Any ideas what caused this?

[Shac]

Was going through some old 4x5 negs the other day and came across this - it was shot on Kodalith and developed in goodness knows what. I developed other Kodalith negs with it and some had a similar but not as extreme "effect". I had also developed other Kodalith shots in same developer but without problems.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance
David

(I actually quite like this serendipitous effect)

[Nathan Potter]

I'd make a guess not knowing at all what your process was. I think you may have a particularly severe case of adjacency effects. The streaks could be solution swirls from partially depleted developer. Never seen anything quite so severe though. Given the very high contrast and aggressive developer I could believe that you were using a lith developer - maybe Kodalith?

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Shac]

Nate - it was tray developed and I was a rank beginner with 4x5. You are probably correct about it being Kodalith lith developer.
I found it interesting that a major swirl emanated from the subject's mouth
Thank you for your help
David

[jnantz]

you could have used tech pan @200
and processed it in regular old print developer.
same effect ...

[flycatcher]

I don't have much experience with this sort of thing. But the last time my pictures were ruined like this I noted that the emulsion side was down and it was nearly stuck to the bottom of the tray.

[Shac]

jnanian - definitely wasn't that - but thanks
flycatcher - not that either - there were other sheets developed at the same time and they showed a similar but lesser effect - thanks also

[false_Aesthetic]

yo, when you figure it out lemme know.

seriously that some cool sh!t.

[Brian C. Miller]

I had also developed other Kodalith shots in same developer but without problems.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance
David

(I actually quite like this serendipitous effect)

Yeah, I like the effect, too! It's like the developer wasn't mixed well, poured on, let sit, and then maybe agitated a bit. So some stuff got more intense developer initially, and then other areas not so developed. Could this have been the very first negative you developed for that session?

[cyrus]

I'd definitely want to know how to get that effect!

[E. von Hoegh]

Aliens.

I like it, though.:)

[Shac]

false/A, Brian - wish I knew. It was developed with a bunch of others and as I said they didn't show such an extreme effect - ah well c'est la vie - but there again could be the aliens EvH

[Brian C. Miller]

Maybe it sort of got stuck to another negative in the batch? Also, what did the other negatives look like?

[Shac]

Brian - pretty sure no sticking was involved the other 2 looked like this. Similar problem - just not as interesting IMO