Thick negatives

[James Olson]

I am new to 8x10 black and white and have a question.
When a negative is thick and takes a long time to print is this a sign that you underexposed the image or is it from processing the negative too long in the developer.

thanks
Jim Olson

[DJGainer]

usually it is an indication that you have overexposed the negative. underexposure would creat a thin negative that would print darkly quickly.

[Mark Sawyer]

Overdevelopment by enough to give a very dense negative would also give you a very contrasty and fairly grainy negative. Overexposed would also be dense, but with closer-to-normal contrast and grain, and have lots of shadow detail. You'll have to look at the negatives and guess which is the cause...

[Lenny Eiger]

I am new to 8x10 black and white and have a question.
When a negative is thick and takes a long time to print is this a sign that you underexposed the image or is it from processing the negative too long in the developer.

thanks
Jim Olson

Very dense where is the question. If it is very dense in the shadows (clear areas of the neg) then your problem is overexposure - even if it is very dense everywhere.

If it is very dense only in the highlights (dark areas of the neg) then your problem is overdevelopment.

Lenny

[Bruce Watson]

Very dense where is the question. If it is very dense in the shadows (clear areas of the neg) then your problem is overexposure - even if it is very dense everywhere.

If it is very dense only in the highlights (dark areas of the neg) then your problem is over development.

What Lenny said.

[James Olson]

It is very dense in the shadows so looks like overexposure. Thanks
everyone

jim