Delta 100 exposed at 12 e.i. - what do I do now?

[richard_gingras2]

After doing some gray card testing at e.i. 12, a friend of mine started a shooting in a home studio and forgot to manually reset her e.i. and did the whole shooting at i.e. 12. She found her speeds were slow even at full open or close to apertures, but it didn't dawn on her until later in the day. She called me to ask me what to do. If I'm right the film is over-exposed by 3 stops and she will have to cut on the development time. Does anybody out there have a good recipe to get the best out of this mistake, using Rodinal or Xtol(or anything else for that matter)?

 

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Thank you

[charlie_strack]

Super fine grain developers (like Microcol-X) always cut speed. Might

try that. Don't dilute, use full strength. If diluted, they don't cut

as much speed.

 

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Before doing this, make sure the camera setting was actually used.

(In a home studio, you might use flash or hand held meter.)If it was

flash, but not "through the lens flash metering", the setting on the

flash itself would have prevailed (in auto mode).

 

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The Massive Developing Chart shows Perceptol for 9 mintues for 25

speed. This might work.

[mitch_rosen]

First of all, this is not a total disaster but your friend will end up

with much less film contrast than normal. This is simply an N minus

exposure. Hopefully, someone will have some specific recommendations

for this film but if it were me, and the film was important enough to

put forth the effort, I would shoot another roll in a similar fashion.

Then divide that roll into something like thirds (replicates) and do

film testing with each replicate. Certainly you want to cut back on

time in the developer. My first guess would be to cut back by 40% and

go from there. Remember, that your results will always vary

form that of another person. So even if somebody has a specific

recommendation, testing is the only way to get predictable

results.

[scott_walton1]

I would have to agree... -40% sounds like a good starting point!

Cheers

[james___]

Process it normally. It will be dense but very printable. A little

grainy but managable. James

[Rob F.]

I don't know about that recommendation for normal processing. She

might need a laser-powered enlarger to punch through the highlights.

I think the suggestion to cut developing time to 40% was a good one.

I'd have said 50%. Also, using a "seasoned" (partially exhausted)

developer helps to thin out a negative. Might develop a few rolls

normally first, then do a trial development with a test roll also

exposed at EI 12 to establish the best time. All this assumes the

images are irreplaceable, otherwise I would just shoot it over.

 

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Regards,

[shawn2_gibson]

James nailed it, I think, but I might back off you times a little,

maybe 20-25%. Good advice here throughout...just remember it's not

the disaster it may seem...D100 is closer 10 EI64 than 100, so it's

not really all that over-exposed...really...

[shawn2_gibson]

ps PMK pyro will lower the EI, and make it even 'less over-exposed',

AS WELL as ensure (through it's staining activity) that the highs are

kept, even with development-enough to ensure consistency and low-

value detail...:-)