Developed my first roll

[mbetea]

Earlier this evening I developed my first roll, Delta 100 in DDX for

10 1/2 minutes. I do like the results, but I don't like the streaks

and fog I've gotten on the negatives. I know it's something I'm doing

but not exactly sure if it's the agitation or I didn't dry them off

enough before hanging. Here is a negative scanned as a b/w negative

in Dimage Scan.

[mbetea]

Would I be wrong in thinking the fogging has to do with agitation? Which was the first 10sec. and then the first 10sec of every minute after that (roughly 4-5 inversions per 10sec). And the streaks I would assume are from insufficient drying (I squeeged, I thought good enough). Scanned as a color neg though these things don't show up. I'm not discouraged at all, and was pleased that I developed them somewhat correctly. But would like some advice as to what I should change next time. Thanks a lot!

 

matt

[mbetea]

Sorry a little more info, I'm using the JOBO 1520 tank with the adjustable plastic reels. I had both reels in there and filled the tank as I would for 2 rolls as in the future I'll normally do 2 rolls at a time. So I wanted to try and keep it consistant. Thanks again.

 

matt

[the_macman]

It may not matter in most cases, but for precision sake don't confuse agitation

and inversion. You invert the tank mostly to remove air bubbles which can

form between two successive layers of film when you pour in the solution.

 

I'm not familiar with your tank, but most tanks posess a vast space at the top

which gets filled with solution when you invert. If you process one film in a

two-film tank, your film is temporarly out of the solution when you invert the

tank.

 

If you process two films in a two film tank your bottom film will probably soak

half into solution with the other half "dry" (so to speak) for a brief moment

while your top film (which becomes the bottom one at the inversion) is

probably entirely soaked into it and hence never quits the solution.

 

A lot of different experts, manufacturer's instructions and books will have a lot

of different recipes. I prefer to invert 4-5 times ONLY at the begining of the

development process. Then I agitate as prescribed by rotating the knob.

[the_macman]

Gives us your entire recipe with all the products, dilutions, times and steps

you're using. How do you wash (in detail)?

[the_macman]

Squeegee could be responsible, maybe that's a place where you stopped or

slowed down. Don't squeegee... You're not in a hurry, are you? Hang the film

TO dry :-) don't dry it before hanging. In case you wish to try a different

approach, which I use (I don't squeegee): wash your film 2-3 times with warm

water (in the tank) simply by filling the tank, agitating your film and pour out.

Wash one last time with a few drops of wetting agent (I use Agepon, they're all

the same I suppose: Ilfotol, etc). Some say wash the wetting agent away,

some say don't. I don't, I just pour the water + wettig agent, take the film out

and hang it. It's dry 15 minutes later.

[johnmarkpainter]

Matt,

If you have patches and streaks in the film that you can't see through.....

 

Try taking a strip of the film and put it into a fresh batch of Fixer and see if it "clears".

Improper Fixing can cause problems like that.

 

You also need to rule out Light Leaks.

Do you load the film onto the reel using a changing bag?

Is the "Fog" in any specific pattern or does it run the whole length of the film?

Is the "Fog" just on one side of the film?

 

It is possible that the streaks you are seeing are caused from Uneven Development.

I have heard of that, but I have never seen it in person.

 

A tip when hanging your film.

I always use the Squegee, but I use it VERY lightly. I soak in a wetting solution before

that.

 

Here is the main thing though....if you touch the top of the Film strip with your

fingers before hanging, you are leaving residue behind. This residue will then run

down the length of your film and leave spots and streaks on it.

 

The thing to do is to Squegee off the Leader of the film and attach the hanging clip to

it without touching it.

 

jmp

[m0002a]

The things that I see in the scan don't appear to be development problems. There is some kind of ghosting of the image that could be caused by a very long exposure or movement of the camera.

 

Try taking some shots outdoors and see if you still have problems.

[lex_jenkins]

I can't clearly see any problems well enough in those two jpegs to offer any specific advice.

 

In the first there appears to be a mark that might be due to kinked or misloaded film.

 

In the second there might be some ghosting from movement of either the subject or camera during exposure.

 

But, again, I can't tell for sure what's going on from these jpegs. Do you have other examples?

[mbetea]

Thank you for the response and help so far.

My times and supplies were:

-Delta 100

-JOBO 1520 tank

-Plastic adjustable reels

-Developer Ilfotec DD-X (1+4) with distilled water, 71F, 10 1/2 min. I did 10sec of inversion at the very start. Then the first 10sec of each minute (4 inversions) as per Ilford's sheet.

-Stopped with distilled water at 70F, they said do 2 inversions in 10sec for their Ilfostop, so I did 4 inversions for 20sec, then dumped it.

-Fixer, Ilford Rapid Fixer at 71F for 3min and did inversions same as developer.

-Rinse, I should've used the distilled water and will from now on. But for this I used cool running tap water, where it said to fill the tank, invert 5x, dump, fill, invert 10x, dump, fill, invert 20x.

