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
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