Getting dark negatives....

[max_criden]

Hi,

 

I'm a beginner and I recently went vacationing to Cape Cod. I took a roll of pictures, and when I went to

develop the negatives, they came out ultra-dark. I realize this was probably from leaving them in the

developer for too long (although I followed the directions), but I'd really like to make prints that look at

least halfway decent, so I can have photos from my trip. So, with such dark negatives, what should I do

when making prints to get them to look halfway decent?

 

Thanks!

[mike butler]

See how they print. If you're very lucky, they'll print Ok at longer exposures with a low

filter (or no filter at all).

 

As last resort you could dunk the roll in reducer. Post a new question on that if you get to

that point.

 

Best of luck.

[d_purdy]

The only problems you will run into are long printing times and rather blocked

up unmodulated grey looking light tones. And a lot more grain than usual.

Some people like the look of overly dense negs. You will lose a bit of

sharpness as well. But at least you will have your images.

[jay_de_fehr]

The effect is more likely the result of overexposure than overdevelopment, which would produce high contrast negatives, not the overall density you describe. Your problem will probably be the opposite; low contrast. Your prints will suffer, but there are a few things you might consider to mitigate the damage. You'll need to print on a high grade of paper to get anything like normal contrast, which will exacerbate the grain, so large prints are not going to show well. Make your prints as small as you find acceptable. A more adventurous redress might be to use a SUBTRACTIVE reducer (Farmer's) to remove some of the density, and thereby restore some of the contrast. The subtractive part is important, because a proportional reducer will reduce contrast. I hope you're able to salvage your vacation photos. Good luck.

 

Jay

[rich_ullsmith1]

What Jay said about exposure. How are you metering? If it's TTL, seems like the most common problem is having the exposure compensation dialed up. Gee, never happened to me before . . .

 

Sometimes dense negs can surprise you.

[larrydressler]

To be called a nonchild ofgod let me say that I have salvaged many over exposed or over developed negatives by scanning and using Photoshop.

 

Larry

[daniel_smith6]

Take the negs to a photo store or nearby photo school program and get some help so you can determine if the dark negs are overdeveloped or overexposed. Learn to tell the difference and you will benefit the rest of your photo career. Either way, you can get decent prints from dark/thick negatives but it is easier to learn the difference and benefit from the knowledge.

 

If you have not printed any of them yet, print them and then make your decisions. Thick negs can make excellent prints depending on your materials and knowledge.