Recovering film fogged by x-rays

[jack_porot]

Hi to all,

I just returned from a flight overseas and discovered that

the 40 rolls of 100TMX film I had in the baggage checked in at the

airport have been fogged by the x-ray machine.

I felt stupid as I should have had the film in the carry-on

luggage rather than in the check-in luggage.

I processed a couple of rolls as usual (D-23 1+1 for 10':30" @20°C)

and found a very noticeble fog compared to the the films I usually

obtain.

This is not chemical fog that could be reduced with a restrainer.

Also, I believe potassium Bromide is not very effective with metol

alone in the developer. I dont know how to cope with the problem.

I would like to salvage at least the 20 rolls that are alreay been

exposed, and need some suggestion by the community on how to modify

the developer.

 

Regards to the community,

 

J. Porot

[hans_beckert]

There is really no simple answer. The fog exposure is part of the latent image now. You may want to contact Kodak for advice. Kodak Anti-Fog may be of some benefit, but I doubt it.

[david_stoerman]

I am very upset by your post. I am not angry or mad or even dissapointed by your failure to protect your film.

 

I am very disturbed by the fact that you have lost 40 rolls of film shot overseas. I see this every day in our lab. The thing that really makes me so mad is that as a professional film processor I can honestly tell you that no one can ever fix your troubled film. I have grown used to telling people that 'I can help you with that' or 'I can fix that, don't worry...let me take care of it'.

 

I love being able to give people what they want and expect fom thier film, I truly do. But, I think that the best I can tell you, after having tried all sorts of things to fix x-ray damage (even doing a little dance on the lab floor) is this:

 

Reduce the effects of the base level fog caused by the x-ray by experimenting with very rapid, harsh, high temp, over-active development. Using this method you will have blocked-up highlights, no shadow detail and poor speed control. What you will have is images that exhibit reduced levels of fog that you can print with filtration and dodging/burning to get prints. Experiment a little to find what times/temps work

 

In my opinion you do not want to lengthen the development times with diluted developer as you normally would...this just gives the fog a chance to fully develop..bad.

 

Try one or two rolls with full strength Xtol or even TMAX at 75 degrees to see how it affects the fog level. What you essentially are looking for is the exact opposite of developing for speed in shadows. You do not want to get developer compensation.

 

Hope this helps, I really feel for you.

 

-Dave

[jack_porot]

Thanks Dave.

I tried to add 1 g/l of Potassium bromide with an appropriate

lengthening of development time. The fog is much less but the

highlights have lost a lot of detail.

I remember a technique where you fog the film in pourpose in

order to reduce the contrast of a film. I think what you are

suggesting is to develope the film aiming at high contrast so

that the fog wil bring the contrast to normal. Infact, extending the

contrast range of the neg, the effect of the fog on the lower

zone will be diminished when compared to the higher zones.

 

regards

[david_stoerman]

I think you have it right. Experiment a little with the film to find the right contrast range for your base fog. You will probably never get technically perfect negatives, but what you want is printable negs that you can manipulate to get decent or even good prints.

 

Good luck. As I said, I really feel for you. Please tell everyone you know who may be travelling with film to beware of the XRAY MONSTER!

 

 

-Dave

[awindsor]

While I would normally never suggest it in this forum, perhaps you should consider

digital post-processing. With 20 rolls to salvage it might be faster. What appearance

does the fog take ? Thankfully I have no experience feeding film to the new machines

used to screen check in baggage but the old machines for carry one used to leave

banding on films as the beam passed through the roll. The pattern depended on the

angle. I have been forced to run unexposed and partly exposed film throughs several

newer carry-on x ray machines and never had a problem. Most of my films as Velvia

50 and 100F.

 

Be glad that it was slow film. I suspect faster film would be completely unsalvageable.