Negative Problem Diagnosis.

[ageorge]

I am new to film development and had a small problem with one of my negatives and was hoping that one of the experienced members here could help me understand what is causing this problem.

The details are: Film was T-max 100. I developed it with D-76 mixed 1 to 1 with water for 8 minutes and 25 seconds at 68F in a Jobo drum (2521) which I rolled back and forth by hand, one revolution about every 1.5 seconds. Stop bath 30 seconds, Fixer 7 minutes, 30 second water bath, Hypo 2 minutes, 5 minute continuous flow water bath, hang to dry overnight. Scanned the negative with an Epson 4990 flatbed scanner @ 2400 dpi in 16 bit grayscale mode.

Below is a image showing the part of the negative that has the spots.

http://alan-george.com/tmp/Picture-1.jpg

Here is a 100% crop of the spots.

http://alan-george.com/tmp/Picture-1_part.jpg

Are these water spots or something else? Is there a way to avoid/get rid of these?

Thanks in advance for your help,
-alan

[Alan Davenport]

Try adding Photo Flo as a final step in your workflow.

[Glenn Thoreson]

They look like water spots. Try rewashing and give em a good bath in distilled water before hanging. Hang by a corner. As mentioned, PhotoFlo helps sheet the water off so it doesn't spot. If you use it, ignore Kodak's dilution instructions. Two or three drops in a quart of water will suffice for your final dunk. Don't save it. Too strong, it can make an awful mess on your negatives.

[Greg Nelson]

I agree, but make SURE you mix the photo flow in distilled water and disgard it if you aren't going to use it again that day. One other thing that helps film to develop more evenly is a 5 minute water bath before development (though I doubt that's your problem here).

[Bill Koechling]

Although I am not certain, they look more to me like the result of bubbles on the film during development. If bubbles are on the film the area inside the bubbles don't get developed as much as the rest of the film causing less density in those areas.

It's always a good idea to tap the film container after the film is first put into the developer (or the developer is first put into the film). This should dislodge any bubbles.

My experience has been that water marks show up looking just a little different than what I see here.

By the way, I really like the photo.

Bill

[sanking]

I could be wrong but it looks to me that you may have splashed a few drops of devleoper on the film as you were filling the tank. These drops caused development to begin earlier than in other parts of the film that received the developer later. It may not sound logical but any problems of even wetting of the film at the beginning of development become worse with time.

Sandy King

[Jay DeFehr]

I'm with Sandy. I've seen it before, unfortunately. It doesn't take much of a time differential to cause a visible density differential, or spot. So many ways to ruin a negative, so little time.

Jay

[Bill Koechling]

I could be wrong but it looks to me that you may have splashed a few drops of devleoper on the film as you were filling the tank. These drops caused development to begin earlier than in other parts of the film that received the developer later. It may not sound logical but any problems of even wetting of the film at the beginning of development become worse with time.

Sandy King

If this were the case I would think that there would be MORE density there rather than less density which is the case.

Bill

[sanking]

If this were the case I would think that there would be MORE density there rather than less density which is the case.

Bill

Hard to say for sure. Could it have been a water spot from pre-soaking? A water spot on the negative would not necessarly speed up the rate of development at that point. It could retard it, in fact probably would, depending on the time and rate of induction.

However, the impact of a single drop of developer is not clear to me. I could see how a drop might impede overall development since it would cause local exhaustion at the point of impact. In any event, for whatever reason, these marks look like splash marks to me.

Sandy King

[Jim Jones]

I'm with Bill. I often omit a pre-wash with Photo-flo, and occasionally get these air bells on 35mm. Although some film makers advise against a pre-wash, it avoids problems, especially with short development times. When solarizing Tech Pan negatives, it is essential.

[Bill Koechling]

Hard to say for sure. Could it have been a water spot from pre-soaking? A water spot on the negative would not necessarly speed up the rate of development at that point. It could retard it, in fact probably would, depending on the time and rate of induction.

However, the impact of a single drop of developer is not clear to me. I could see how a drop might impede overall development since it would cause local exhaustion at the point of impact. In any event, for whatever reason, these marks look like splash marks to me.

Sandy King

Well, pre-soaking is pre-soaking. Where would the water spot come from? It's soaking in water. I see what you mean about the water spot possibly retarding the development but I just don't see it as a result of pre-soaking. I also see your point about the drops of developer. I just don't see how it would get on the film but maybe it does.

Poor guy learning how to develop film & has to worry about all these mystery spots. If it were digital I guess it would be dead pixels to worry about.

Bill

[Patrik Roseen]

Further up in the picture is another spot and on top of that there is a piece of dust/small hair. They seem to be in line with the smaller spots you pointed out in the crop as far as I can tell. Could it be that the spots were caused already at the time of exposure? It looks as quite a wet day, salt water etc. Would there be any particular reason for dust or humidity to stick to this 'line'?

[cyrus]

they're strangely symmetrical and identical

[Paul Coppin]

They look like water spots on a dry negative, before going into the developer, or, as was mentioned, developer splash. If the former, development will get a faster start on a wet spot than on dry film.

[frank pinchak]

I don't see any hypo remover in the description of your procedure. A five minute wash for film without it is short. I would wash for 30 mins Also use photo flow as mentioned above.

[ageorge]

Frank,

I do have Hypo in the line up for 2 minutes: d-76(depends:)->stop bath(30s)->fixer(7m)->rinse(30s)->hypo(2m)->wash(5m).

-alan