Edge density. Is this common problem?

[jvuokko]

Hi,

I have had a lot of problems with uneven development over years, solving most of them by going to tray development and occasional slosher like development.

However, one thing bugs me. The edge density is always too high.

I haven't found any cure for this. When developing on tray, it does not matter whether films are emulsion down or up.
Same with my 'slosher' which is actually Paterson Orbital daylight tank that I keep on the water bath and agitate two 'cycles' every minute.

Actually, this edge density problem was the reason that throw me from motorized Paterson Orbital to dip'n'dunk, tank processing with inversion, rotary processing etc.. Which all gave much worse results.
Eventually I settled to old tray development..

As I seem always get more density on the edges than center of the negative, I have been thought lately that perhaps this is quite common, or even normal situation.
However, I haven't seen much prints or scans that suffers from this problem.
Ofcourse, the real print that I have seen are printed by masters and never shown any trace of grown edge density.

So how to deal with this? Is there something that is wrong in all my developing methods, or is it just the thing that should live with and do some edge burning when printing negative?

I haven't never have change to see any other person's LF negatives, so I have nothing to compare against.


Example (I put the gray edges so edge density is more visible):



And another:

[JamesFromSydney]

I wonder if it could be the film holder. I've seen similar from one of my grafmatics.

[Jon Shiu]

There is a tray developing technique called brush development that is supposed to provide very even development. Only one sheet at a time is processed though.

Jon

[bob carnie]

I do not tray process film for the reasons you are showing.
I have been using rotary, with Jobo Expert drums now for years.
Even with these systems I have found that putting the drum in your hands like you are holding a steering wheel of the car and do firm but not agressive rotation of the hands there is not only inversion but as well a twisting motion that within the first twenty seconds of deveolpment is critical.

For tray processing I can only guess that if you use much larger trays than the film , more chemistry you will keep the edges away from the edges of the tray that may be causing more turbulance, therefore more image density on the film , therefore more lighter edges on your prints, which by the way on neutral grey sky's or backgrounds are extremely difficult to print back to even density.

But this is only a idea on my part since I do not tray develop film, that may be worth trying if you continue with tray development. Having the film centered away from edges will IMO give better overall development. Chemistry is cheap, compared with paper redoes because of this problem.

[BetterSense]

What size trays do you use, and how much developer? Do you do a pre-wet?

Until you get the problem sorted you might want to avoid composing to the edges.

[Richard M. Coda]

What Bob said... I used to get them all the time in trays. Been using a Jobo since 1991 now.

[Rick Olson]

Hello jvuokko,

I get the same density edge on some of my 5 x 7 negatives. I process one negative at a time in a light-tight drum with hand agitation (over/under twice) four times a minute. I am thinking light reflecting off the edges of the film holder might be causing this. I have also not found a solution to fix the problem.

Rick

[Michael Clark]

Could also be light reflecting off the inside edges of the back of the camera where the film holder seats against. I have a 5x7 B&J field camera and get this some time, have to either crop or edge burn.

Mike

[Heespharm]

Could also be light reflecting off the inside edges of the back of the camera where the film holder seats against. I have a 5x7 B&J field camera and get this some time, have to either crop or edge burn.

Mike

Couldn't uthen paint the inside with matte black paint?

[Ken Lee]

How are these prints made ? Scanner ? Enlarger ?

Film holders and carriers can reflect light onto the film edge. I used to see this when I used Microtek film holders. Now I tape my film to the glass instead: no more edge problems.