Water Spots After Developing Your Film?

If you’ve ever processed your own film at home, you might have come across water spots, white-ish residues sitting on the surface of the film. It can be incredibly frustrating, especially after taking so much care to process the film properly. In this blog post we'll go over some tips and tricks on how to clean any existing water spots on your film and prevent them in the first place. If you prefer to listen along, we also filmed a video on the topic:

Water spots form when water containing minerals (namely calcium carbonate, also known as lime) evaporates on the surface of your film, leaving behind those mineral deposits. The mineral content of your water source will effect how susceptible your film may be to water spots forming. Aside from looking unsightly on the negatives, water spots can appear on your scans, lowering contrast and leaving unwanted marks on your image. 

Thankfully, cleaning off any existing water spots on your film isn't too difficult. Once the film is completely dry you can try gently polishing off any spots on the film base (shiny) side with a soft, clean microfiber cloth. Place another microfiber cloth under the emulsion (dull) side, and be careful not to apply too much pressure or you may scratch the film. 

If that doesn't get all of it off, you can try re-rinsing the film with distilled water. Load the film onto a reel and place it into your developing tank. Fill the tank with your rinse solution of distilled water and agitate several times. Dump the tank out and re-fill with another distilled water rinse. Agitate again and dump. Then hang your film up and inspect it once it's dry. 

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. One of the best ways to prevent hard water deposits from forming is to eliminate the minerals that cause them by washing your film with distilled water after it’s been processed. Being completely free of any minerals that might deposit onto the surface of your film, washing with distilled water virtually guarantees clean negatives. In most places, distilled water is relatively easy to access and affordable. In that case, you can do your entire washing step using it. 

The "Ilford Washing Method" is a more water-conscious option which still guarantees archival results. To use it, fill your developing tank with distilled water and invert 5 times, then empty the tank. Re-fill it,  invert 10 times, then empty. Refill the tank one last time, invert 20 times, then empty it. After a final rinse, hang your film up and inspect it once dry. 

If access to distilled water is limited and you don't want to use it for the entire washing step, you can wash for 5-10 minutes or with at least 7 cycles of available tap water, and then do a final rinse or two in distilled water. 

Last but not least, we have to give a shoutout to one of our favorite products, the humble Kimwipe. Kimwipes are disposable lint-free wipes used for a variety of scientific applications. 

As a reminder, water spots form when minerals or other particulates in water settle on the surface of the film and are deposited when the water evaporates. 

If we remove the water and minerals from the surface of the film before it dries, we decrease the likelihood of water spots forming. 

Once you've hung your film up to dry, you can gently squeegee the length of the roll. We are gonna use one of best nonabrasive squeegees in the world. We were all born with them between our fingers.

Then fold a Kimwipe, forming an absorbent pad twice the width of the film format. 

Wrap the Kimwipe around the top of the film holding it on either side of the film. Don’t squeeze the film! 

Twist the wipe so that it has even pressure on the film and pull it all the way down.

Holding the bottom of the roll, run a dry Kimwipe down the shiny film base side to collect any residual water droplets. The goal is to remove the vast majority of the water that's sitting on the surface of the film. You might have to use two wipes to get it all. But don’t overdo it or the wipe could tear or stick to the base of the film, resulting in fibers on the film, which is worse than water spots! What you end up with is clean negatives that are very unlikely to develop water spots once fully dried. 

If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Support team via email: support@cinestillfilm.com