Fluid Mount Scanning Tutorial: A step-by-step guide

[@davidbatterbury9213]

I've had a fluid mount for my V750 for several years now but gave up using it since the results were not worth the effort. BUT, having stubled across your excellent 'how to' tutorials I have tried the equipment again. Now I am a happy bunny!

[@jimsim3]

distilled water works great from boots. Distilled water is water that has been boiled in a glass flask into vapor and condensed back into liquid. Thus, distilled water is purified, no irons so no -/+ charge and no contaminants just save you $150 bucks

[@josephraffurty9293]

I am absolutely enjoying your presentation on film processing. I am just beginning to learn about the wonders of film and am looking forward to make it a lifelong hobby. Your films will be instrumental in my study and appreciation of this art!

[@ianfrankish5114]

Great vid James ! The etched glass you speak of is anti-Newton glass and prevents Newtons rings I use it for the same purpose in my enlarger negative carriers for keeping film flat ! Can't wait for the next episode 👍🇬🇧

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Yes Ian that's it - I tried before with regular glass and found out the hard way that these rings will occur without the proper ANR glass. Great that it can be used that way in enlargers too, I never thought of that and will hopefully be trying out enlargers this year for the first time in many years!

[@cdl0]

@@JamesStevensonPhoto P.S. Newton's rings are caused by interference, not diffraction. In the classic physics experiment, these are seen when a convex lens is placed upon a flat surface. This configuration has circular symmetry around the point of contact, which produces coloured rings. It represents a demonstration of the wave nature of light. Good, clear, and interesting video BTW.

[@urbanimage]

Kami scanner fluid is basically 90% Naphtha / lighter fluid and 10% Mineral oil / White Spirit. If you mix your own, you might find that the negatives will benefit from a rinse in water (ideally deionized )+ wetting agent. Kami fluid does also have a small amount of n-Hexane in it which lowers the flash point and aids evaporation. In practice, you don't need the n-Hexane.

[@marcosspalding8467]

Very high quality content and brilliantly presented. I started film photography because of your earlier videos and I will continue to follow along. Keep up the great work!

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Marcos that's so great to hear! Especially for me, as I switched career last year to take up photography full-time as a professional. It's a daunting step but it's great to know that these videos are connecting with people like yourself and that you're finding them useful. It really helps me to know things are going in the right direction. I plan to regularly add free content, and will soon be offering premium content that really dives into the nuts and bolts of things with specific courses. As those will take me a lot more time to put together they'll be for sale on my website but there will always be free guides and tutorials too!

[@kylemichaels7934]

Great tutorial! Inspired me to finally pull the trigger on a fluid mount setup but I can’t believe how expensive shipping is for a single bottle of scanning fluid 😧

[@derinvanderspoel990]

Great video, very informative! I've never heard of fluid mount scanning until now.

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Derin VanderSpoel Thanks very much!

[@LarryParamedic1]

James, Thank You for this video! I'm looking forward to your next one!!

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Most welcome! I'm working away on it right now so it'll be here very soon :)

[@timdoreck3208]

James Very nice presentation. Excellent audio and steady recording of the process. Taking your time and moving thru each stage of preparation is well done and so often with poor audio. With WET SCANNING now possible with the NIKON COOLSCAN 8000ED and the 9000 ED I will have to try the products you are using. I will be using your techniques with 4 x 5 and the step by step preparation using the fine line of Epson Perfection flat bed machines Thank you for the education.

[@That-Guy-Ben]

Can't wait for more videos!

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Thank you! Lots more coming :)

[@jackdeangelis6585]

Well done. I'd add that you can actually use mineral oil instead of Kami fluid for wet mounting. The advantages of mineral oil are: (1) no breathing hazard (people who use Kami fluid all day long generally do it under some kind of active ventilation), (2) does not evaporate so you have a longer working time, (3) it is cheap (I use small can of sharpening stone oil). The big disadvantage is that you have to re-wash your negatives when you are done. I slip them into a distilled water bath with a little Dawn dish soap, rinse and hang to dry. If you do film processing this should be no problem. Also, you can buy packs of clear acetate sheets from any art supply store.

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Sorry I missed this comment from a year ago, I appreciate your insights - always something to learn and I didn't know this.

[@mauhimauhi2063]

@@JamesStevensonPhoto Love your film work flow especially, scanning and the post production. Hope you will be back on youtube soon.

[@girliedog]

This is a very well done tutorial. Too many You Tubers interject verbos and ameturish intros etc... I prefer your style.

