Milky areas on film after 10 mins fixing

Hello - I seem to have a consistent problem when developing my own films. The negs have a milky white area,

generally in the middle of the frame. I was told this is due to under fixing. I have tried fixing for as long as 12 mins for

Delta films and still the same problem. I dont want to over fix my negs as Ive read this is also not good.

 

Last night a developed a Panf+ roll, with Rodinal Special 1+60, 20C, 6.5mins. Ilfostop 10 senconds, Ilford fix 6 mins

and rinsed for 10. The negs still look purple which happens to all my negs, regarless of wheather they're Pan or

Delta - is that a charecteristic of the film? From memory, when Ive sent off my b&w to the labs, they come back

clear without the purple tint. Im more concerned about the milky areas though. They still scan quite well, and the

images look good, but Id like to find an answer and solution, can you help.

 

Thank you in advance.

Paul.

further to my last post - after looking at this film more closely, I can see that not all the frames have the milky colour, later frames dont seem to be affected, does this point to aggitation?

what dilution of fixer and how fresh is the fixer?

purple film is under fixed. milky white can be dramatically under fixed. at work so i can't send you an example. as ann asks, what dilution and how fresh? and did you agitate?

recheck you dilutions

Fresh fixer, and be sure when you load the film that the turns on the reel are not buckled and touching each other...

 

denny

As Dennis said, this sounds like it could be film that was not loaded onto the reel properly. If it was exhausted or incorrectly mixed fixer, I'd expect the problem would not be isolated to a specific portion of the film.

From what I've seen working with students here at work, it sounds like what you are describing is film that didn't load properly and was touching. This prevented the emulsion in the affected area from getting fully fixed, which caused some areas to have a milky appearance while the rest of the film looks normal. You should re-fix the film to make sure that it gets fully fixed, then wash and dry as usual. The slight purple base color is normal with Ilford films - it is not harmful.

 

- Randy

If you can show us a picture, then we can tell you more. I am almost 100% sure that the problem is related to insufficient fixing, either from too weak or overused fixer or from other reasons. Give us some more details.

What Dennis, Paul and Randall said. It can't be a problem with the fixer or the entire roll would show problems. The film was touching in places, preventing flow of chemistry between the layers. Practice your loading technique with a scrap roll until it's second nature.

 

There's an entire section in this forum dedicated to the tinted negatives issue. You'll find plenty of info and tips there:

 

http://www.photo.net/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/?category=Negatives%2c+film+base+residual+tint

if the negs are not fixed due to them touching then they most likely won't be developed properly either... check that as it should be pretty obvious.