Help with what went wrong . . .

[David Vickery]

Well, its an increase in density so its either light leaks or chemical fog--atmospheric conditions would not cause this type of defect.
Can you scan and post the entire negative, including the edges. I think that the only reason you don't see the effect in the shadow area is only because of the increased density in the print in those areas. How did you print these--what is it that you scanned and posted?
I have used the Combi Plan tanks extensively in the past, not as daylight tanks but as a series of small "deep tanks" and I don't see how you can get negatives with these kind of defects and two or three others in the same rack that are perfect. Are you sure that the others are perfect? How are you continuing the processing after the development stage? Are you taking the film out of the rack and putting it into the stop as a stack of film?
Have you considered Light leaks, a fogged box of film?

[hmf]

I agree with David; you are not seeing the swirls in the shadows because of the overall low density of the negatives in those areas, which masks the unevenness in development.

I think you should look at the other negatives that you processed that day. Do any contain broad areas of uniform high density, or are they all the woods photos you mentioned? Perhaps they look fine because they don't contain enough uniform highlight areas to expose (pardon the pun) the development problem.

[gevalia]

Nate,

My routine is to not open the tank until after my 1st rinse.
1. Pre-soak for 3 minutes. I have found that sheets do not stick together in the tank when I do a pre-soak. It also gets rid of the TMAX
2. Developer for 10.5 minutes
3. Water stop bath for 30 seconds
4. Fixer for 6 minutes - the longer fix is needed for TMAX in Prescysol EF.
5. 1st rinse - 5 minutes in tank
6. 2nd rinse (tanks gets opened) - 5 minutes in tank
7. 3rd rinse with wetting agent - 1 minute in tank
8. 4th rinse to clear off wetting agent - 5 minutes running water

[Ken Lee]

"My agitation routine is :
1. Continuous for 1st minute.
2. Then for 10 seconds every 3 minutes thereafter".

If this has worked well in the past for you, I'd be surprised. In 10 minutes, that's only 3 times. It strikes me as insufficient.

The results appear to support that impression.

One suggestion is to agitate more often - and if you still like a time of 10 minutes, adjust the temperature accordingly.

One of the reasons that some people like a time of at least 7-10 ten minutes, is that random irregularities of technique are minimized.

Do you agitate the film when it's in the Fixer ?

Since you mention that other sheets in the same batch came out fine, I wonder if your lens or film had condensation . Was your equipment cold, and then brought out for shooting into warmer, more humid air ? If so, then water might have condensed on the lens surfaces, as well as on the film.

[gevalia]

Ken,

It's semi-stand agitation for Prescysol EF which has worked out well in the past for me. Whether it be hi density or low, semi-stand works for me.


Yes, I agitate while in the fixer. 10 seconds each minute.

I was wondering about condensation also. The problem with being a newbie is that all "issues" are new to you. So I have never seen this before no matter how obvious it might seem to someone else. When everything goes fine, you're happy - not knowing what you don't know.

I'll be looking at the rest of the negs tonight to see if even though I saw no issues, if the same problems are not in the high density areas.


*** THANK YOU all for your help on this. I certainly have enough to figure out what happened
.

[David Vickery]

Are all steps done in the Combi Plan tank with the film rack? If so I don't understand how you could have film that sticks together. But the defects certainly looks like the film was stuck together at some point during processing.

When I first started using the Combi Plan tanks I had development problems because I couldn't seem to get the solutions removed or poured in fast enough to prevent uneven development, so I started using them as deep tanks set up in series so that I didn't have to worry about pouring out the solutions and pouring in the next ones. It is much easier that way.

[gevalia]

Are all steps done in the Combi Plan tank with the film rack? If so I don't understand how you could have film that sticks together. But the defects certainly looks like the film was stuck together at some point during processing.

When I first started using the Combi Plan tanks I had development problems because I couldn't seem to get the solutions removed or poured in fast enough to prevent uneven development, so I started using them as deep tanks set up in series so that I didn't have to worry about pouring out the solutions and pouring in the next ones. It is much easier that way.

David,
Film does *rarely slip off the tracks in the Combi during the process.

I've found a few tricks with the Combi to get pouring much quicker. Along with those tricks I have noticed that as the rubber top ages, it leaks far less than it did when it was new[my copy at least]. A lot less in fact. But like I said in the thread, I've spent a lot of time on my consistency since I had heard that it was where newbies (like myself) always went wrong.

[Toyon]

Is it possible that some of the film was cold and the fog condensated on it? The other possibility is that it was a swirling radioactive fog. I saw a movie about that once, but can't remember the name. Watch for a personality change if the latter is true.

[Filmnut]

I think that this is some kind of processing problem. Large areas of white (dense on the neg) are the most challenging to develop without problems. My experience is that situations like this need extra agitation to prevent uneven development. This does look rather severe though. I have had situations where a low agitation technique works well with a subject with a busy scene, or lots of shadows, but when there are a lot of high density areas the problem rears it's head. This could be why some negs appear normal and some don't.
A previous poster asked if you could scan the neg showing the edges, and I agree that this might be helpful.
A key to insufficient agitation is that the edges will look better than the centre, as there is fresh dev near the edge, but its' weak in the more central areas.
Keith

[CG]

I know this is a bit off topic. Your process kinda makes me wonder what you are trying to accomplish with the wetting agent.

5. 1st rinse - 5 minutes in tank
6. 2nd rinse (tanks gets opened) - 5 minutes in tank
7. 3rd rinse with wetting agent - 1 minute in tank
8. 4th rinse to clear off wetting agent - 5 minutes running water

You use wetting agent then rinse it back out.

I'm not sure I get why you use wetting agent, then remove it. If you don't want it, it might make sense just to not use it, or if you want to use it at a very low concentration, water it down a lot as you mix it up.

Very diluted wetting agent is generally used as the last item since it is supposed to be a part of the prep for drying the film. A smallish amount in the film is intended to help water "sheet" off the film for even drying. That said, many people don't like it and don't use it.

C