[@jimjasutis5046]

I have seen multiple video tutorials on fluid mount scanning, and they all seem to end at the same point you end here. I have not seen anyone talk about getting the film back off the glass, and/or cleaning the fluid from the film and preparing the film to be put back into storage. Any tips on either of these topics?

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Jim Jasutis good point Jim! Truthfully that’s because it’s a case of just peeling back the mylar and the fluid evaporated almost instantaneously. There’s no need to clean the film and it’s dry in moments. No watermarks at all are left. The glass can the be cleaned with lens or glass cleaner or simply blown with compressed air for the next scan, you can see whether it needs cleaning and most often with careful handling it won’t. I should have mentioned this in the video though, so I hope this helps!

[@jimjasutis5046]

Thanks, that does clear things up. The thought of covering a favorite negative with fluid was kind of scary. Good to know that it goes away on its own.

[@hizokuto]

It seems like the mounting fluid is a organic solvent which is probably naphtha (depends on the brand). Volatile enough to make cleanup easy, but sticks around long enough to get a scan. You can't use anything water based because it soaks into the emulsion causing swelling and softening it. In that case, the sticky emulsion can tear as you peel it off the glass.

[@jimjasutis5046]

I just saw a video by one of the companies that makes a kit for fluid scanning. They showed a test that seemed to indicate that while their glass mount was better than the mount that comes with the scanner, the best results are actually obtained by using no mount at all, and putting the scanning fluid and film directly on the scanner bed.

[@andyvan5692]

@@JamesStevensonPhoto so you are POSITIVE the negatives are not destroyed in this process, as it looks like you are gluing the negative to the glass plate.

[@brklynbstrd]

Awesome video man! Love that you’re walking us through all of the steps to the film scanning process.

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Thank you! I think it's good to know all the options available to you. Many people don't bother with these steps with flat bed scanners and can be very dismissive of what they're capable off with a little tweaking, at a fraction of the cost of studio grade film scanners they can hold their own up to a certain resolution.

[@brklynbstrd]

James Stevenson Photography I actually in just the last month got into film and self-scanning. I only have the V600, but I’m actually pretty impressed already in terms of quality. Not the sharpest (getting the better scanning variable height tray next week to see if this helps), but the files have a surprising amount of information. Quick question that’s not 100% related; do you ever have issues with 35mm negs being curled on the short ends? Never been a problem before, but I shot some rolls of 400h recently and it was a real problem trying to scan. Better Scanning anti-newton glass helped, but I was wondering if there are any permanent fixes for the warping. Maybe a topic for a video in the future? Thanks again for everything!

[@siark-photo]

Out of interest, Haynes Graphic Arts in the UK also supply the Kami products, including a starter kit for £79.85 (though it includes fewer mylar sheets and scanner wipes). Great video too, thanks for posting :-)

[@christinaolsson7023]

you´re absolutyly the the best,James!! thanks

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Hehe ahh thank you, glad this was helpful.

Would be nice to see samples of dry vs wet, everything else equal.

Great video! Two things I would like to mention though... 1. I don't think it's a good idea to handle film w/o gloves. No matter how careful you are you will get stains on those negs. 2. Using a black mask around the scanning area is good practice to avoid reflections and glare. The type of mask that came with the film mount... ;-)

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Thanks Michael - I agree on both counts! There's definitely always a risk of getting oil from your skin on the negatives and gloves are very good practice. One thing I will say though is that oh my the fluff!! I heard that fluid mounting mitigates dust before I tried for myself - and found the opposite to be true; getting any dust in that fluid ends up with a lot more post fixing than dry mounting as once it's in it's not getting blown away! Gloves are definitely good practice for looking after and handling your film and I always do when dry mounting, it's just a personal preference when fluid mounting to handle super carefully by the unexposed far edges on my own work as I find the amount of dust that ends up in the fluid is the worse of two evils and I'll generally only be handling / doing this once. Black mask! Yes - I did mean to mention that in this video, and forgot - so I added it to the beginning of the next one and showed it in use. I knew I'd forget something haha! Thank you for watching and commenting.

[@darrenwall5439]

Thank you! Great information 😃

[@Makaveli6103]

Wearing gloves makes this process much easier. No prints on the glass or film. Also should put a layer of the fluid on the glass before laying down the film. But great video and looking forward to the Vuescan video next week. Am thinking about getting it.

