I use to work at a 1 hour lab outside of a mall in Knoxville. The owner, Brenda, was just plain stupid, and set of to prove it on a daily basis. In the winter time, static becomes a problem because the negative get a charge, and dust will stick to the negs, causing white specks on the prints. To help fight against the static problem, we would spray the printing chair and control area with those anti-static sprays. If you were sitting in the printing chair, there was a sign right in front of your face warning to NEVER spray the negatives with that spray! Well, Brenda was printing one night and forgot to run the negs through the compressed air (blow the dust off the negs), so the prints all came out with white specks all over them. I return the negs to her to be reprinted (who would pay for poor printing). Thinking that this strip of negs was different in some way that made it super static, she picks up a can of anti-static spray and “cleans” the negatives with it! Then whips them down with a soft cloth. I tried to stop her, but it was too late. She goes on and prints the negative and when they came out, every picture was “smeared”. That stuff can soften the emulsion, and when she wiped them, it smudged everything, ruining the pictures forever. Needless to say, when the customer came in to pick up the pics, she tells them that something must be wrong with her camera, none on the pics turned out and showed the lady a couple of the ruined photos. The customer believes Brenda, which makes me wonder who was stupider!!! Side note— the next day, all the stores got memos about how we should never clean the negs with an anti-static spray. 🙂
