Exposure/Development/Negative Issue

[spotmaticfanatic]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to here, but I'm hoping someone can help me with the negative I've attached.90851 I exposed this on HP5+ at f32 with a Fujinon 210m lens, on a Shen Hao HZX45-IIa. Exposure time was 12 minutes. Development was for 11 minutes in Rodinal 1:50, in a tray, using Ansel Adams' method of dealing the bottom sheets up every minute, so that each sheet gets re-dunked at least twice every minute.

I've done 4 exposures of this scene, and had the exact same issue with all 4 negatives. None of the other negatives that I have shown these defects, and there was no light source that I believe could have produced this. The closest illumination were streetlamps (pedestrian, not highway-level), about 20' away from where I was shooting, but the light sources was behind the camera.

Any insight or help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ken Lee]

That could be uneven development, especially if each negative shows a slightly different pattern.

Agitation once every 30 seconds is not very much. You might want to experiment with continuous shuffle.

If the pattern is identical, then try developing an unexposed sheet right from the box. That will tell you if the film is fogged.

[Preston]

I agree with Ken. This does look like uneven development. His idea to develop an unexposed sheet is good one.

Welcome to the LF Forum!

--P

[ic-racer]

Are you using 2.5ml of Rodinal per sheet and then throwing it out?

[Doremus Scudder]

I would also develop an unexposed sheet just to be sure that fog was not the problem. However, it does look like uneven development...

Tray developing requires a bit of getting used to and refinement of agitation techniques in order to avoid uneven development, such as your negative appears to show. You don't say how experienced you are with tray development, so if my pointers here are simplistic or not appropriate, apologies in advance.

First, submerging the negative is critical, even with a presoak (which I recommend for sheet film to prevent just this kind of mottling/streaking). Get the negative into the developer quickly; the goal is to have the developer hit the entire emulsion surface at the same time.

However, pushing the negative down into the solution too quickly can get you surge marks and unevenness, so gently guide the neg to the bottom of the tray.

I shuffle once through my stack every 30 seconds. That results in a rather long agitation for each negative starting when it is pulled from the bottom of the stack. The agitation continues as the negative is quickly held up to drain and rotated 180° and then submerged (slowly) into the developer and guided to the bottom of the stack. Further agitation happens when you lift the stack slightly to get the next sheet and when you guide that sheet down on to the previous one. However, this only works when you agitate with the negatives emulsion-side-up.

If you are developing emulsion-side-down, try switching to face-up; the reduced agitation and the contours of the tray bottom itself can cause development irregularities. I tried face-down developing for a while and, while it may be a bit more secure in regards to scratching negatives, I had lots of unevenness. I switched back quickly to face-up.

Summary: presoak if you aren't (3 minutes minumum!), immerse uniformly, don't push the film down too quickly, give lots of developer motion around the negative when agitating, but nothing too violent or regular, or you'll get surge marks.

Hope this helps,

Doremus

[spotmaticfanatic]

Thanks for the input, everyone. Looking at my negs again, it does indeed appear to be uneven development. How odd though, that it would only affect 1 image, out of the couple dozen I've developed so far! I guess I"ll have to refine my developing technique.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Still the best way to develop a sheet of film is in a tray, one-at-a-time. Yes, I know it's slow and tedious but, isn't it worth it?

[SergeiR]

Still the best way to develop a sheet of film is in a tray, one-at-a-time. Yes, I know it's slow and tedious but, isn't it worth it?

not for me its not :P..

i kept scratching them and getting uneven results as this method is kinda prone to human error quite a bit.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Not sure how it can be more prone to human error than developing multiple sheets together. Your fingers are in the solution the entire time... affecting the temperature. If you wear gloves, it's difficult to seperate the film. You can scratch with your finger nails if you are not wearing gloves. You can scratch film with the edge of a sheet of film. So many things can go wrong.
If you are getting uneven results with the single sheet method, it means that you are not agitating vigorously enough. If you cannot hear the film "clack" against the side of the tray, you are not agitating vigorously enough.
But in the end, you do what works for you.

[Doremus Scudder]

i kept scratching them and getting uneven results as this method is kinda prone to human error quite a bit.

The simplest tools and procedures require the greatest skill. Tray developing takes some practice and dexterity, along with concentration. I still think that it's the best and most even method once one gets the kinks worked out however.

Best,

Doremus

[Chuck P.]

I get great results with the Combi-Plan tank. I can't imagine the difficulties of tray development, but if I was going to go that route, I think I would probably use a slosher tray.

[ki6mf]

agreed with the combi and have 4 of them however i believe they are now discontinued. rather than tray developing a rubber tank with sheet film holders would alleviate the issue with tray development. If you are practiced you can stack the holders so longer development time is at one end and shorter is at the other and you will forget which end is which at one time or anther.

[adw4516]

I'm just getting into LF, but so far I've had great success with "the Taco Method" - http://photo-reactive.blogspot.com/2011/07/taco-method.html
I use R09 One Shot 100:1 for 1 hour, agitation for 30 sec. at start and 30 minutes. Sure, it takes a while, but you can safely do 4 sheets at once, work in the light once the tank is loaded, and there is very little risk of scratching the negs