Help

<p>Hi I just started developing my own photos a few days ago. I'm shooting Tmax 400, D76 developer. The first two batches turned out great! Then I developed another roll today and I forgot that I left the developer in the garage overnight and it was supposed to be 20C but instead it was closer to 13C. <br>

From the first time:<br>

http://www.dropbox.com/s/t9z7v7yw8m6vd4s/Day%201.jpg?dl=0</p>

<p>Day 2 (developer was at 13C, for 7.5 minutes)<br>

http://www.dropbox.com/s/m179r06amnocrf9/Day%202_400.jpg?dl=0</p>

<p>Day 2 (warmed to 20C, but this was rated at 1600, so developed for 9.25 minutes)<br>

http://www.dropbox.com/s/h9up1vzmv4m0i34/Day%202_1600_2.jpg?dl=0<br>

Another photo from the same roll:<br>

http://www.dropbox.com/s/ez8qoex75wf52jl/Day%202_1600.jpg?dl=0</p>

<p>What did I do wrong the second time around? Also, why are the edges of the film so dark?</p>

<p>Please advise!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Without more information, it's hard to tell what went wrong. All of your files look underexposed, but I need to know how they were scanned to be certain where the underexposure occurred. Looks like a lot of air bubbles on that second roll, and the underexposure seems worse.</p>

<p>They look under developed to me. Are you reusing the developer and if so are you compensating for developer exhaustion with increased development time as specified in Kodak tech pub j78? <br>

http://imaging.kodakalaris.com/sites/prod/files/files/resources/j78.pdf</p>

I am reusing the same developer (I made a gallon the first time). But it's only been a few days, do I need to already

compensate for developer exhaustion?

<p>By reusing, do you mean you're putting the used developer back in with the rest or that you made a big batch and are still using developer from that batch but not used twice? <br>

They all look under exposed and under developed to me. The ones where you see streaks from the sprocket holes on the edges are ones where the agitation was likely too much. <br>

I don't know D76 times well enough to know if you compensated for the temp. Did you? Just my opinion, but the first few rolls you do, it's best to shoot them at close to box speed so you can diagnose problems more easily. <br>

Holding the strips of negatives up in front of a white screen and taking a picture of all of them would make it easier to see differences. With these, it's tough to tell what is chemical and what is reproduction for viewing. </p>

<p>See page 7 of the linked D76 tech pub in my previous post. Add 22ml to 30 ml (3/4 ounce to 1 ounce) modified replinisher per 36 exposure roll of film developed.<br>

For negatives with too low contrast increase development times by 10% to 15%, for negatives with too high contrast decrease development time by 10% to 15%.<br>

Normal starting point time for T Max 400 8 minutes @ 20°C.</p>

<p>Consider using the D76 1:1 or switching to HC110 for better economy and results. HC110 is a concentrate you mix then pour in the tank. The concentrate last for years. Standard dilution for a 16 ounce (478 ml) tank is 15ml concentrate to 458ml water (1:32). It can be diluted to other ratios but you may have to determine your times by trial and error. <br>

http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/</p>

<p>If you were to put correctly developed negatives of the same subject in both developers side by side and make prints of both the most you would notice is the HC110 developed negative will have finer grain.</p>

 

<p>Assuming an 8 ounce tank, you get EXACTLY the same capacity for a gallon of D-76 by not pouring the developer back into the bottle. So there's no point in weakening your gallon by pouring the used developer back into the bottle. That just leads to uncertainly about developing time.<br>

If you go with D-76 1:1 like Charles suggested, if you use 4 ounces of D-76 and 4 ounces of water, you have to increase the developing time by 15% from Kodak's times. Kodak's times are for 8 ounces of developer and 8 ounces of water for each 35mm roll, using a 16 ounce tank.<br>

Note that you should have a reasonably accurate thermometer to measure the temperature of your developer. Otherwise you will have inconsistent results.</p>

<p>If you developed the film at 13c using the development time for 20c the negatives will be very underdeveloped. Best to do it at 20c. At 13c you'll need to increase the developing time considerably. </p>

<p>For a beginner, you should not even be thinking about replenishment. Way too complicated. Just pour the developer from the tank down the sink after each roll. Do not pour anything back into the bottle. That way you are using fresh developer each time and the time (assuming the same temperature) will be the same each time. Same goes for stop bath and fixer.<br /><br />20C/68F is OK for developing but I usually develop at 75F (about 24C) since that's the room temperature at my house. 13C (55F) is way too cold to develop and you probably should not even be storing your chemicals at that temperature. For one thing, it would take them forever to warm up to a usable temperature. And if you get the temperature too low the powdered chemicals that you dissolved into the water to mix the developer can start to un-dissolve and settle at the bottom of the bottle.<br /><br />Jamie is correct that if you developed at 13C using the time for 20C the film would be very undeveloped. I'm not sure you can develop at 13C even if you extend the time. Technically doable I suppose but not very practical. The lowest temperature normally show on Kodak charts is 65F/18C.</p>

I'm a bit curious about those little white dots on the last two photos, of the dog and the laptop. Are those on the film or from the way you readied the positive photo for display on the web?

<p>The rated capacity for D76 is four 8x10/quart for stock, and half that for 1:1.</p>

<p>That is one 36 exposure roll of 35mm for 8 ounces (or 236ml).</p>

<p>For non-professional use, you can do a little more, especially if you increase the development time a little bit. </p>

<p>Without doing an exact calculation, at 13C the time might be about 50% longer.</p>