Thanks John, and also thanks for earlier suggestions from Alan, Darren, Matthew, Bill, and Mark C. The tribal wisdom seems to be that the solution involves some combination of humidity (but not soaking), and storage in sleeves (under weights or other pressure). Darren's suggestions of a glass-plate insert for the scanner film holder may also have merit. I will pursue all of these! For the time being I am happily working my way through several binders full of 120/220 negatives which are mercifully nice and flat. And I leave for ten days at the end of the week, so it will be a couple of weeks anyway before I have to go back into the curled negative shoebox.
stan On Jun 3, 2013, at 9:18 AM, John Sessoms wrote: > From: Stan Halpin >> 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 > > It is apparently a common enough problem that "how to flatten curled > negatives" is one of the sugestions Google pops up when you get to the > 'l' in "curl". One of the results came from the Luminous Landscape: > > http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=18129.0 > > Quoting Kodak: > > "Film curl is due to humidity contraction of the film when stored in a > wound configuration at a relative humidity of less than 40%. This is > most often a temporary or reversible change, and can be correct by > rehumidification of the film. Allow the film emulsion to reabsorb > moisture while in an atmosphere of higher relative humidity. Use of a > humidifier in a closed room will accomplish this, but be sure that the > mist does not get directed onto the film itself. The film will unroll > to an extent with rehumidification. Once this has occurred*, you may > then place the film into an archival storage envelop or sleeve, place > beneath a weight, and then bring the atmosphere closer to 40-50% > relative humidity to retain its dimensional flatness. > > *be sure that the film is not moist to the touch." [end quote] > > > > > -- > 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.
