If "someone" should happen to end up with a few little dust spots on their negatives, is their anything you can do to touch those spots up, at least enough so they don't just print black on the final print.


Thanks

Well, all my dust spots print white, not black. Maybe we have different dust in Pennsylvania?

This won't help you, perhaps, but one of the great joys of Photoshop is the rubber stamp tool. With this, you can zap those little buggers a mile a minute and come up with a clean print every time. It's also great for "picking up" litter on the sidewalk, removing glare, and generally sanitizing the image. My rule of thumb is, if it *looks* like a dust speck on the monitor, out it goes, whether it is dust or not. And oh yes, you can get rid of the specks *before* you print, which sure beats spotting prints the old-fashioned way.

P.S. Black specks on the print means holes in the emulsion (or worse, the negative). There are several things that can cause this, which I've forgotten along with my other wet darkroom skills, but others can comment on this.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Henry on 2004-06-09 13:30 ]</font>

If by what you mean is clear spots on the negatives from dust that was on the neg when you took the pic, then yes you can touch them up. It used to be quite an art!

Okay, I haven't done this yet! Well, not in 30 years anyway... But I do have Marshall's Spot-All (used to be Spottone) inks for spot-touching negatives. Along with this, brushes in numbers 000, 00 and 0. The inks are brushed into the clear areas to be touched up. And the trick to it is to go very slow and build up the shade you need a little at a time. Magnifying glasses and a light table help a lot!

There are also spotting pens that work like Sharpies... But for the frequency I'd use them, I figured they'd dry out after one use

I got mine from Freestyle when I ordered some other stuff. not expensive, but micro-tedious work...

Good luck!!!


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RichS on 2004-06-09 13:44 ]</font>

The dust I was speaking of was on the negative before the picture was taken, so it prints black in the final print.

I will have to try and find some of this spot touching fluid. I think B&H sells that and the brushes to do it.

thanks

soft pencil I think. But test on a bad negative first. You don't want to risk damaging a good negative.

This may be over kill but better knowing too much.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/e71/e71.jhtml#51554