Film hanger clip ghost image on negative

[nathanm]

I've noticed on two negs now that I'm getting a little ghost image of the film hanger clip appearing on the edge of the negative. I develop in the dark using open metal tanks and hangers. It's very faint to the naked eye, but becomes more apparent after scanning and processing. I've attached a sample with some curves to exaggerate the effect. I am not sure what the cause might be; if it is perhaps chemical residue from the clip, an agitation thing, or maybe the nearby darkroom timer's glow-in-the-dark numbers is fogging the neg when I lift it up from the tank? Most of the negs are fine though, so that seems unlikely. Also, I thought the metal parts which cover the edges might also be fogged in a similar manner but they're not. Hmm. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Peter K]

The dark shadow is sharp so it's not a chemical fog. Looks like the shadow from a handle in the dark rectangle. This can happen during the loading of the film holder also. Have you noticed the same fault with film from another package?

Peter K

[David Spindler]

This is the result of film laying over film at some point during loading or downloading. The lines are too sharp for it to happen during processing. The +density curved shadow is a bit of a mystery. But the hard lines that overlap are a result of some form of light fog. No doubt. Time to check the loading room. I'll continue to think about it. Is there more info you can give me regarding your loading/downloading and processing practices, and has it happened before or since?

[nathanm]

Sorry for the confusion...the dark rectangle is just a marquee selection with Photoshop curves applied, I drew that over the affected area. That's what I was referring to in "I've attached a sample with some curves to exaggerate the effect." The only anomaly on the negative is the ghost image of the clip.

I have developed a few more sheets since that one and this time I taped a black plastic photo bag in front of the darkroom timer so that its glow would not be cast over the tanks and I did not get the ghost image on any of the negs. So that appears to be the most likely culprit: when I was lifting the hangers out of the developer they were probably getting some faint light from the glow-in-the-dark markings.