Photography Info & Reviews.

Comment from ken198889
Time April 15, 2009 at 4:53 am

letting photos drip dry is perfectly fine, using a little bit of heat just speeds up the drying process

Comment from fhotoace
Time April 17, 2009 at 4:04 pm

Be sure to use a Photoflo type product (I use a product called “LFN” by Edwal) after you wash your film. It will reduce film spotting.

* Dry the film at room temperature in a dust free area.
Drying your prints:
* Place the prints face down on a screen and let them air dry.
* If you are using RC paper, there are paper dryers, but they may cost more than your enlarger.
* You can use a hair dryer on RC paper if you like.

Comment from electrosmack1
Time April 17, 2009 at 11:11 pm

This method is fine, but after you do the final rinse, use a few drops of PHOTOFLO to keep the film from streaking up. After about 30 in photoflo, do not rinse, otherwise it will still spot up. Also, let the film dry for a few hours, because if you take it off too soon, then then the film will curl up.

Comment from Dr. Sam
Time April 18, 2009 at 1:12 pm

In case you are not reading a book on this, use theinfo in the answers above me, but be sure to hang your film to dry. Put a clip on one end to attach it to a line or something and put a clip on the OTHER end to act as a weight to keep the film from curling up. If you don’t do this, you are really skrewed.

Comment from victor98_2001
Time April 18, 2009 at 3:48 pm

You could use Hairdryer,but not too close to camera film and you could use photo dryer to dry up your prints.

Comment from Ben H
Time April 19, 2009 at 3:08 am

Generally speaking, you don’t want to use any source of heat unless it’s carefully filtered. Using a normal hair dryer or space heater will propel dust at high velocity toward your film, which will then imbed itself into the emulsion and be impossible to ever remove.

I do all of my developing in the bathroom, and have had good luck doing the following to keep dust under control.

First of all, before starting, I shut the door and turn the shower with hot water on full blast for a few minutes. This gets a lot of humidity out into the air, which keeps dust better under control and reduces static.

I dry all of my film in the shower. Immediately before hanging them to dry, I run the shower again on full blast with hot water, but spraying down all the walls of the shower in the process.

About Photoflo:
It’s great for getting rid of water spots, especially if you have hard water(we certainly do around here).

Don’t overdo it, though, or you get suds and scum, which ultimately do more harm than good.

Photoflo is the only application where you should use distilled water(use tap water for mixing all of your other chemicals). I like to add about 5 mL of Photoflo to one gallon of distilled.

This is more than enough Photoflo to allow for even drainage.

Since you only use this for the final rinse, one gallon of Photoflo solution should last you a while, and a 20 oz. bottle of concentrate should last you for several years.

Once mixed with distilled water, though, keep the solution in the refrigerator if it’s not going to be used within a couple of days, or it will grow bacteria.

Comment from captsnuf
Time April 20, 2009 at 6:15 pm

50 years ago i was a cub scout and one of the projects for a merit badge was to make a darkroom and develope my own photographs…this i did, and as i recall i simply let them drip dry…don’t remember any real problems with the quality of them, but then i was a child of 7 or 8 (or 9) and everything looked great to me then…