Coming Clean...

One problem I and many others have with our photography involves dust, scratches, drips & drops, mud, lint and all the little things that find their way into cameras, on film and into our darkrooms. I don't know how to stop all of them but I have had some success that I can pass on, hoping it will help in keeping your images as clean as possible.

Starting with the camera, don't dunk it in the sand, dirt or water. Sounds pretty obvious doesn't it? I watched one photographer at the beach trying to get blown sand off his camera by using a hose with a mist attachment get his camera wet & then wiping it with a beach towel. It actually seemed to work but sure made me nervous.

I keep the camera in the camera bag as much as possible to keep dust & sand off it. I also use a Rubbermaid stand or stool (the kind with a handle and sit-down or stand-on area) that I have added a bit of rubber to in hopes of keeping blown sand out of. It works fine & having the carry handle helps when walking a bit on the beach or Great Salt Lake here in Utah. The legs sit on sand or in shallow water and keep my gear from getting wet. In a pinch I can stand on it to get a higher angle if needed.

Another thing that works is freezer strength ziplock® bags. The heavier plastic helps keep them from rubbing through easily or tearing when you are out photographing. Soft towels work well also & can be wrapped in saran wrap (the trademark thing again) for further protection. A camera can be operated with saran wrap around it if you are careful and if you are familiar with your camera, just leave or tear an opening for the lens in front and so you can focus in the back. It works better if you have a motor drive so you don't get frustrated trying to advance the film.

Changing film in rotten conditions works well if you take your coat or long sleeved shirt and pull it over your head and use it as a changing bag to keep the camera out of actively blowing sand or snow. It works better if you brush yourself off first and even better in the cold if it is NOT nylon (static electricity). I have found damp wool shirts work well in cold, mine are worn & little lint gets anywhere. In cold ziplock bags seem to generate more static for me than I am comfortable with. Understand, though, that I have been hit by lightening and get nervous just turning on a light switch (not to mention the computer). I have a couple of old Army type field jackets I use with the 4x5 & 5x7 in place of darkcloths, saves weight & I can wear it in a pinch, and I use one of these for protection when needed.

The best protection is to keep the camera buttoned up in poor conditions but it isn't always possible. When it isn't, being familiar with your camera so you can rewind & change film quickly by feel is a big help. Practice with your eyes closed & it will help. Very cold fingers make it difficult no matter how good you are & extremely cold weather pretty much guarantees dry & icy snow crystals in the camera no matter what. When this happens, reload & shoot & hope the film advance takes any moisture past the shutter. Don't blow into the camera or you may ice up the film or inside of the camera. Same with the lens, viewfinder and accessories. Good mittens or gloves & familiarity are the mainstays here.

Extreme heat is a bear. I don't know how newer electronic cameras will tolerate 110+ temperatures, but if you are OK they probably will be. Fine dust is more of an enemy than heat. A cooler with padding will help when travelling and a good camera case will help also. Don't try to flick dust off lenses with your hands, they are probably dry & have more dust on them. That expensive brush you bought works well in these conditions. Hot & dry generates static like cold and dry. Not much can be done about it generally, but one solution is to have a spray can of anti static computer spray and gently hose the camera case and around it before you change film. Don't soak the camera or bag, just a light spray to help take some of the static away so the dust doesn't immediately cling to the film in the camera back. It does work, not perfectly, but well enough to keep extra dust away. If it is really windy you may have to wrap the camera or pack up & wait out the dust storm or shoot with a waterproof camera.

Lenses are fun and every time you change them you open the camera body as well. Dust on the mirror as well as lens surfaces. Tight fitting back caps help a lot when you carry the lenses & familiarity helps to do a quick change. It is more important to get the new lens on the camera body first to keep dust out than to put the old lens in the case quickly. Again, the anti static brush helps as well as the computer spray. If you are walking far you won't take the spray with you but if you can sit & relax a bit while changing it will help prevent accidents.

