Hello
As the title suggests, I took the plunge and developed my first black and white 5x4 neg at home the other night in trays. I've done a decades worth of roll film and 35mm in daylight tanks, but this was a first for sheet films in trays.
The first problem was finding the darkest room. My apartment is light and airy, which I never thought would be a bad thing. Even the bathroom has an enormous window. But, after blanking it out with cardboard and covering the door with a sleeping bag, I had a pretty light-tight space with running water in which to begin.
My old print developing trays are in storage, so I found 3 plastic take-out food trays and used them. This might have been a mistake, as there is a tiny small sharp point of plastic, presumably from the moulding, in the base of the tray which might have contributed to the scratching on the negs.
Have a look at the attached image, nothing special at all - just a snap for experimenting and practising purposes. The scan is also a quick contact scan - no spotting or post processing.
1. I have a light patch on the image, on the left and right sides. It's most visible on the left-side of the image attached. Might this be over/under agitation? I used a constant agitation method, lifting each end of the tray in turn up and down (like when developing prints). I tried to randomize which end or corner of the tray I lifted. It occurs on one or two of the other negs, in both the left and right edges. My trays were about 6x8 inches in size - so maybe they were too small?
2. LOADS of scratches! As above, I realised the base of the food-tray I was using had a sharp bit of plastic on it. AND I realised I was developing the sheets (one by one) emulsion down. Is emulsion-up recommended? I also didnt have anywhere to dry the sheets so I left them standing up against the tray, which may have contributed to the horizontal line in the sky - it wasnt there when the neg was in the fix or wash. Re-soaking it in water didnt get rid of it, do I need to re-fix it?
3. How dark is dark? I've worked in several darkrooms before, and this is easily the least-light tight which is a little of a worry. I have pretty good night-sight anyway, but immediately the lights were off I could make out my hands in front of my face, and after 15 minutes or so of dev, stop and fix I could easily make out each tray in the bath, I could see the neg in the fix, could see exactly where the light-switch was, etc etc etc. Is it possible that, despite my efforts, my makeshift darkroom is just not light-tight enough and I have a base fog on my film?
I'd appreciate any suggestions or tales of similar experience from people out there. Are my facilities and is my method completely unsuitable, and I should give up and start trawling the pages for a daylight tank like a Jobo or Paterson Orbital?!
Thanks in advance
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