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Purple tint in a developed TMax 100


eric_kim

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I developed TMax 100 with D-76 (68F for 6.5 min).

After fixing it for 4 minutes, I washed it in a running water for a

minute and agitated it in a Hypo removing solution for a minute,

Then, I washed it in a running water for a minute and applied Photo

Flo.

 

I can see the slight purple tint on some part of film. I didn't see

any tint in the reviousely developed Tri-X. I guess I didn't remove

Hype completely this time.

 

Could you tell me what I did wrong?

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The following wash procedure works well:

 

Pour in water, 5 twisted inversions, 5 minutes standing. Pour out, pour in water, 10

twisted inversions, 5 minutes standing. Pour out, pour in water, 20 twisted inversions, 5

minutes standing. Film clean and no purple dye left.

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The purple tint (Tmax film)and Blue (Ilford) is residual sensitizing dye. It is removed by the sodium sulfite in the fixing bath. If your fixer is weak on sulfite, you can add more like sugar in your coffee. Add 1-2 tablespoons of sodium sulfite per gallon of working strength fixer.
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The joy of Tmax. I find that it takes longer to fix than any film I've used and I notice that when I am dumping my developer it is sort of a pinky purple color. Kinda freaked me out the first time too. It never hurts to wash for 10 mins. I know you want to look BELIEVE me I know, but those 10 mins could mean your negs last a lot longer! Who knows maybe you'll have some gems in there! Absolute min is 5 min wash with clean water dump every min even if you use hypo and I never go under 10. Good luck!
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See this section of this forum for at least 30 previous threads on this topic:<p>

<p>

<a href=http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-one-category?topic_id=1541&category=Negatives%2c+film+base+residual+tint><u>B&W Photo - Film & Processing Forum - Negatives, film base residual tint</u></a>

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I've just started using Photo Formulary's TF-4 fixer, an alkaline based type. I got it primarily for speedier and more archival fiber paper fixing but seems to be fine for film, too. Just one roll each of TMax 100 and Tri-X (new variety) so far and no purple tint. Might this type of fixer be part of the answer? Anyone else in this thread using it on film?

 

My .02,

 

Paul

www.paulwhitingphotography.com
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So many different opinions...here's another...kind of.

 

We used 400 TMAX in a photography class I took at the local college last year. TMAX developer and kodak fixer (don't know which). The negs always had a slight purple tint, but when the fixer was exhausted they got REALLY purple. So that makes me think maybe it's the fixer.

 

When I got my own darkroom setup I started using D-76 for Tri-x and Photgraphers Forumulary TF-4 fixer. 3 dump and fills with water between develop and fix and Ilfords washing procedure and then some(10, 20, 40 inversions). It still always come out with a slight purple cast.

 

Then I developed a couple rolls of pushed Tri-x in Diaphine, the negs came out clear as a bell with no purple tint. I tried D-76 and had the tint again. The fixer was getting pretty old at this point so I mixed some up fresh before developing more with D-76. Once I used D-76 again I was right back to the purple tint.

 

So now the developer seems to be making a difference. I've tried leaving it in the Fix a couple extra minutes and it doesn't seem to make a difference. I don't have a problem with the tint to the negatives, but from what I've seen and read it seems there's no one magic bullet to get rid of it if you are concerned.

 

Alan

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funny how this always comes up...When I run into this occasionally with HP5+ (pink tint). If HCA doesn't remove then I just leave the negative in a tray of room temp water and don't touch it. After 30 min I come back in my darkroom and the pink is gone. I don't increase the fixing time as I'm afraid of what a rapid fix will do. I've been doing it this way for 10 years.
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Alan, you've discovered something others of us have noticed before: not only does fixing, hypo clear and washing technique have some effect on clearing the bluish-purplish base, so does the choice of developer.

 

The most effective developer I've seen at clearing the bases of all films is Rodinal. It's one of the few developers that will pour out any more than very slightly light pinkish-purple. Rodinal pours out looking like grape juice.

 

The downside is you have to like T-Max films in Rodinal. I don't. Some folks do.

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  • 11 months later...

I'm new to this site and being a beginner in film developing, but let me share my experiences regarding this topic.

 

It was the very first time (yesterday ;)) I used D-76 for developing a T-MAX 100 film (exposed at EI 200) and it was a very frightening moment when I got my dark purple rolls out of the fixer bath. Arghhhhhh... The negatives were fully dark purple (not just tints as Eric wrote! -> 2x-3x darker than a normal Ilford PAN mask). There were also a bunch of ugly stripes starting from the film perforated edges ruining nearly all exposed parts of the negatives. First I thought it got some light when putting the film into the tank.

 

Earlier, I've used different developer liquid and this effect has never shown up, so I suspect it's also in connection with the developer as well. The fixer I used here is a universal one that I always use for fixing (a vinegar acid and ammonium-triosulfat solution) and never experienced any purple tints or stripes.

 

Fixing stage was a bit more than 6 minutes without agitation. It was also a strange effect that the TMAX agressively painted my fixer to purple, which I've never seen before even when developing TMAX using a different developer liquid than D-76.

 

For the solution, I've looked up this forum and didn't find any consensus on this issue, but nearly all folks were telling about a possible problem with the fixer.

 

So I've put my negs back to a fresh fixer and let them in the liquid for an other 4 minutes. I'd been doing some agitation this time (once a minute). As a result, all the purple stuff has gone away and let my negs "live" again. Thanks for the hints, I hope this could be useful for others.

 

Cheers.

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I can't tell you exactly as I'm not deeply involved in photo chemistry. I think you can find some more accurate answer in this topic. That is very likely that some chemicals (that is more dominant when using D-76) stuck in the negatives, and because of D-76 it required 8-9 minutes of fixing.

 

Please see comments of Lowell Huff above, I think he is more accurate on this.

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I would be also curious wether this tints are visible or not on a BW paper. As I mentioned in my first comment, I also had strange purple stripes on the negatives starting from the perforated edges lasting to the center of the pictures, which definitely would cause a stripped photo on paper.
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  • 1 year later...

I did get some purple tint on my negs yesterday. Normally they are pretty clear after dev + wash + fix + washwashwash.

This time however, it seemes that I put the film on the roll a bit crooked or something, because the first 10-12 frames had purple tint along the "bottom" of each frame (probably the film got stuck/pressed into another part of the film while putting the film on in the dark.

 

Anyways, the negative aspect of this, is that while scanning, I got results you normally see from overfixed negatives ie. lighter areas on the bottom of the image (looked washed out), after scanning them with a coolscan V.

The negative seems (for the scanner atleast) to be denser in the purple areas than the non purple ones, which basically ruins the picture.

 

Quick fix was to put the negative strips into room temperature water over nigh (probably don't need to be that long), when I checked them in the morning, they were clear and perfectly fine.

 

I am not sure what implications this may have over time though, obviously these parts of the negative havent been properly fixed, so they might fade over time for all I know.

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  • 3 years later...
<p>I tried to get the purple tint out with fresh fixer, fixing for a longer time, and rinsing for 30 minutes. None of these worked and my tap water for rinsing here is pretty cold so that might be part of it. Finally I put about half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate in a quart of lukewarm water and set my film in it for about 2 minutes, then rinsed as usual. No pink remains when I do this.</p>
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  • 4 years later...

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