Oops! Dropped the darn thing! It happens to us all. Mud, sand, water or rocks. They all hurt photo gear. Rolls of film love water holes and spaces under rocks. Cameras like to fall on exposed lenses. Water & mud puddles appear at inopportune times and they all seem to be magnets for our gear.

If you drop it, pick it up & brush off or use the small towel in your camera bag to quickly wipe off the obvious junk or moisture. Shaking a bit or tapping on hand or leg will knock off some stuff. Wiping with a damp cloth will get a lot of mud. If it is really soaked, wrap it & have it checked out by a good repair shop (good luck on finding one-really good ones are scarce). But at any rate, don't force anything when you hear grinding or shaking & rattling. Force will cause more problems.

Having all your gear clean before going into the field helps a lot. It also gets you familiar with all of it. The more familiar you are with your photo equipment, the easier it will be to tell when something isn't right with it. Not excessive scrubbing of lenses and bodies, but general cleaning inside and out. A small vacuum for the inside and gentle wipedowns of the outside. Rotate focusing rings & knobs to see that they work smoothly. If one starts grinding & you are immediately aware of it you can often stop trouble before it gets big by tapping or gently working the action. Canned air often forces the grit further into the part & makes it more difficult to get out. If you can't do it, let a pro clean it for you.

Film is a problem as well. In really dusty conditions, the flour fine dust in Saline Valley, Red Rock country and so many washboard back roads, plastic bags while travelling are worth the effort. Baggies or Zip Locks work well and save a lot of heartache. If you shoot large format, be aware of one problem. Loaded film holders bouncing in the back seat of a jeep for 72 miles into Death Valley from Big Pine on rotten washboard roads bounce the film up & down in the holders. Mile after mile after mile. If you shoot Fujichromes you will see it as small vertical scrapes, sometimes into the emulsion & film base. You will seldom see it in Ektachrome films, they have a tougher emulsion. If you really hit the back roads in the powder dust, ziplocks will help a lot, but even more is to lay the holders flat rather than standing up, and wrap in towels or padding to absorb some of the shock & prevent the bouncing. Fuji tech center advice is to load them on site but that is impractical for most of us. (ever try loading film in the back areas of Death Valley in a changing bag while under a sleeping bag trying to keep extra light out, while in a small camper shell-never again, I bet I lost 20 pounds to sweat & ruined 5 sheets of film with sweat as well)

For 4x5 shooters, readyloads or quickloads will help solve some of these problems, with the Fuji films having only one sheet per packet so they only open once, scene shot, and are closed & put back into the ziplocks until you get them processed.

When you unload your gear, be careful. A lot of sand gets into the small areas of shirt sleeves, camera cases & then drops right into your equipment. A vacuum doesn't hurt the bag & can save you problems by taking out the major part of the silt & dust before opening some of the cameras.

Cameras & lenses are only the beginning. You took all the precautions & came home with clean & functioning gear and clean film.

Now you have to get it processed. That 7 day trip to Mt. Whitney and the Owens Valley is priceless, so don't take the film to the cheapest place you know of or into a dirty darkroom if you do your own processing.

Even the best labs can have a glitch or mistake, but not often. A place like The New Lab or A&I get known for high quality & are worth dealing with. Others will do a good job as well. If you are uncomfortable, send it to another lab. If you don't feel up to the task of doing the work yourself, send it to a high quality lab.

Examine the film when you get it back & if there are any glitches, water or drying marks or anything you can't quite figure out-ask about it. Any good lab will clean the film or re-mount immediately. You have a right to expect clean images as output for all the work you put in keeping the sand & grime from your film in shooting and transporting it back safely.

If you do your own darkroom work there are a few things that will make a big difference. Filtered or purified water helps a lot. My area has very hard water and it fluctuates with the seasons, snowmelt, line cleaning & chlorination. I switched to Culligan bottled water & almost all of my problems stopped. I use it for the developer, fix and the last two baths before hanging film or prints to dry. Yes, I photo-flo the negs and I gently squeegee the prints (but not my negs). The purified water with some minerals added (culligan) works well for me, is consistent and has tamed the Xtol consistency problems in development. Water quality makes a big difference.

