Hello forum!
I am very new to large format photography, and I'd first like to thank the people on this site; it has really been a huge help in me taking the leap into large format, which is something that I've wanted to try for some time now.
This evening I set out to develop film for the second time in my life. I am shooting with a brand new Intrepid 4x5 and I am using what appear to be very good condition Caltar 90mm and 150mm lenses. So far I have only shot with Arista EDU 100 sheet film. I am using a Paterson two reel tank, employing the "taco" method of fitting four sheets into the tank. I previously mixed Ilford ID-11 in a 1+1 ratio. I am using Ilford Rapid Fixer, with water as a stop bath and no wetting agent.
I used the Massive Dev time/temperature chart to adjust my developing time down from 9 minutes (Arista says 8-10 minutes with ID-11) down to 7 minutes based on my temperature of 72-73 degrees.
All that being said, I believe that, in general, my negatives were developed fairly well, considering my total lack of experience. However, all four negatives have the same large, dark blotch in the same location (this same issue happened with my first attempt as well), as you can see in the attached pictures.
My hunch is that I'm perhaps not getting all of the developer washed off, resulting in those areas being overdeveloped, but it seems odd that the exact same pattern has now happened twice. It seemed to me that the four sheets were stuffed in the tank rather tightly, and maybe those sections were pressed against the wall, which prevented the developer from being washed off.
Can anybody please offer me some guidance on what I could do differently next time to avoid this? If I didn't provide enough information, let me know and I'll tell you whatever it is you need to know about my process.
Thank you,
John
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