-For the final bath I used distilled water at 70F (give or take a couple degrees), I let it sit for 2 1/2 min. Took the reel out and clipped the end with a film clip, clipped the other end and squeegeed twice. I then hung it in my closet for about 4 hours (was doing some other things).

 

So what do you do to agitate then? All Ilford's instructions say is to do inversions for 10sec every minute. I hope this doesn't sound stupid, but is there something else I should be doing between these times? The Jobo tank chart shows that for two reels and using inversion to use 485ml of solution. So I was measuring 500ml, filled the hollow center post, leaving the top funnel part empty. Should it be completely filled?

 

I use a large changing bag (27x something I believe) in a darkened room. Looking at the negatives again I do notice that at the bottom there seems to be some blurring. This was taken with an F3, mirror locked up and on a tripod. Though I don't have a cable release yet :( still in the mail. I also noticed that the negatives which would have been on the outside most rings of the reel seem not to have these streaks and the ones that do are not as visible. Around the sprocket hole it looks muddy and streaks are coming from there across the film. I'm going to do some more today and try and change some things to see. Here is another image of the streaks. Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

matt

[nige_buddy]

<I>"Should it be completely filled"</I>

<P>

not in my opinion. The space gives the developer some room to get away from the film and thus replace itself at the film surface when it gets back (tank back to normal orientation)

<P>

That last scan does show the smearing better which to me looks like an agitation problem. The rest of your process is fine, I'd even add your agitation cycle seems ok, but obviously it needs alteration. Maybe do the inversions faster, and rotate the tank in your hands as you do them. ie invert, invert back, rotate tanke in hands 120degrees, invert, invert back, rotate 120, invert, etc.<P>Also, get your shutter speeds up so that you don't have to worry about camera shake as well. One problem at time is enough! :)

[photojim]

Macman, you have it backward. The spindle is to help remove air bubbles. Inversion is for agitation. That's what Paterson says at least.

 

I agitate by inversion and don't bother with the stirring rod. I get good results. I don't notice any obvious faults with your technique, but here's what I do and it works:

 

Developer - usually 20 degrees - five gentle inversions in five seconds, repeating every 30 seconds. Constant agitation for the first thirty seconds.

 

Stop - I use running water for 60 seconds at 20 degrees.

 

Fix - Photographer's Formulary TF-4 alkaline fix - 20 degrees - 30 seconds constant agitation, 5 seconds every 60 thereafter. If you use an acid rapid fixer, that's fine, technique is the same but you must significantly extend the wash I note below, or use a hypo clearing agent step.

 

Wash - 10 minutes under running water at 20 degrees.

 

Rinse Agent - Kodak Photo Flo for 30 seconds with constant agitation.

[mbetea]

Hey guys,

I wanted to thank you all for helping me out. I developed a roll of HP5+ today and altered a couple things. This roll came out great, aside from the couple water spots I have left on it. I've been taking notes on how I do the developing and I noticed for some reason I didn't dilute the fixer at all the other day. I went over everything right before I started, but for some reason I didn't dilute, so I ended up with 500ml of fixer. This time I also rotated the tank while inverting and did inversions for the first 30sec instead of 10sec. I did the stop bath in distilled water for 30sec. The fixer was the same as before, but made sure to dilute it. For the rinse I extended Ilford's suggestion of 5x,10x,20x to 5,10,20,40. Then for final bath let it sit in distilled water for 5min.

 

One question though, will a wetting agent help get rid or at least reduce water spots? I used a rubber squeegee these two times, but I don't care at all for it. It doesn't get any water off, just moves it around. So I'm going to look at something else to dry with. Thanks again guys.

 

matt

[nige_buddy]

IMO, don't touch the negs with anything. (Ok, some will chime in that they use sponges, fingers, squeeges with no ill effect) Ideally you could hang your film horizontally so that the water (distilled with minimal wetting agent... much less than the manufacturers recommended dosage) can run off the shortest distance (as opposed to down the entire length of film where the dropletts end up drying before getting to the bottom) and the last bit that drys will probably be in the film sprockets (assuming 35mm) but in my experience, hanging vertically and the combination of distilled (or di-ionised) water and wetting agent means they dry spotless.

[chris_waller]

I also never squeegee. I use Paterson Acuwet wetting-agent at a rate of 2 drops per 100 cc of water. Then I allow the fil to hang in the film-dryer for about 15 minutes before turning it on. This way I get perfectly clean negs. I use Paterson developing tanks and reels. I presoak with water for 2 minutes, empty the water out and then pour in the developer. I give four inversions in the first 30 seconds then one inversion every 30 seconds after that.

[mike_scarpitti]

Matt:

 

The desk image looks just a little over-devloped. Try a little less time, maye 5-10%, and see what you get. At this size you should see no grain at all.

[mskovacs]

I use Photo Flo, 1 drop per 100mL water. Add the water first, then the photoflow. Rotate the reels gently....you don't want to foam up the water. I gently pull the wet films between my clean thumb and forefinger wetted with the Photo Flo tank water and hang to dry. No sign of damage ever, no water spots ever.

 

Nice contrast on the earlier shots. Try using your self timer when you don't have a cable release and timing isn't important.