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Hi - thanks for watching! I think I need new gloves, and I'm going to try that. With my current ones I found when using mounting fluid I always seemed to end up with more fluff / dust on the film stuck in the fluid than without. I always use gloves when dry mounting as I know can blow off the dust but found that with fluid mount mine made more work than they saved. I agree that they keep prints off the glass though and save cleaning steps, so I'll try better / new gloves to see if it helps! Re. Fluid on the glass - I agree and I did do that - I show that step here kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXfFeadmrpuFlbMm34s Fluid on both sides of the film is critical, you're right. I blew dust off the film before doing it but it's definitely there in the steps!

[@Makaveli6103]

Try nitrile gloves. Not sure what comes in the Aztek package but I use them when scanning and work great.

[@nanosecondtomidnight7774]

Would be useful to see what you do with the film after the scan. No one seems to be showing this. Does the fluid evaporate quickly and the film can be put away? Don't like the idea of putting liquid on both sides of my negatives.

[@billleontaritis6617]

great stuff thank you so much

[@JHuntPhotography0]

Such a cliffhanger! I thought we would see the scanning process.

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Hahaha it's coming my friend, I'm making it right now! I like to introduce a little Hitchcock suspense to the proceedings to keep things interesting! Thanks for watching!

[@denouvel]

Thanks for your videos!! very usefull !!

[@nikthekat]

Thank You.

[@brewstervideoproductions]

Good evening. Using Epson V850 Pro. I was wondering what would be the best settings to set for scanning negatives when using a wet/fluid mount? I tried using 48 bit (image type) and 4800 (resolution) but the scanning freezes. Meaning the blue light on the very top stays at the top and never moves. When I open the lid, the light to the lid doesn’t move either. When I changed the image type to 24 bit and resolution to 3200, then it doesn’t freeze and scans fine. Please help. Thanks.

[@littlewhitebunni]

Great video, curious If this method would work on Kodachrome or ektachrome slides if you took them out of the cardboard. I haven't been able to find any information online about trying it with this method but seems like it'd help with scratches.

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Thanks for the kind words! I see no reason why that wouldn't work, the principles are the same though I've never tried it. I'd just take great care that you dont damage the slide, as it might be a bit destructive to remove it, at least to the frame. I did scan a slide for a friend recently but just kept it in the cardboard frame and used the slide mount that came with the scanner, results were good! My old V700 is still chugging, it feels like old tech now with its fluorescent light but it works as well as it did on day 1!

[@retromograph3893]

Great! Question: once you've finished, how do you clean the mounting fluid of your negative?

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Hi! It almost immediately evaporates leaving no trace. I've checked my negatives even years later for rescanning and never once seen any damage caused. This - at least - is my own experience! I'd recommend testing on film that's not essential to preserve just for your own peace of mind. Thanks for watching!

[@retromograph3893]

Cheers! For what it's worth, last night i did my first fluid mount scan. When i compared it to just placing the negative (4x5) loose on the glass, the difference was so small, that it hardly seems worth the bother. Which is good and bad news. Bad news because i bought all the gear for fluid mount scanning. Good news because it's quite a hassle. Anyway, i'll try some more and see if i can improve on the glass mount scan.@@JamesStevensonPhoto

[@filmasart]

Great tutorial!

[@sebastiangladstone864]

Where are those tongs from that you are handling the negatives with? Thanks for the video super helpful.

[@NicholasReichard]

I am curious how you clean the negative after you scan it or if there are any negative sides of fluid mount scanning? Really enjoyed the video!

[@jaykickliter]

I had the same question and didn't find any answers until I tried it myself. Turns out the KAMI fluid dries in seconds when blasted with a little air. It doesn't _appear_ to leave any residue

[@KarlEchtermeyer]

Any advice on scanning glass-plate negatives? I have some that would benefit from wet-mount scanning, but I’m reticent to try in case there is anything special needed. If you don’t have any experience with them, that’s fine, but I’m hoping you have some idea.

[@colinburgessleaman]

Any additional tips for removing air bubbles? Sometimes even with the roller the persist.

[@filmasart]

How do you prep the film after the wet mount scan?

[@josephraffurty9293]

Thank you for all your videos on scanning and editing film. Will you also be doing videos on analog film printing?

[@JavierViramontesR]

How do you clean the film?

[@broadexuk]

What about after scanning - what happens to the negative, how do you clean it before archive?

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

No cleaning required! The fluid simply evaporates right of the film, you can see it happen. I leave mine for a few hours just to be sure it's dry, but you can pretty much return it to a storage sleeve in moments. I've never seen any ill-effect to my archived film.

[@DennisMathias]

How do you find focus on a flatbed?