So does the air quality. Since buying a large Honeywell HEPA air filter I have cut down on dust on film in the holders and in the printing as well. My print spotting has gone way down. I also use the anti-static spray when I turn on the filter, about 20-30 minutes before a processing session, at the same time I plug in the cold light head to warm up. If you saw my darkroom you would probably wonder how clean prints ever come out of it. An old animal hospital sink, exposed lath & plaster ceiling that sometimes comes down a bit (a few times I have had small pieces fall into chemistry) and the enlarger. The air filter makes a world of difference. So does the static control.

One other thing helps as well. Before hanging film to dry, (I use the bathroom) I run the shower on hot for a few minutes & get some steam generated to take the dust out of the air. Close the vents & then let it settle for 5-10 minutes before hanging my freshly photo-floed film to dry. It takes a bit longer to dry this way but comes out very clean. I have tried using a water spray in the darkroom before turning on the air filter and after but can't see any difference, so the filter seems to do a good job either way. If you live in a very humid area you might not need the shower trick. One that worked for me in Kansas with 100% humidity was to close the doors after putting in a few of the reusable drying or desiccant containers in the room.

Whether in desert or humidity, I try to wear worn cotton clothes that don't shed lint & dust to screw up my film. It is hard enough getting good images without ruining them with my own clumsiness.

Negative and slide storage makes a difference as well. Keeping static down keeps more dust off the negatives or slides. PEC 12 is the answer if a light dusting with a quality anti-static brush or compressed air doesn't work. And with todays computers, digital repair and new output of scratched slides is much easier than just a few years ago. Even FoundView can't argue with straight repair, and you will need it someday no matter how careful you are.

Dust, smoke and grease are all airborne and ruin your images. One friend cooks the most gosh-awful sausage in his photo lab & has lost customers as a result. The grease from his home made sausage (not to mention the smell) wafts through the air and lands on negatives and then shows up on prints. A $70,000 processing machine makes no difference when you are the cause of poor results. Keep it clean, keep your airborne problems in the kitchen and your film far away. If you have to work there, a bit of water mist and/or anti static will help you do double duty. Your sudden interest in cleanliness may surprise your spouse or partner as well. Real slobs & fine photography don't mix. (us gently sloppy & disorganized types have a little leeway but would still be better off being clean).

Clean cameras, clean lenses, clean film & clean prints all add up to a lot fewer throwaways due to dust & dirt glitches. It is easy to go overboard & in some instances it happens to all of us. When you realize just how fragile (yet at the same time how tough) film really is you may be surprised we get such good results so often. Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Agfa and the rest give us products of the highest quality (and no, I don't know what the best film is). A lot of the problems we find with them are of our own making and many can be traced to pure sloppiness on our part. Keeping everything clean helps a lot.

So does working with set patterns. Lens "A " in "slot A" in the camera bag. Filters in a set place & put back. Cable release always in the same place. Spare batteries here, the small portable strobe there, etc., etc. All a part of working for clean images by taking away everything that might interfere, from dust to distractions that we have some control over. If you are four feet from a really good looking rattlesnake & need to change lenses, you don't want to fumble and take your eyes from the snake. Knowing where things are by experience, knowing it is always in the same place and is always clean, will allow you to get that shot (or allow you to walk away sure you didn't leave something in your nervousness).

Working clean pays off in better images. Working with regular patterns & habits pays off in allowing you to concentrate on your images. Then when the dust glitches crop up, they are the exception, not the rule.

Attached image: Sand Dune Patterns, Owens Valley, California.

The same patterns we love to see and photograph are killers of our gear. They are formed by the wind. Protecting our photo gear will allow the images without prematurely wearing out cameras. From hot to cold conditions we face obstacles to successful photography. Working smart helps improve our odds and better prepares us for when those "once in a lifetime" opportunities arise.