Hey Photogs - best way to clean 30 year old negs?

[olnacl]

I am going to spend the next few months scanning negs of pictures I took some 30 or more years ago. Most are in plastic negative pages, but the ones I've scanned so far are pretty narly - mostly dust and stuff and the usual passing it over the hair on my arm, canned air, etc doesn't do much. What about alcohol wipes, like for cleaning eyeglasses or something of that ilk? Any dos (and, especially, dont's) appreciated.

[papercup]

98% Isopropyl alcohol/cotton swab or glove for tough surface dust or light oil.

Kodak says: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/...s145.shtml

If you have really bad water stains, you may need to re-rinse & use Photo-Flo, hang dry in a dust free chamber (drip dry)

Those were the days....

[Mac-A-Matic]

Ditto what's been said BUT-

Do be careful when cleaning the negatives. Always use gentle cloths and a gentle touch. Scratches on the shiny side of the negative are bad enough but if you scratch the emulsion side, you're F'D.

[Don Kiyoti]

I've heard of people using a ZeroStat anti-static gun on negs and slides. These were sold to audiophiles to help clean dust off of LPs. That will help if the dust is attracted to the neg by a static charge. If you have a lot of negatives, you might want to go buy a small air compressor (for airbrushes). Probably cheaper in the long run than canned air and certainly better for your health.

Otherwise, are your negs actually dirty? That is, are there fingerprints or other residue that would need to be cleaned with solvent?

[lafinfil]

First compressed air (preferably filtered) and a soft antistatic brush

If there is a need anything beyond that I was always a fan of Edwal film cleaner and PhotoWipes

If they are truly only 30 years old (late 70's - 80's) those emulsions are really pretty tough.
You can scratch them if you catch them with something sharp or a big piece of grit but they really
can take a good cleaning.

If they are stained I would take it on a neg by neg approach. You can carefully rewash them as suggested
and fresh photoflo and dry but you always stand a chance of doing additional damage to a wet neg.
If it is mildew that is a whole different ball game.

I would probably scan them and then clean up with photoshop - or at least scan before trying
any serious deep cleaning, just to preserve what you have in case of further damage.

[mattkime]

ug, i wonder if anyone else here will know what i'm talking about.

horsehair brushes will work quite well but a photographer i used to work for had a small setup where it had two sets of opposing brushes and a small fan. worked great. i'd definitely consider buying one if i had a ton of neg scanning to do.

[olnacl]

Good thoughts all, and thanks. I've done a bunch so far and retouched them in PS, but I get tired of chasing dust specks after a couple hours. I'll try the various suggestions on some throw-away (that I didn't) negs before I tackle the ones I really want to keep.

Yeah, these are from the 50's through the 80s, with a few newer, but mostly from the 70's when I was doing the majority of my traveling and shooting.

[papercup]

mattkime wrote:
ug, i wonder if anyone else here will know what i'm talking about.

horsehair brushes will work quite well but a photographer i used to work for had a small setup where it had two sets of opposing brushes and a small fan. worked great. i'd definitely consider buying one if i had a ton of neg scanning to do.

There was a commercial version (for photo labs) of such a device, I can't find a quick picture though.

It was two of these mounted bristle-to-bristle:

you would drag the neg strip through before inserting in the neg carrier.

It also hooked up to a small blower & electrically powered (anti-static)

Wont remove any thing other than loose dust, though.


I used to use Bestine® to remove dust & oils as well.

[davester]

If you have a lot to do it would be well worth your while to invest in a scanner with Digital ICE. Specks begone!

[mrbigstuff]

I always washed negatives that were really dirty. The trick is that it often takes a bit of gentle "sudsing" but NO RUBBING. You can take the emulsion right off of some negs by doing this, although they have to really soak for that to happen. I was never a fan of dry rubbing negs, it always seemed a sure way to scratch a negative.