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developing time for tmax400 pulled to 100


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I accidently shot my Tmax400 at 100, stupid mistake. After looking through the postings, I'm still a little unsure of the developing time. My normal developing time here at school is 12 minutes for 68 degrees. Should my new time be 7 minutes or so? Any advice is appreciated.
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You could snip part of the roll and try 7 minutes. (pull out part of the roll cut it off and develop it) If that seems good then run the rest of the roll. Or if its more than one roll, snip one and then run the rest at the time you determine. You can probably judge based on the snip whether its about right or too short or too long. Lots of people expose TMax 400 at 200 so you're only one stop from that. I suspect all is not lost. If you're working on a school assignment I'd think you'd get some credit for being smart enough to salvage your work! I read once upon a time that the test of good craftsmen may not be how perfectly they do their work but rather how well they repair their mistakes.
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I had an exposure and development 'brain cramp' last weekend

with a Tri-X negative that was 2 stops overexposed and

overdeveloped to boot. Bulletproof negative! I was able to use a

negative reducer (bleach) and rescue the shot, and it prints

great. Email me off list if you need specfics on how do this. If

you're only one stop overexposed and are careful not to

overdevelop, you may be all right without doing this. Good luck.

 

<p>

 

Clay

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You have overexposed by 2 stops which is not a huge disaster

depending on subject matter. Most people will rate their film down

by one stop to ensure good shadow exposure. 2 stops might lose some

highlight detail.

 

<p>

 

If the roll has important images, i would expose another roll of 400

rated at 100asa of the same or similar subject matter in similar

lighting conditions and then clip it in fourths and develop each one

with a one minute differential starting at 10 and ending at 7. Then

make some contact prints of each.

 

<p>

 

This may sound a little tedious, but it will allow you to better

understand the relationship of developing time to neg density. You

may discover you like the look of your "mistake". Also, if you are

serious about photography beyond the class, you will be doing ths

same type of thing (called testing) with all film and developers you

use to learn how to get negatives that suit your style.

 

<p>

 

Finally, if you are a student learning about photography, there are

no stupid mistakes. Quite a few photographers would agree that

making mistakes (or breaking the "rules" on purpose) is actually one

of the most efficent ways to learn the craft.

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I have exposed Tmax 400 at 150 or 100 speed for the past 6 or 7

years. I have found that for a normal developer such as D-76, or T-

max developer, development time is decreased approximately 2 minutes

per stop of overexposure, so if your normal development time is 12

minutes, 8 minutes should be a sufficient pull-back for your higher

values. You will find that your negatives have compressed contrast,

so expect to be printing on a grade 3-4 paper (or filter) for a

normal contrast look.

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The reason I read this forum was that I made the same mistake a few

days back. I developped the film for 7min in D76 1:1 at 20C (is that

68F?). It resulted in a beautiful soft film, actually quite nice for

most of the shots I did. For metal and glass objects, (wax) flowers

and playing cards (I'm doing pictures of objects from alice in

wonderland) the result was pretty nice. Only a bright white teapot

failed because of the overexposure.

As I understand more people expose tmax 400 at 100 to get softer

pictures. Also nice for portraits.

 

<p>

 

regards

Reinier

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