What's wrong with my negatives...

[jdaivpmed]

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I am wondering if anyone can give me some suggestions for an issue that I'm having with my negatives. As you can see in the attached photos there is some significant fogging present (yes, the negative in the photo is intentionally blank). This particular negative is Adox 100ART, but the same fog is present in all of my films and it doesn't seem to make any difference whether it's a fresh piece of film from the freezer or a piece that has been hanging out in a holder at room temp for six months or so. As such, I think this has to have something to do with me developing process.

My first thought was that it was inadequately fixed, but I have rerun the negative through an additional fifteen minutes of fixer and no change is apparent.

I'm developing in D-76, Stop Bath, Kodak Rapid Fixer (with Hardener), Hypo Clearing Agent, then water rinse, and finally a final rinse with Photo Flo.

All work is done in the Jobo and all chemicals are fresh.

Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John IV

[Jim Michael]

What temperature was the fixer?

[jdaivpmed]

The fixer (and all chemicals) were at 20c on the first run. When I went back and "re-fixed" to see if that would clear the fog I didn't bother letting the chiller get the Jobo down to 20c so that run was more likely done at around 27c.

John IV

[MIke Sherck]

At a guess, is the darkroom in which you load and process your film really, truly dark? Perhaps it's getting fogged when you take it out of the box.

Mike

[Andrew O'Neill]

So, this is also happening with films other than the Adox? Mike S. could be right about your film loading area not being totally light tight. It's not the fixer.
I'm not familiar with this film, but perhaps it's b+f is higher than most films? I once had a box of Forte 400, and I was shocked at its high b+f. It still produced decent images.

[Darin Boville]

Sounds like you've run several batches of different films and they came out like this...if I were you I'd dump all the developer and try again with a different batch (as in, a different manufacturer batch number). Double-check/test the thermometer, too.

--Darin

[pkphotog]

As Andrew suggested try processing with another brand of film, like Kodak, to see if you still get the fogging effect.

Several years before Agfa went under I had the same problem with 5 brand new fresh boxes of Agfapan 100. I was surprised to see every sheet was fogged just like the ones in your photos. I had exposed hundreds sheets of Agfapan 100 prior to that and the b+f was fine for every sheet. A friend of mine also had a box of Forte that had the same problem. It may be that you ended up with a bad box of film like we had in the past. I only use Kodak film now and haven't had any problems with fogging or high b+f.

[jdaivpmed]

Mike,

I'm loading / unloading my holders in a Harrison Jumbo Tent, I don't feel like this is the source of the fog as it is extremely uniform across the sheet and this is the same tent that I've used for quite some time without running into this issue. Still a valid possibility and I'll look into this if I don't have any luck switching developers, etc.

Andrew,

Yes, the issue doesn't seem to be limited to the Adox films which is what makes me think that the issue is something in my chemistry. In fact the more I look at it the more I notice that the surface isn't smooth, it's not overly rough, but I'm wondering if perhaps its an issue with my water supply. When I remix my chemicals I will use distilled water to see if that makes any difference.

Darin,

Yes, you're correct, several batches with the same result, but all of these batches of film have been processed using the same stock chemicals (which were freshly mixed last week). The chemicals do seem to be the one common link though. I believe my thermometer is correct, I have two digital and one lab grade mercury and they're all within a degree of one another.

I think my next step is to remix all chemicals with distilled water and see what kind of results that will yield. If that doesn't work then I'll start testing with some freshly bought film stock. At least then we should know if it's a chemical problem, or a film problem.

Thanks for all of the tips guys.

John IV

[Stephane]

Have you been doing this for long?
Have you always had this problem before? If not, when did it start?
Are you developing in trays or daylight tank?
Are you diluting your d76 right?

You have to do simple test to locate where in the chain there's something wrong:

- first: test light leaking into your tent. Go in the dark (at night in a room), take a maglight inside and light it. see if any light leaks or not.
- test for fogged film: bring unexposed film to a lab. film must come back clear.
- once you know its not the film, test fixer: take one sheet from your freezer (exposed or not) and dunk it into freshly mixed fixer for 10mn (no hardener or anything else, do not develop first). You can do all this is daylight and see live the clearing process.
- if film not clear, problem in your developer: dilution not strong enough...

[jdaivpmed]

Good Morning Stephane,

When you ask if I've been doing this long, I assume you mean processing my own film etc. If that's the question then, I've been doing it for about fifteen years, but it's strictly a hobby, so I certainly don't claim to be any kind of an expert at it.

This is the first time I've run into this problem, it started about a week ago, nothing has changed in my procedures or work flow.

I'm developing in a 3005 drum on a Jobo ATL-2.

I'm mixing the D-76 according to the instructions on the packet just as I have always done. I do not re-dilute prior to use, but rather develop using the stock solution concentration.

Good idea on testing the tent, I will try that tonight and see if anything shows up.

Also good idea on testing unexposed film through a lab. I will give that a shot as well.

Thanks for the tips. I'll post back as I progress in troubleshooting.

John IV