INTRODUCTION TO DARKROOM

Squeegees

Water spots can damage or ruin prints and negatives. A squeegee is a neat, quick and clean way to rid negatives and prints from excess water. They come in two styles: a traditional rubber or hard plastic design that resembles what you wash windows with or pincer design where a negative is placed inside and the pincer dragged over the length of the film. Flat squeegees are good for prints; pincers are better for negatives (NOTE: Many printers feel that once a negative comes out of the Photo-Flo, it should not be touched.

They prefer to hang it up and just let it dry). After a print comes out of the holding tray, a good squeegee-ing action will allow you to see the image more clearly, help with "dry down", and afford you a better evaluation of the image. In conjunction with a good squeegee, a darkroom area should have a smooth, bubble-free, acrylic plastic or metal sheet on which to do the actual "squeegee" activity.