strange spots on film, and how to avoid them latter
It is too late now to shot again... :(
Well, I have found some strange spots on my films. On almost all of those I'm working last few weeks - it is my project for membership in ULUPUH (The Croatian Association of Artists of Applied Arts) and I have to print my photographs on monday and to apply my application on tuesday.
I have chose to work with (new in my set) g-claron 240 on sinar because I knew how good is g-claron 210 and because I was to lazy to put that ("old") 210 from linhof to sinar lensboard and because sinar gives me much more control than tachihara. Bad idea? Will find out latter.
So, those spots are on all shots except those two I made with old symmar 135 because I needed some more angle of view. Well, those two aren't that sharp, but Photoshop will help a little bit. For the rest (22 shots) Photoshop will have to help a huge bit. Luckily I have some 18 years of experience with his tools, but am really in a tight... time? (sorry for my clumsy english :)
And, those spots are only in out of focus areas..!? So I don't believe that film is problem (efke 100), as I agitated during development relatively regular (for about 15 seconds every minute during 11 minutes of developing in 1:1 diluted XTol). And I don't think that my wet workflow is problem because I developed those 2 shots (well, 4 shots of two scenes) with others in HP combi tank.
Is the lens problem? Developed films looked extremely fine and I have checked with loupe only focused areas. But when I looked at scans... horror. :( Scanner isn't problem (fine old Topaz) and I have checked those films. Yes. spots are there. Visible when you are looking for them. And they became even more visible on screen and I have no chance to check how will they look on print as my printshop isn't working on weekends. I give him a call and hi will try to get to the shop, but well, that isn't the topic now. (just wish me luck and hold your fingers and do whatever can help so jury will find those spots as some sort of artistic statement. stupid, but what can I do now?)
So final question - if the lens is problem (and lens looks clean as I remember, I'm at home now and that g-claron is in studio and I have no time at this very moment to go there, but will go there on monday and will tell you if it have some marks on it's (back) elements...) what to do in future to avoid such spots? To shot at f 64? :) To clean it somehow? (and what?)
Re: strange spots on film, and how to avoid them latter
This isn't and easy one to solve but I do have some questions. Are the spots in exactly the same place on each of the negatives? If not, then it's not a lense problem. Also, they may be in the in-focus areas but you can't see them because of the detail of the image. You might try developing a blank sheet of film and see if the spots are still there. If they are there then the next thing to try is fresh developer (maybe with distilled water). If the spots are gone then is was a developer problem. If they're still there then it's a film problem.
Re: strange spots on film, and how to avoid them latter
Janko,
I don't think it's a lens problem. Same thing happened to two of my JancC 100 negatives this past weekend. Exactly the same spots like yours. I used Rollo Pyro with Jobo 3005 drum. Maybe a batch of bad film.
Re: strange spots on film, and how to avoid them latter
Dark spots on the positive mean that you have light spots on the negative itself. This means that it's an exposure problem -- something was blocking light from reaching the film.
Dust on the film leaves well defined and sharply focused spots. Dust on the lens is so out of focus that it is rarely a problem.
Have you cleaned the inside of the bellows of the camera lately?
Re: strange spots on film, and how to avoid them latter
Janko, I'm not familiar with the HP Combi Tank so I googled it to see what one looks like. When I saw what it looked like I believe the spots are from air bells/bubbles that lodged on the film when you poured the developer into the tank. When that happens the film is usually underdeveloped resulting in darker spots on a print. I've had that happen on roll film developed in tanks. The solution is to bang the bottom of the tank on the counter several times after you have poured in the developer. Using inversion agitation rap the tank to dislodge bubbles. If the tank is plastic fold a towel several times and use as a cushion. Otherwise, you will crack the tank. Another solution is to use a water presoak before the developer. Good luck with future sheets.
Re: strange spots on film, and how to avoid them latter
I had a batch of Efke50 and a batch of J&C Pro100 that had that problem, kinda looked like something "rotted" on the film. It wasn't an air-bell on the film (I use a Jobo). It was bad film. A complete bad batch. I was running in the same tank as the J&C some HP5@800 and had no problem with that film. All was run at 68F with HC-110B. And it was all 120, but all the same...
The rest of film batch was tested and some exhibited the same results in different developers. It was weird, shot two rolls of Efke, tabletop, with strobe on a MacBeth. Developed, say, two rolls in a tank. One would show it, the other didn't.
I just tossed all the film and got some fresh Acros. Haven't had the problem since.
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