> The key is to prevent the films from drying out before they can be rewashed and dried in a laboratory, and to keep them cool while waiting for this treatment.
> Place each wet film inside a plastic bag and seal it up with as little air as possible. Do not try to remove excess water. If plastic bags are not immediately available, fully immerse each film in a bucket of clean cool water until they can be bagged up. Replace the water daily until then.
> Dealing with wet film requires the services of accessible and affordable laboratory facilities with sufficient capacity to handle the affected films.
> Globally there are now very few film laboratories with the necessary equipment and expertise to do this ... / In short, without access to a film laboratory and without sufficient funds to pay for salvaging wet films, they are likely to be unsalvageable.
> Wet films in rolls left to air-dry will almost certainly become blocked
> ... attempting to rewash films without laboratory equipment is at best risky and time-consuming, and at worst impossible. The most difficult part of the process is adequately drying the film after manual washing, as the unwound film must be air-dried in a still environment. It may be possible to successfully dry a film by winding it around an improvised drying rack, but this requires a lot of space for even a single reel, and will not be a feasible option if any more than a handful of films are affected. Forced drying using fans will result in drying marks and dirt embedded in the emulsion.
mmooss•17h ago
Ch. 6 begins the technical specifics of film. The guide also covers paper and photos, as well as magnetic tape (p. 72).