Problems processing 4x5 film, uneven negs

[mentalcrisis00]

Try not to laugh too hard, I've been away from 4x5 film for about 4 years so I'm a bit rusty. I just developed 14 sheets of 4x5 Kodak Tmax 400 iso film and I'd say about 10 of them came out with density fluctuations on the edges. Either the edges come out really white or the middle is dark and muddy. I have a few examples of this below. I'm wondering what could be the problem?

I'm using tank and hanger development which I have read can give uneven results but this is kind of ridiculous. A quick run threw of what I do is I put in 4 hangers at a time and make sure they're spaced so the film doesn't touch. I do 2 minute prewash, 9.5 minutes in diluted D76, 1 minute stop, 5 - 6 minute fix, 2 minute water wash, 2 minute fixer remover, and then 2 minutes in Photoflo.

UPDATE: AH HA! " Insufficient agitation in too small trays can cause the edge portion of the negative to develop more than the center, resulting in higher edge densities" - Ansel Adams. Too bad I didn't get the chance to read any of "The Negative" before I developed these. Still if anyone else has advice I'd love to hear it so I can avoid this type of thing in the future.

Also how should I be agitating? They never really taught me that in school. I've been just putting the hangers in the tank and lifting them up and down so the film stays under the solution at all times. However I looked at several how-to explanations that say to take the film hangers completely out of the solution and then back in slowly. I wasn't keeping a very accurate agitation cycle of 5 seconds every minute either, thats probably where I dropped the ball.

Attachment 47724

Attachment 47721

[Kirk Fry]

Did you also read the part how Adams also just used trays? No hangers!

[mentalcrisis00]

ya I did, the only reason I use hangers is because they keep me orderly. I have the feeling if I did tray development with no hangers I'd be fumbling around for the film in the dark and scratching them in the process. I've never tried tray though so it might be worth a shot, it can't get any worse than the results above.

[Brian C. Miller]

There's a number of ways to develop sheet film, of course. I tried the hangers, but I have a tendency to scratch the film. So then I tried trays. Photographer's formulary has a negative holder for trays (link), but I decided to make my own (forum link) I also use Jobo tanks.

[Merg Ross]

Ansel was suggesting that selection of tray size is important in the process. Too small a tray will lead to uneven development.

Do yourself a favor, throw away the hangers and tank, and learn to do tray development. It is the best method once you master the technique, and will give you evenly developed negatives. I do a dozen 4x5 negatives at a time in 8x10 trays, have done so for years, and never had scratched negatives or uneven development.

[mentalcrisis00]

Ross I'm wondering how you do multiple negs in tray development? Do you place them in the tray one by one or stack them in there? I figured it would be bad for the negs to be touching each other while in the chemistry? Many of the tutorials on tray development I see suggest doing one sheet at a time, which is probably good for beginners I suppose. I'd love to do tray development as long as I could get a handle on the process.

[imagedowser]

Tray's the way.

[Ken Lee]

You might find this article helpful: Plastic Containers for Sheet Film Development

[BetterSense]

I use tanks and hangars. Agitation is a subtle art and getting even negatives depends a good deal on getting the agitation right. I never got on with trays because of scratching, especially with soft-emulsion films.

[ic-racer]

"Diluted D-76" ?

Possibly developer exhaustion. Try using more developer and less water.