Film curls relative to the humidity or lack thereof. Since you are scanning them, I would not waste a lot of time trying to flatten the negatives (something that would need to be repeated for each strip, or page of strips just prior to scanning). Instead, I would get thee to betterscanning.com and get thyself some anti-newton ring glass, the weight of which should overcome any curl.
On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 1:01 PM, Alan C <[email protected]> wrote: > I would experiment with warming them up before flattening them. > Vinyl/Plastic softens quite easily. I think moisture will cause damage. > > Alan C > > -----Original Message----- From: Stan Halpin > Sent: Friday, May 31, 2013 7:27 PM > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > Subject: Help needed with curly film > > > Remember film? > > Short story: I am trying to scan some old negatives (color and B&W). "Old" > as in some of the B&W go back to the early 1940's. Mostly cut into strips of > 4 or 6 frames. Some are badly cupped and/or curled to the point that I > cannot make them stay within the film holder on the flatbed scanner (Epson > V600). Any suggestions for practical means of flattening these? There is a > large number of negatives involved, most of them probably have nothing of > merit worth scanning/preserving, but I can't tell until I scan/preview. > > Longer story: My father-in-law was a prolific photographer. He has multiple > notebooks of neatly filed an labeled contact sheets & negatives (35mm, 645, > 6x6, some 3x4", some 4x5). Those are in fairly good condition and easy to > deal with; most will go directly to the local Center for the Arts (MCFTA) or > Historical Society. (For 20+ years he was the primary photographer for the > MCFTA, everything from portraits of board members to publicity shots for > advertising posters for upcoming concerts and plays, etc.) But there are a > few shoe boxes with items less well preserved. The negatives are mostly cut > with one roll together in a sleeve, mostly annotated with the date taken and > the date he made prints from the negs. Some of those are usable, > particularly the medium-format (scannable), some are badly cupped, and some > have somehow gotten into a lengthwise spiral. > > So do I soak and hang out to dry, with appropriate weights attached? Any > better, easier, alternative? > > stan > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- "Photography is a Bastard left by Science on the Doorstep of Art" - Peter Galassi -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
