Author Topic: need help with sticky negatives (Read 6628 times)

donding · « **on:** July 14, 2009, 18:47 »

ok here's the situation...I've got negatives to a book that was published in 1964. There were photo's in this book as well and these photos were also negatives that were taped to the book negative. The problem is this, where the negative photo's were taped to the negatives of the book it left glue from the tape that was used. Many of the pages were stuck together from this glue and were difficult to seperate. How do I get this glue off these negatives without damaging them.

Hope some of you older photographers from the day of film can help with this one.

zymmetricaldotcom · « **Reply #1 on:** July 14, 2009, 19:02 »

"Naptha or ordinary liquid lighter fluid works very well as a goo remover. Be very careful around open flames, sparks or enclosed spaces.

Birchwood Casey "Gun Scrubber" (the original version, not the new and unimproved version that now contains alcohol) is also a very effective solvent for old adhesive residues. It's nonflammable. Be sure to use it with adequate ventilation - it's not bad stuff with reasonable care but may cause dizziness and headaches in confined spaces. The main drawback to the stuff is it evaporates so quickly sometimes several applications are needed to do the trick. On the other hand, it evaporates quickly and cleanly so that can be an advantage.

For the negative itself a light mineral oil might be better than a vegetable oil. PEC pads or something similar could then be used to remove the oily residue."

donding · « **Reply #2 on:** July 14, 2009, 19:11 »

Quote from: zymmetrical on July 14, 2009, 19:02

"Naptha or ordinary liquid lighter fluid works very well as a goo remover. Be very careful around open flames, sparks or enclosed spaces.

Birchwood Casey "Gun Scrubber" (the original version, not the new and unimproved version that now contains alcohol) is also a very effective solvent for old adhesive residues. It's nonflammable. Be sure to use it with adequate ventilation - it's not bad stuff with reasonable care but may cause dizziness and headaches in confined spaces. The main drawback to the stuff is it evaporates so quickly sometimes several applications are needed to do the trick. On the other hand, it evaporates quickly and cleanly so that can be an advantage.

For the negative itself a light mineral oil might be better than a vegetable oil. PEC pads or something similar could then be used to remove the oily residue."

I'll try the lighter fluid. The whole page is a negative with the part of the book negative being cutout and a photo negative taped in it's place. It's the glue from the tape used to hold the photo negatives in place that created the sticky situation. The tape is still on there. These were the negatives used to publish the book. I don't know if this is still how they do publishing or not.

Squat · « **Reply #3 on:** July 14, 2009, 19:29 »

Before you do apply any of these cleansers, I suggest you try it on some unimportant photos or negatives first. This way, you will know if it works, or if it would damage the old emulsion, and cause more damage.
Better safe than sorry.

donding · « **Reply #4 on:** July 14, 2009, 20:01 »

Quote from: tan510jomast on July 14, 2009, 19:29

Before you do apply any of these cleansers, I suggest you try it on some unimportant photos or negatives first. This way, you will know if it works, or if it would damage the old emulsion, and cause more damage.
Better safe than sorry.

I will
These poor things have about been ruined. I don't understand why they would make a negative of the page, then make another negative of the photo and tape them together with some kind of red tape. Why didn't they just make a negative of the typed page with the photo already on it. Just doesn't make sense. There are almost 200 pages of negatives missing.

Squat · « **Reply #5 on:** July 14, 2009, 22:03 »

I'm not too sure if I understand the whole situation. Are all the pages intact? Can you not simply copy the pages instead of trying to retrieve the ruined negative.
If it's just the negatives that are sticky, you would be better off copying the pages and retouching them with photoshop, and then digitalized them.
At least, during my apprenticeship as a photo retoucher, we used to go that route, rather than try to retrieve the ruin negatives.
In those days we didn't have digital cameras, so we had to make new 4 by 5, and the retouching job was long and difficult.
Nowadays, it's so much easier with digital and photoshop. Eventually, those negatives will go brittle and be ruined completely anyway. So making digital copies would be the best thing .

If you need to know how to set up for copying, email me. You have my email address, write me there and I will help you with it.

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Author Topic: need help with sticky negatives (Read 6628 times)

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