From: Joseph Arkins (arkins@banet.net)
Date: 04/18/00-06:05:31 AM Z
Janet, when I cleaned a number of glass negatives at a photo museum years ago, I
did so by cleaning the glass (shiny) side only with Kodak lens cleaner and a
one-edged razor blade, where necessary. You have to examine each negative to
make sure there's no retouching medium and pencilling on the glass side, as
this is a part of the original artifact. Don't use anything wet on the gelatin
(emulsion) side.
Joe Arkins
NY, NY
Janet Hubbard wrote:
> Thank you very much for cautioning me about this. You know what they say
> about ignorance!
>
> How do you normally clean them? And if I store them wrapped in something
> soft in a dark box, won't they be okay? That's how they've been stored for
> the past 75 yrs...in fact they weren't even wrapped probably. What is the
> worst thing that can happen to them environmentally? moisture/humidity?
>
> Janet
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Romeo [mailto:jromeo@iopener.net]
> Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 6:43 PM
> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: Re: Old glass negatives
>
> I work a lot with glass negative. I work 2 days a week at The New York
> Historical Society
> I print a lot of them.
> You can not use a contact printer as the pressure on the glass could brake
> it.
> You can just place the neg on the printing paper the wight of the glass
> alone will
> contact the paper. I have even done palladium prints from them in this
> manner.
> To enlarge I use a 8x10 enlarger but only the bottom glass is used in the
> neg carrier.
> Using the two sheets of glass would damage the neg.
> James Romeo
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> To: pam@pinehill.com, alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: Old glass negatives
> Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 02:59:16 -0700
>
> I actually also have an old contact printer which I understood could use
> contact paper? Would need to get someone to show me how locally. Hadn't
> thought of that solution. Thanks!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pam Niedermayer [mailto:pam_pine@cape.com]
> Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 2:02 PM
> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: Re: Old glass negatives
>
> I'd recommend contact printing them to start. You could do
> it without setting up the enlarger, but you would need trays
> for developing the contact prints? Scanning them can be a
> reasonable facsimile if you have a good scanner.
>
> Or, if the negatives aren't huge, it probably wouldn't be
> that expensive for a lab to do it for you.
>
> Then, evaluate the contact prints.
>
> Pam
>
> Janet Hubbard wrote:
> > ...
> > Now that he's died I'm left with every negative he ever took (literally)
> as
> > well as much of his equipment. However, the darkroom and the associated
> > equipment was sold several years ago. Now I have the cameras and the
> prints
> > and negs. Although I have his Durst enlarger which I'm selling, I don't
> have
> > any facilities for setting up a darkroom here. Nor do I have the time to
> > handle photography at that level.
> >
> > I've discovered a small box about 10 inches high of old glass negatives.
> Not
> > having a working darkroom, I'm trying to be creative in looking at and
> > printing from these. I've tried scanning them on my relatively new HP
> > ScanJet 6200C scanner and then reversing it to a positive in Adobe
> > PhotoDeluxe. It works well enough to get a good idea what's there although
> I
> > haven't moved it to the computer with the good printer on it yet. Is there
> > an easier way to do this? (short of paying a professional lab to print
> them)
> >
> > My main problem is that these negatives were perhaps stored on the floor
> of
> > a building that was flooded many years ago. Some of them are quity muddy.
> > Others seem to have mildew/mold on them.
> > ...
> --
> Pamela G. Niedermayer
> Pinehill Softworks Inc.
> 1221 S. Congress Ave., #1225
> Austin, TX 78704
> 512-416-1141
> 512-416-1440 fax
> http://www.pinehill.com
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