification. Do you want to sell the physical negative and
rights to it or prints taken from the negative?

Pete



--
http://www.petezilla.co.uk

Walker Evans used to cut up his negatives with nail scissors so that
editors would not be able to change the framing. You'd be following in
a great tradition. The nes were a devil to print.