What went wrong? cloudy negatives

[Greg]

Reminds me in the late 1970s when twice in a row I ended up fogged negatives. Turns out that when I turned off the main lights in the darkroom, I closed my eyes and proceeded to load the film on the reels. Opened my eyes only after I turned on the room lights. After the second time, I discovered that a red safelight in the ceiling was left on all the time.

[Crown-LF]

Was the shot that turned out fine also taken directly into the sun?

What do the edges of the negative look like? The edges should be clear since they would be protected by the film holder. If the edges are dark too, it could be a development or fixer issue.

Yes, all were taken looking into the sun. The edges of the 3 duds are dark, hmm ok. It may have been the developing then.
Might try another test with developing some sheets and try and pinpoint the issue.

[Crown-LF]

Looks like uneven development to me, too. What version holders are you using? Are you sure you loaded the holders with the emulsion side facing out? What agitation technique do you use? Do you use a water pre-wash? Assuming you've successfully developed negatives in the Stearmann tank in the past, has anything changed about your development routine?

I'm using the latest holders (4?), I'm 90% certain I loaded them correctly. I don't pre-wash, no.
I think my agitation technique was a bit different. the first few time's I developed I agitated more forcefully. This time I reread the instructions that came with the tank and followed their method. Though, if one shot came out perfectly fine...something else must be at play?

[Crown-LF]

It must be something like this (or maybe something went wrong in-camera?).

OP said one of the four sheets came out fine. That means it cannot have been a problem with the chemicals.

This was the first time developing with all 4 sides of the holders...maybe that was an issue here. I think I'll stick to doing 1 sheet per holder as I usually do and see. Althought it's strange that the negatives could stick together as I loaded them under the grooves of the holders as instruced.

Could it maybe be the film holders not being completely light-proof? Although again, if one of the sheets was perfect, then not sure.
Think I'll do a few tests to try and figure out what went wrong.

[Alan9940]

I'm using the latest holders (4?), I'm 90% certain I loaded them correctly. I don't pre-wash, no.
I think my agitation technique was a bit different. the first few time's I developed I agitated more forcefully. This time I reread the instructions that came with the tank and followed their method. Though, if one shot came out perfectly fine...something else must be at play?

You should be fine with the v4 holders. I have had issues with arriving at an agitation technique that works ALL THE TIME with the SP-445. Others love this tank and have no problems with it. Me, I moved to the following: https://20thcenturycamera.com/produc...load-film-reel. Never have had a single issue with this setup and all negs have always been evenly developed. I do a pre-wash, though.

Yes, very odd that one sheet is fine and the others not. These are always very frustrating things to figure out. Good luck!

[sharktooth]

Yes, all were taken looking into the sun. The edges of the 3 duds are dark, hmm ok. It may have been the developing then.
Might try another test with developing some sheets and try and pinpoint the issue.

Since the good one was also taken into the sun, then it's less likely to be a camera light leak. The dark edges on the 3 bad ones indicate that the edges have been exposed to light, or the fixer didn't clear fully. I would suggest taking one of the bad ones and running it through some fresh fixer to see if it clears up at all.

The dark edges could also indicate light fogging. This could happen while the film was being loaded into the camera film holders, or when removing film from the film holders to put in the developing tank. As Greg noted, it's certainly possible to forget the safelight's on in the darkroom. Since this is the first time loading more than one sheet, the handling time in the darkroom would be much longer than in the past. This would make the film more susceptible to any low level light leak in the darkroom.

[Crown-LF]

Since the good one was also taken into the sun, then it's less likely to be a camera light leak. The dark edges on the 3 bad ones indicate that the edges have been exposed to light, or the fixer didn't clear fully. I would suggest taking one of the bad ones and running it through some fresh fixer to see if it clears up at all.

The dark edges could also indicate light fogging. This could happen while the film was being loaded into the camera film holders, or when removing film from the film holders to put in the developing tank. As Greg noted, it's certainly possible to forget the safelight's on in the darkroom. Since this is the first time loading more than one sheet, the handling time in the darkroom would be much longer than in the past. This would make the film more susceptible to any low level light leak in the darkroom.

That makes sense, the good sheet may have been exposed to the light the least, thus avoiding fogging. I use a little walk in cupboard to load the holders and there was light showing from under the door. It maybe wasn't completely dark as a result. Seems the most plausible reason! the fogged sheets go from completely fogged, to less fogged, to quite cloudy to perfectly fine.

[Tin Can]

Been there done that.... recently WITH Red safety lamp on, that would have been OK

But I forgot to close the DR door and the results showed film fog increasing from one good 1 of 4

4-8X10" cheap x-ray, to test with, which I was doing