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Bill Burk
20-Sep-2011, 18:51
Does anybody do this?

Might as well, couldn't be any worse.

Ari
20-Sep-2011, 18:53
To what end?

cyrus
20-Sep-2011, 19:42
whaaa?

Jason Greenberg Motamedi
20-Sep-2011, 19:42
Put them in your stop and I bet your fingers will really sting!

johnielvis
20-Sep-2011, 19:49
I think it's supposed to sharpen up the pictures....old weegee trick

Bill Burk
20-Sep-2011, 20:58
I think it's supposed to sharpen up the pictures....old weegee trick

That must be it... It does say "Sharpest" right there on the box...

I was just miffed because I processed a batch of film a little carelessly. A shot that has a lot going for it, also has a scratch that's going to be a bear to retouch.

p.s. I work for Kodak but the opinions and positions I take are not necessarily those of Eastman Kodak Company.

cyrus
20-Sep-2011, 21:41
Whew - I thought this was going to be a prelude to a darkroom suicide note

Bill Burk
20-Sep-2011, 21:47
Oh, no - I didn't mean anything as serious as "life" - I just meant scratches on film wouldn't be any worse with razor blades in the tray.

Mark Sawyer
20-Sep-2011, 22:30
I think it's supposed to sharpen up the pictures....old weegee trick

Todd Walker once told me a Weegee story... seems a group of college kids went to see him while he was working in his darkroom. He was a bit of a slob, and used the geveloper tray as an ashtray for his cigar. The students didn't say anything, but thought it must be some secret to printing, and started buying cigars to burn for the ashes to put in their print developer. :D

Mark Stahlke
20-Sep-2011, 22:35
Todd Walker once told me a Weegee story... seems a group of college kids went to see him while he was working in his darkroom. He was a bit of a slob, and used the geveloper tray as an ashtray for his cigar. The students didn't say anything, but thought it must be some secret to printing, and started buying cigars to burn for the ashes to put in their print developer. :D
I hear Cuban cigars make the best prints. Too bad they're illegal in the US.

Frank Petronio
20-Sep-2011, 23:04
WeeGee used pee for stop bath too.

Greg Blank
21-Sep-2011, 06:38
I knew you were talking about scratches before it was clarified. You could purchase an Expert drum or use other methods to process your film. See my article in the current View camera magazine on Jobo and Expert drums.

You can also take the tack that some do and tray process one sheet at a time, or know that gaining multi sheet process in trays will take time and will require you scratch some film until you master the technique. Me personally I own and sell the Expert drums & I hate standing in the dark.



That must be it... It does say "Sharpest" right there on the box...

I was just miffed because I processed a batch of film a little carelessly. A shot that has a lot going for it, also has a scratch that's going to be a bear to retouch.

p.s. I work for Kodak but the opinions and positions I take are not necessarily those of Eastman Kodak Company.

BrianShaw
21-Sep-2011, 06:49
WeeGee used pee for stop bath too.

So did Mahatma Gandhi, except Gandhi drank his.

E. von Hoegh
21-Sep-2011, 07:27
Trim and smooth your fingernails. Go over the trays to be sure there are no sharp bits sticking out. Those were the two things that were causing the trouble for me, I found some old porcelain enamel trays in good shape, end of scratches from that source.

John Kasaian
21-Sep-2011, 08:01
Stainless or super blues? ;)

domaz
21-Sep-2011, 08:08
WeeGee used pee for stop bath too.

That's a good idea. I'm getting rid of the litter in my catboxes and replacing it with a drain straight to my stop bath bottle. Reduce, reuse recycle!

Bill Burk
21-Sep-2011, 08:30
Trim and smooth your fingernails. Go over the trays to be sure there are no sharp bits sticking out. Those were the two things that were causing the trouble for me, I found some old porcelain enamel trays in good shape, end of scratches from that source.

I wear gloves and use enamel trays, my un-doing is that I agitate "too much". I just cannot resist shuffling. Plus in this case, I tried to do two things at once, I had a tank of Minox film going during the same 13 minutes. I am sure the distraction added a jerkiness to my movements and caused the two deep scratches. But for 6 sheets of film shot, getting five printable negs, four presentable prints including one charmer - pretty good yield for the day.

I don't feel too bad about the scratches I usually get. When they are fine hairlines in the background. Ansel Adams used to get them, download high-res "Tom Kobayashi, Landscape" from memory.loc.gov and you can see scratches.

When I had a small darkroom and a cat, my fourth tray did catbox duty. Now I have a dog and room in the sink for all four trays. Catbox is the first fixer tray now.

Nice Weegee tips.

Harold_4074
21-Sep-2011, 13:37
That's a good idea. I'm getting rid of the litter in my catboxes and replacing it with a drain straight to my stop bath bottle. Reduce, reuse recycle!

I understand that you can expect as much as nine times the life, too.

Donald Qualls
27-Sep-2011, 04:34
I was just miffed because I processed a batch of film a little carelessly. A shot that has a lot going for it, also has a scratch that's going to be a bear to retouch.

Yep, I've got a couple of those. I've finally concluded that I need to process my 4x5 face down, so if I drag a corner across the face of a sheet, it won't encounter water-softened emulsion. Either that, or just bite the bullet (in terms of amount of developer) and process everything in tubes (I don't/can't use minimum developer in tubes because I use intermittent agitation, even semi-stand processing, say three agitation cycles in fifteen minutes, when processing in tubes).

Bill Burk
27-Sep-2011, 07:17
Yep, I've got a couple of those. I've finally concluded that I need to process my 4x5 face down.

I fear face down because then the emulsion is "always" rubbing something.

The last three batches have been scratch free. When agitating I use my fingers to separate the bottom sheet from the stack, push it down to re-wet it. Then begin the slide out with fingers still separating bottom from stack. I do this on each sheet handling through dev, stop, fix and wash. When switching tray to tray I pull from the top. This means dev times are possibly off by the half-minute it takes to load and unload in the "wrong" order.

My last problem to solve is the "film shadow" I occasionally get. For example where a sheet sits in dev unreplenished except for the exposed edge. May have to pre-wet or lay down more gently/carefully as I build the stack.

Bob McCarthy
27-Sep-2011, 09:25
I recently began using the Jobo system with Pyrocat. While I really enjoy the precision of time and temp, I am really scratching up the negatives while loading the reel. Im hoping I get more proficient at it but never did this much damage with trays or dip & dunk (combi).

Little tiny scratches, not big gouges.

Must be the Gillette style reel.

bob

ROL
27-Sep-2011, 10:01
Double or single edged? :p

All seriousness aside, and the obtuseness of the original post now explained, this is probably one of the better darkroom threads I've seen in awhile.

Gordon Hutchison, in his Book of Pyro, strongly recommends stack processing multiple sheets emulsion side down, to prevent scratches from corners as sheets are shuffled bottom to top. Still, some people seem to have the knack (or luck) and some don't, despite practice. If all else fails, and you still wish to tray develop, use baskets in oversize trays to develop multiple sheets simultaneously, albeit individually in action – and don't skimp on the amount of developer if you want to avoid uneven development (always in large grey areas – skies), particularly at the film edges.

J Ney
27-Sep-2011, 10:19
I had a similar issue where all the negs I was processing were getting scratched... after a while, I finally realized the culprit was a very small ridge from where they poured the plastic for the tray. I dipped into my wife's nail equipment and filed / buffed it away and I haven't had any issues since.

I guess I'm a lucky one as I always process emulsion-side up and have only had one or two scratches.