Negatives with purple cast and yellow spots

[harlekin]

I have been learning to develop my 4x5 negs and have run into a bit of trouble. My first few negatives came out well (even if the shots weren't exactly art), but more recently my negatives have had some issues. The negatives have a bit of a purplish cast to them (anti-halation layer not being removed completely?) and they have big regions that are very yellow. The edge of one of the negs almost looks burned on one edge which is yellow.

The film is Delta 100. I use 100 mL of Ilford Ilfosol 3 at 1+14 at 70-72F, 4 up in a Paterson Orbital on the motor base. I have the bottom of the tank spotted with epoxy to allow the chems to flow under the film. I use a water stop for 20 seconds, followed by 100mL Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+9. I then do a 3 pass water rinse with a small amount of photoflo in the last rinse.

What is causing the yellow spots? What can I do to improve my development process?

[Gem Singer]

What changed in your processing procedure between the first batch of negatives that came out fine and the recent batch that shows defects?

Yellow stains. Sounds like a chemical error of some kind.

[Tom Monego]

Try dipping it again in fixer, check the fixer instructions, generally film requires a stronger rapid fix. 1:9 sounds right for paper, 1:4 for film. Films like Kodak T-Max and possibly Ilford Delta require 50% extra time in the fix. I question your washing too, it generally takes 6 or 7 water changes to remove fixer, especially rapid fix. If you want to keep the water usage down use Kodak Hypo Clearing Agent or Sprint Fixer Remover, 2 or 3 water changes before 3 or 4 after. Don't hesitate to put the film back in the fix.

Tom

[harlekin]

I'll have to go through my notes to see what I've done differently. There was at least a month between my first negs and the ones that have this problem.

I'm not worried about water usage, as I'm using an Orbital, which allows me to work with 100-150mL of chems/water. I have a packet of hypo clearing agent, so I guess I should mix some of that up and start using it. I've been slacking on the washing of my negatives and prints, mostly because I'm not worried about the longevity of my practice shots.

If I remember correctly, I've been leaving the film in the fixer for 2 minutes, but I'll have to double check my notebook when I get home. I would guess that you're right that Delta 100 is likely to have the same extra fixing requirement as T-max, but I was thinking that my fix time was a bit long already.

I'll try to run the negatives back through some fixer and I'd bet that'll clear up the purple. I'm a bit more concerned about the yellow spots, as I have no clue what could be causing that.

[ic-racer]

How long do you fix? Is the fixer fresh? Have you tried re-fixing in fresh fixer?

[Gem Singer]

Hey Chad,

You're using the mixing instructions and fixing time for paper on your film.

Fixer for film is 1+4 from concentrate, with a fixing time of 5 minutes.

[tgtaylor]

I think you are using the wrong development times. See the Ilford fact sheet for this developer: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2010229453745.pdf

For T-grain films, fix for 5 to 10 minutes. I fix T-max and Acos for 7 minutes.

[corgan4321]

The purple cast is the film base probably. Hypo clear can eliminate that almost completely. After fixing for a good 2-3 minutes, I wash for 2 minutes by filling and then dumping. Then I hypo clear for 3 min and a final wash for 3-4 minutes. My film base is purple until after the hypo clear stage.

[Patrick Dixon]

I water stop for 2mins with my Orbital (with rotation). I don't know if you need that long, but that's what works for me.

I use Fotospeed fixer at 1:9 and fix for 5 minutes - which is what they recommend for film on the outside of the container.

I also do the final rinse with photo-flo outside the Orbital, as a little bit of photo flo seems to need quite a lot of water to wash it all away.

[Peter K]

The purple cast is the film base probably.

The purple cast is a shielding dye to attanuate the sensitivity of tabular grains used in films with small silver content like T-Max and Delta. Removable in an acid fixing bath. Pronounced and irregular stains can be removed by refixing the film in fresh fixer.