julian anstis
26th April 2005, 18:08
Many of you will have old photographs and negatives which over the course of time have become dirty and grubby (no not that type of photo) with finger prints, lager etc especially if the kids have been looking at them.
To clean these up and get them back to normal place the photo's or negatives in a CLEAN bowl or dish of lukewarm water with a couple of drop's of washing up liquid added.
Leave to soak for 5/10mins
Then put a very small amount of washing up liquid on your CLEAN finger and rub over the photo or negative very gently. (I prefer this method because you can actually feel when the bits of dirt,food or whatever have been removed.)
Then rinse well in clean plain lukewarm water.
Place the photo or negative on a piece of kitchen roll and with another piece DAB off any excess water. (Dont Rub)
When the excess water has been removed dry with a hair dryer on a WARM heat.The photo or negative will curl like hell at this stage, dont worry when left to cool all will be well.
You will now be left with a perfectly clean photo/negative ready to scan or put back in the family album.
If this process alarms you dont worry .....as the last thing that happens to a photo/negative as it is processed, is that it passes through a final rinse to remove the chemicals before it is dried. As long as you are gentle in the cleaning you should only get a good result. I have used this method for many years with excellent results. If in doubt,try this method on an old photo after giving it to the kids to look at !
Do not use this method on Slides, you can buy a cleaning kit for slides at any good photography store. Due to the chemicals used to process slides they are prone to mildew growth after being stored for a period of time.
Hope this helps some of you to be able to rescue some of those old photo's we are waiting to see posted.
PS: If after trying this you are still left with sticky marks, repeat the process again but try raising the temprature of the water a few degrees and let the photo soak for twenty mins instead.
To clean these up and get them back to normal place the photo's or negatives in a CLEAN bowl or dish of lukewarm water with a couple of drop's of washing up liquid added.
Leave to soak for 5/10mins
Then put a very small amount of washing up liquid on your CLEAN finger and rub over the photo or negative very gently. (I prefer this method because you can actually feel when the bits of dirt,food or whatever have been removed.)
Then rinse well in clean plain lukewarm water.
Place the photo or negative on a piece of kitchen roll and with another piece DAB off any excess water. (Dont Rub)
When the excess water has been removed dry with a hair dryer on a WARM heat.The photo or negative will curl like hell at this stage, dont worry when left to cool all will be well.
You will now be left with a perfectly clean photo/negative ready to scan or put back in the family album.
If this process alarms you dont worry .....as the last thing that happens to a photo/negative as it is processed, is that it passes through a final rinse to remove the chemicals before it is dried. As long as you are gentle in the cleaning you should only get a good result. I have used this method for many years with excellent results. If in doubt,try this method on an old photo after giving it to the kids to look at !
Do not use this method on Slides, you can buy a cleaning kit for slides at any good photography store. Due to the chemicals used to process slides they are prone to mildew growth after being stored for a period of time.
Hope this helps some of you to be able to rescue some of those old photo's we are waiting to see posted.
PS: If after trying this you are still left with sticky marks, repeat the process again but try raising the temprature of the water a few degrees and let the photo soak for twenty mins instead.