Response to Water marks on negatives

I had this problem too many eons ago. If I squeegeed, I sometimes scratched the negative, and if I used Photoflow, I sometimes got newton rings when I printed with my glass negative carrier. I resoved the problem by finishing my washing of the negatives in distilled water. After washing my negatives in a washer, I returned them, still wound in Nikor reels, to the Nikor developing tank which had been thoroughly rinsed with tap and then distilled water. I then closed the tank, poured in distiilled water, and gave it a short rinse. I followed this with two one minute rinses with agitation just as I did in the developing step. This process removes the tap rinse water which contains salts that cause the negative spotting. After the final distilled rinse, I hang the negatives to dry without touching them. If you want them to dry faster, you can remove droplets of water by dabbing with a small tissue - no wiping!

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