[@zbvision]

May I ask where you purchased the roller from? Also, would you mind sending me a link to the grid you printed out? I thought that was a very intelligent idea and I will be using that technique with my current setup as well. Super informative video! Cheers

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

I wish I could be more helpful - honestly I can't quite recall with the roller! I think it was an eBay special, and the grid was just a google image search for a grid which I quickly printed out. Nothing fancy - any hard rubber roller will serve you well. Very happy to hear you found this useful!

[@zbvision]

​@@JamesStevensonPhoto I was wondering what the primary difference in glass quality is between the fluid mount only and Dry + Fluid Mounting Station. Are both made of true glass or is the Dry + Fluid ANR glass made of Acrylic like the epson OEM v850 ANR 'glass' film holders? Which one did you purchase with your Variable Height Mounting Station? Thanks!

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

@@zbvision I'm not too sure on the differences in all honesty, and it was quite a while back I ordered these - I think I just ordered the variable height station with ANR glass (which is true glass), and then just experimented! It's of high quality and has yet to show any signs of wear etc. Hope that's of some small help in your research Zachary!

[@zbvision]

@@JamesStevensonPhoto This definitely helped me make my final decision! Thank you so much James. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

My pleasure - please share your results with me or let me knowhow you get along here, it'd be great to know if there's anything I missed or can add to future videos when I get back to making some!

[@johndoddato2662]

Jim, Great informative video. I always throw away the optical mylar after one use. Is this your standard practice as well? Do you ever scan black and white film? Thanks, John

[@rwl7532]

Always wash and dry your hands before any working with film.

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Good call!

[@rwl7532]

James Stevenson Photography A simple step not emphasized enough!

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

I'll mention it in the next video :)

[@DennisMathias]

I always glove with surgicals. Also, microfiber really helps and actually makes total cleaning at least a possibility for the flatbed glass. Compressed air is a must for me.

[@wenonot]

Hi, I'm someone who's looking forward to receiving a v850 epson scanner soon and I found your tutorial very helpful. Thank you. By the way Epson also produces holders for fluid mount scanning. Do you have any videos that reflect your views on both (the epson and the product that you've used in your video) fluid mount holders? Thank you once again. ^^

[@ericsonson7363]

I'm getting PTSD flashbacks to printmaking courses.

[@markharris5771]

I am thinking thinking about getting a fluid mount, but I’ve yet to find out what happens to the negative afterwards. Are they damaged at all going through this process? If they are I think I’ll leave it and carry on cleaning my scans. The negative holders are also improved on the v800 and you can adjust the height of the holders you get with the scanner. Out of curiosity, is there a reason you don’t wear lint free gloves? Another great video, you’re entire approach and general philosophy around photography is one of the best on KZbin for either analogue or digital.

[@JamesStevensonPhoto]

Thank you for the kind words and questions here Mark. I did hear that the V800 holders are improved over the V700 ones, especially in the ease of setting various height settings. Some comments I've read are from people who don't like the extra glass because of extra dust gathering surfaces but that issue is much the same here, things just require a little more care and attention and perhaps a little more clean up but the negatives are held flat which is a good thing. Gloves! Many people have asked me that or recommended I wear them. In my other videos about scanning you'll notice I usually do. What I've found is that with fluid mount scanning, as they invariably shed fluff in use and that dust tends to get trapped in the fluid. Whilst the fluid is helpful in filling in small scratches on older or damaged negs, it doesn't help with dust; once those particles are in there there's no blowing them away! I've personally taken to very carefully handling by the unexposed edges and using the tweezers for adjustment / picking the film up afterwards. I also had the same concerns you did with the negative damage. I did a lot of reading and nowhere could I find any cases of film being damaged which set my mind at ease. I've been using this technique for several years now too and have never seen any adverse effect at all. Aztec are specialists who also make products for drum scanners and film cleaning solutions, my feeling is that if their products caused any damage there would be accounts of this. The fluid evaporates very quickly after use and no trace is left. I only leave the film in as long as it takes to scan but have occasionally accidentally left overnight and still I've never seen any issues. Thanks again for watching! Hope this was helpful!

[@markharris5771]

James Stevenson Photography Thank you very much indeed for your comprehensive answer, it really is appreciated. I'll have to give fluid mounting some thought, but I’m also looking for a 120 head for my darkroom. Then I’ll only be scanning colour images and that’s only about 2 or 3 films a month.

[@SexyMustacheUnicorn]

Why does everyone use 120 for scanning? It’s so damn easy to scan. I have yet to see a good video on 35mm

[@christominika3048]

There is a scientific name and it is nothing "strange". They are called Newton rings. And the must be touched only with gloves, and there is no right or wrong side of the film, there is emulsion side ...