Hello- I am having a maddening time figuring out what is causing the graying out of the clear areas near the center of my negative.
It's subtle, but I hope viewable in these scans.
has anyone experienced this problem with 4x5 black-and-white before?
I develop in trays, 6 at a time, HC-110 stock solution diluted 1.75 oz to 30 oz water. Using a rotation method that I've used for years without a problem.
I use N-H-5 fixer diluted 6 oz to 26 oz water, no hardener. At first I was sure this problem was caused by lightleaks in my bellows, but I recently did the flashlight darkroom move and patched everything up so that I see no pinpricks of light at all with a flash light. There isn't a hard edge of the fog/graying it's subtle - the edges of the film are totally clear.
Could this be the result of inadequate fixing? I don't time the fix but rather count the rotations, it's likely 3 or 4 minutes. If it was a fixing issue would re-fixing help?
Could it be a light leak in my changing bag? Or slight fog from light spilling in past door in darkroom? Going kind of nuts here, the problem is semi-fixable in photoshop, but to go to all the trouble and expense to produce these to be able to print in the enlarger I need to figure out how to eliminate it.
It's not in every frame but in enough to drive me to make this post. It doesn't seem to ever show up in my color film (same camera, same changing bag) which leads me to believe the culprit it somewhere in my darkroom/processing routine.
Thank You for any thoughts or suggestions
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