I developed my first sheets of 8x10 Tri-X. Totally 9 sheets, I did 2, 3, 4 sheets in batch, in trays with 3-4 minutes presoak, I tried XTOL (1:1) 7 minutes and I tried HC-110 4 minutes. I used night vision goggles and constantly interleave the sheets from bottom to the top.
I noticed uneven development in highlights (like stains?) only. Other parts of negs seems to be developed OK.
How to improve my development?
Looks like the film is not making initial contact with the developer in an even manner. This should be eliminated with the water pre-soak. Even so, how are you adding each sheet to the developer? A quick plunge for each individual sheet, or putting the whole stack in at once?
It's kind of a stretch here, but to my eye, there's a consistency in the shape of the marks - they seem roughly the same in all three images - they look vaguely hand-like - they are subtle, but... Is there any chance they are exactly that, marks from your hands? Wet hands on dry film?
I also think that this could be an issue with uneven initial contact. I added each sheet separately to the developer after 3-4 minutes in presoak , "inserting" long side first at about 45 degrees and let film drop in to developer.Originally Posted by ic-racer
Strange that only highlights are affected, no dark and midrange tones have this issue. Or only highlights are most sensitive part to initial contact with developer?
Actually this uneven "stains" are completely different in shape and position. Only in common that they are always in highlights.
I use gloves to develop, and unload from holders touching only rim of the film by bare fingers. I constantly change the place where I grab the sheets during developing: top, middle and bottom of long side.
I have experienced the same problem with other brands of film and developers when I started to develop 8X10 sheets in trays. Appears to be bromide streaking and surge marks.
Occurred when i used 8X10 trays for developing 8X10 film. Also, when I interleaved the film in only one direction.
I switched to 10X12 trays and began to alternate between vertical and horizontal interleaving. I also pre-soaked for at least two minutes, agitated the film continuously for the first thirty seconds, then interleaved through the stack once each minute until the time expired. That technique solved my problem.
As long as I am careful not to scratch the film, it doesn't seem to matter whether the emulsion side is facing up, or down.
I'll second that. Looks like an agitation problem. In my experience most agitation problems are due to too little agitation, especially early in the cycle. Developer exhausts surprisingly quickly early on, particularly in the higher density areas, simply because there's so much work for it to do there.
Bruce Watson
I use 11x14 trays. Once I tried to change vertical/horizontal but got scratches. I'll try again more carefully. Thank you.
I think you were more than careful enough in your developer agitation. I've seen similar odd shapes or even repetitive lines caused by a weak fixer in tri-x developed in D-76. IMHO I think the culprit is too short a fix or too weak of a fix. I hope this helps.
RF
If the film was under fixed. or the fixer was weak, the film would not have cleared completely. The problem would have shown up as a milky appearance to the negative and a blotchy appearance in the print.
That problem could have been solved by re-fixing the negative in fresh fixer.
Most problems with streaking and surge marks occur during the first minute of development. They easily be solved with careful agitation.
(See: Anchell and Troop --"The Film Development Cookbook").
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