PHOTOGRAPHY

 PHOTOGRAPHY

COROLLARY -4

Having considered several steps critical to picture quality, it is sensible to touch upon certain working aspects to safe guard quality of negatives in the first instance. I have always been criticized of being too rigid on minor points . My understanding is, minor points prove to be major disasters in the final reckoning. So, view me as a cynic but recognize that my cynicism is driven by experience and never by adamancy. My priority for negatives is too significant because bad negatives can never yield good prints , while good negatives can yield prints –Good or Bad; so, a negative is a template worth its weight in gold as one may have to go the  whole hog again to make a better negative by a second effort. So, why squander an opportunity for want of right care in the first instance.?

Too often the type of water employed for work is an unsuspected culprit. It leaves behind tracks and traces of salty deposits all over ; it is hard to get rid of those deposits without causing physical bruises to the negatives. Avoidance is better than removal by harsher means / efforts.  So in the first place, select water of neutral state [neither acidic nor alkaline] for all intermittent washes between the stages of chemical treatment. For mixing of solutions, distilled water is effective.

There are several business advertisements that claim ‘removing of chemical deposits or physical debris from film surface. Certain firms recommend the use of ‘Wetting Agent’ in the wash water to leave spotless negatives. Genuine wetting agents act as interfering agents which destroy any chemical bond between film saurface and any external moiety like dust or grit.

 My personal experience is that for chemical steps DW and for intermittent stages of wash and for final wash RO water is useful. If we can manage to give 2 changes each of 5 minute duration in distilled water before drying the film; it  leaves sparkling negatives –free of dusts/ sediments. Please remember to allow wet films to dry in dust free places like the bathing place. The air in those rooms is moist and generally has no floating dust particles.      K. Raman