I have been developing for quite some time now in my darkroom (aka my washroom) and I usually just hang them dry without much thought. I do get dust in my negatives. I do see them in my scans. I know it exists but subconsciously, I just ignored it. Scott Stillman referred this as the “power of positive thinking”. This was sort of what I did until one day I opened Pandora’s box. I was developing in my parents’ basement in Toronto and the nightmare started. Check out this scanned negative (no processing).
![Dusty negatives developed in an open environment](http://lotophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dust1-300x300.jpg)
Let me zoom into the left corner.
![Dust, dust, dust!](http://lotophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dust2-300x276.jpg)
This seemingly good photo is ruined. The dust particles simply took over the photo and no software can fix this easily without losing some resolution. I was not happy about this and decided to do something about it. I researched online and saw different methods to battle dust. The professionals have drying cabinets and built in heaters. Due to space and wallet constraints, those solutions were not possible. I then decided to create my own.
![sock drying rack, wedding gown plastic cover, distilled water](http://lotophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dust3-300x225.jpg)
I bought a sock drying rack, a wedding gown plastic cover and a bottle of distilled water. I will use the distilled water in the final photoflo bath so that my negatives will be mineral/ion free. I then fitted the sock drying rack inside the gown plastic cover and realized that it was too small. I upgraded to a larger sock drying rack. This rack cost $10USD (it’s made of metal!) and the gown cover cost around $3USD. The 4.5L of distilled water was around $3USD as well. This solution’s total cost was around $16USD.
![Upgraded sock drying rack](http://lotophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dust4-225x300.jpg)
It fitted like a glove inside the gown plastic bag.
![Fits perfectly!](http://lotophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dust5-225x300.jpg)
Now putting it into action.
![Dust cover in action.](http://lotophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dust6-225x300.jpg)
I scanned the roll of 120 and was impressed with the result. I will not say it’s dust-free but comparable to the ones that I get back from a professional lab. I think I have solved my dust issue! and it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg at the end. Check out this unprocessed scan of one of negatives.
![Almost dust free negatives!!!](http://lotophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dust7-300x297.jpg)