Tags
4 rolls of negatives came out blank!, film developing problems, Nowadays it seems soooo complex for the poor film photogs., The poor film photogs..., What is ruining my Tri-X 320?, x ray machine ruined my film, X-rays Ruined My Film...
I am sometimes amazed that we got all the pix we did back in the film era. Nowadays it seems soooo complex for the poor film photogs.
From APUG and Large Format forum….
- X-rays Ruined My Film…
I flew to Chicago for the new year and I really wanted to have some film on me to take pictures from the plane. I had purchased a little black ‘x-Ray’ pouch from Domke and put a few rolls in there; monochrome and c-41. I kept most of my film in the luggage, so that portion was not scanned. I really (stupidly) relied on this pouch… DON’T USE IT!!
Last night I developed three rolls of HP5 (pushed to 800). Two of which were only in the luggage, and my first roll that was scanned by the x-ray. I contact printed them, and the film base was significantly less clear compared to the others… Strange, I thought. I printed my first 8×10 work print and the grain was TERRIBLE… and forget about shadow detail… also, loss of contrast. I’m so very disappointed.
The first picture I tried printing had much shadow area and looked like absolute garbage. I tried a daylight picture and it was better, but still not what HP5 @800 in HC-110 ‘B’ should look like.
I’m almost certain it’s an x-ray issue. My question is now, how should I treat development of my other films that were passed thru the x-ray machine? Also, I have some that were left unexposed. Is there anything I can do for exposure? How about my c-41 rolls? Any insight?
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4 rolls of negatives came out blank!
Need help to figure out what went wrong. Note that this is not my first time developing film (or even HP5) at home.Ok so I just developed 6 rolls of HP5, first 2 rolls (pushed to 800) came out fine. The next 4 rolls at 400 came out completely blank, and I don’t mean just thin negatives, but completely NOTHING! The developer and fixer used are freshly mixed right before developing the first 2 rolls of HP5 pushed to 800.
Here are the steps I took, so you guys can help me identify what went wrong:
1. Pre-soak for half a minute to 1 minute.
2. Developed with Ilfosol 3 (1+9) at 20 degrees celsius for 6.5 minutes. Agitated for the first minute, then for the subsequent minutes, agitated for the first 25 seconds..
3. Water stop bath for 1 minute.
4. Fixed with Ilford Rapid Fixer (1+4) for 5 minutes.
5. Rinse for 10-15 minutes.Obviously I’m super bummed about the results, but I really want to know where I went wrong. Any help/ideas are greatly appreciated
- What is ruining my Tri-X 320?
I have been having trouble with my developing routine. The film comes out clear.
The routine is a 1 minute prewash at 68-degrees F. Rodinal 1+50 for 17 minutes at 68-degrees F., normal agitation. 1-minute tap water stop at 68-degrees F. TF-5 archival fix for four minutes, room temperature. 10-minutes wash at 68-degrees F. My 4×5 Tri-X 320 film comes out clear:
My hypotheses are 1) the Rodinal is at fault, somehow bleaching off the emulsion; 2) the fixer does not agree with 4×5 Tri-X, although it works fine on my 120 and 35mm film; 3) the batch of Tri-X is faulty; or, just maybe, 4) the shutter has failed and never actually exposed the film (unlikely because I have used the same shutter with other film and not had exposure problems).
Anybody had this quandary? Any ideas what’s up? Should I just experiment with a different developer and/or fixer?
(The first time it happened I was sure I had mis-labeled the holder as Tri-X when it actually had Portra…. But check out those notches.)
