These negatives came with the glass ones. There were a bunch in envelopes marked with 1912 dates, then these. I really want to look at them, probably scan them. What can I do?
Been a long time since I took a photo class. But we used to use plain water as a rinse, then hang to dry. Me personally, I would take one piece, get it wet without touching the emulsion side. Use a clothes pin at the top, let it hang down length wise and use another pin at the bottom to weigh down. Looking again are those single 4x5s? Just try one, it should hang at a 45 degree angle. http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/00U80r You might want to wait for other opinions.
Thanks for your help. Unfortunately, there's no way to get one wet just touching one side. They are too tightly wound up.
Hi, I learned this trick with rolled up paper. Take a plastic box with a lid. Pour an inch or two of water in the bottom place a small rack in the box high enough so the negatives do not touch the water when they are on the rack. Place lid on top after a couple of hours of being humidified try to unroll one. If still not able leave them overnight or as long as it takes then clip top and bottom like Pat suggested. greg
Those look like celluloid. It might or might not work. I do know if you just try and unroll one it'll crack into itty bitty pieces.
Book - Check out these pages. I just skimmed them, but there might be something to help you. http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/history-conservation-repair/28073-uncurling-old-negatives.html http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/preserving_photos.html
I'll try rehydrating one first. Thanks greg and bercrystal. "I do know if you just try and unroll one it'll crack into itty bitty pieces." Oh, that already happened - more than once.
Also, the husband of one of my customers will be making prints of some of my glass negatives. Maybe I'll give him a few to work with.
That sounds like a good idea. -- About the deferral of working on the project, I've done that quite often!
There are few people who have experience with unrolling old film. If you do it successfully, I would guess that you will end up with more experience than a friend who does photography. Lay out some glassine on a dresser, put a neg on the glassine. Bring a humidifier into the room, (the kind that you use w/vicks for a kid) and let it go. It is difficult to test for the humidity levels unless you have expensive equipment or meters like you find at a museum or lab or fur vault, so set the humidifier on low, face the nozel away from the film and let it do it's magic for a day or two in a sealed off room, as suggested. Celluloid is in a constant state of decay, it gives off a characteristic chemical smell. It is also highly flamable and reacts to different chemicals (ammonia, peroxide, alcohol etc.) so chemicals of any kind should be used with caution. It is hard to say how stable the emulsion is, soaking in water may release the emulsion from the film, and depending on the plastic used, it may soften the plastic too much, getting into tiny cracks and softening those more, to turn it into a pile of mushy sided fragments. If the humidity treatment works, you could combine that with a heat treatment before pressing the flim, placing a room heater in to raze the room temperature to 90°. Idealy in a Museum situation, they would raise the humidity slowly over the course of a few weeks to a month.
