On the shower rod. I just make sure to scan and move the negatives to sleeves within a couple of hours or so. During the scanning process, I hit the strip with either a rocket blower or canned air just before it goes into the holder. Dust is never an issue.
When the film is finished washing, a splash of PhotoFlow, agitate for about forty seconds. Hang a clothes hanger on the shower curtain rod and use some weighted Paterson clips. Squeegee with two fingers and a final pass with folded Kimwipes.
Let it hang in the bathroom for about a half hour then hang it over the door of the room where I'll be scanning to finish drying. Haven't had a problem with dust.
I also hang them in the shower, but usually soon after we've run a shower -- the humidity in the air reduces dust. I close the door to the shower and let them dry for about 4 hours before scanning. I use a rocket blower on the negatives right before scanning.
Even with that I still get some dust spots here and there, as well as hairs (we have a cat; cat hair is everywhere in our house despite our best efforts).
One thing to watch out for is that silver builds up in your fixer over time as you reuse it, and once my fixer is nearing exhaustion I get what looks like dust spots on my negatives but are actually clumps of precipitated silver. When I'm working on an important roll or rolls of film I mix up a new batch of fixer.
Rather than go through my drying process some practical things that can help. Get a really good furnace filter that claims it can filter bacteria. If you have pets - don't let them in the room you do any development. I think my cats collect dust all day long and release it everywhere at night. Room air filters also can help. After it is dried a light stroke with an anti-static brush helps the film to not draw dust to it's surface.
James Markus wrote:
If you have pets - don't let them in the room you do any development. I think my cats collect dust all day long and release it everywhere at night.
Haha, I wish I could do that. The only place I am allowed to develop film in our house is the basement, which is where the cat litter also resides. I use a cat litter that doesn't generate much dust but I'm sure there's lots of dust and hair in the air down there. We don't used forced hot air for heating so at least that source is ruled out.
I run a table saw about 3 feet from my enlarger, and I sit on the enlarger table to develop film. The saw sits just outside the darkroom and the film hangs probably 6 feet from where I use the table saw. Dust nightmare? Not really.
I close the folding door (most of the time) to the darkroom when using the saw and I vacuum well with a shop vac that has a HEPA filter after each cutting session. I try to allow a couple days between cutting and developing. After I hang the film, I don't return until it's dry and there are no heat vents in the room (no airflow). I certainly don't recommend my setup, but I haven't noticed a dust problem on the negs. The dust on the scans by Yogifi is incredible. (Not pointing fingers.) I see nothing like that.
Gave up on photoflow as I never got decent results w it. Wipe the film with a kimwipe, then hang to dry in my bathroom. Kimwipes occasionally are linty, so there may be a couple of images that need dust spots cloned out.
In the past I’ve built a cabinet with framed 1x2 lumber (could also be done woth pvc pipes, and made the walls out of heavy plastic. Put a light bulb in a socket on the bottom. Not as fast as a commercially made drying cabinet but works fine if you are not in a hurry.
You can also buy a garmet bag, the kind that are both long and wide enough to handle your film.
Back in the day when I was an AP stringer working in the field I carried a Senrac dryer with me, before that used a hair dryer. We were shooting color negative and transmitting on Leafax transmitters which took 30 minutes to scan and transmit one frame.
I develop and dry my film in my furnace room in the basement. I use stabilizer or photo flo as appropriate. Rubber squeegee the film and hope for the best. I place a running humidifier near the base of the film (just out of view in this photo) with the emulsion side facing the humidifier in hopes the film will dry flatter. Works well enough.
* 3-fold Ilford washing method with regular tap water
* final wash (just little agitation and then let it sit for 1-2 minutes) in de-mineralised water with photo-flo
* during those 1-2 minutes I let the shower run super hot in my bathroom, which steams it up
* shake the film really hard a couple of times (while still in the reel), shake the water out
* dry the end of the film (where you attach the top clip) with my t-shirt before attaching the clip and hanging it up
* attach bottom (weighed) clip, and walk away, no squeegee, no wipes, nothing, don't touch it
* leave the room, shut the door behind you, and don't open it up again the next 90 minutes or so
..seriously, I'm living in an old house with wooden floors, it's very dusty, and I have rather hard water.
But this method gave me clean negatives from the first time I tried it, can definitely recommend 👍
I just got a home developing setup going last week. As most other have said: a bit of photoflo, agitate for ~30s, and then I hang on a clothes hanger in a shower, with wooden clothespins at top and bottom. No squeegee. For a roll of 120 and a roll of 35mm, both have been spot-free and dust hasn’t yet been a problem. The bathroom is heated. I’m only 2 rolls in, but results have been good.
JJkawa1 wrote:
I just hang mine from a clothes hanger with clothes pins. I have noticed that sometimes I get curling, not sure why that is.
Some films dry curly, others dry flat. I don't mind curling but I hate cupping (when the film curls in on itself across the axis, as opposed to longitudinal curling) as it makes scanning difficult.
Dry conditions can make some films curl or cup more; in winter our house is dry and I get a lot more curling and cupping from the same films than I do in summer, even though I run a hot shower to build up steam and humidity in the bathroom before hanging my negatives in the shower.
Some films have extreme curling or cupping. For example Eastman XX 5222 cups really badly, especially in 120; I don't shoot it anymore in 120 for that reason as it's a pretty thick and stiff film and after almost 20 weeks under a stack of 25 books the last roll of it that I shot is still cupped. It also cups in 35mm but not as badly. Foma Ortho 400 dries perfectly flat in 35mm but the same film in 120 is one of the curliest films I've ever seen. When I took off the bottom weighted clip the film curled right up to the top clip in a tight spiral.
In general I don't see a lot of curling or cupping in the Ilford or Kodak films, but I got some cupping in Delta 400 in 120 this winter and had a really hard time scanning it. After a week in a sleeve under a stack of books it is flat.
Room air filters also can help. After it is dried a light stroke with an anti-static brush helps the film to not draw dust to it's surface.