Newbie questions about developing (image attached)

[The Dry Box]

I had scanned and develop my first roll of film (tri-x). After scanning, I found white patches all over the images. After inspecting the negatives, I found that the same patches are on the negatives itself.


It might not seem like a great deal, but I am just worried about the amount of pp I need to do when I have a low-key picture that I want to use.

I do suspect it is due to uneven drying... After fixing, I had rinse the negs by doing inversions of 5, 10 and 20s(might be more) with tap water before soaking it in ilford wetting agent 1:200 dilution, doing gentle agitation with the rod before... aggressively shaking the water of the negs.

I thought I was kiasu enough with all the precautions taken already, I even dry my negatives in an enclosed, dust free "cabinet", though I was wondering if that could be where it went wrong since it's obviously poorly ventilated(more like no ventilation actually).

Squeegee? I am developing at 29 degrees(using streetshooter's tutorial, Thx!), I heard the negative surface will be easlier to scratch?

If it helps, I am using a paterson tank and did 1 roll with 300ml of chemicals each(tank says 290ml is enough for 1 roll), cept for the fixer which I use a 500ml quantity.

Thoughts, solutions, film donations welcome.

[Xtol19]

Can't see the patches in the photo. Contrast and exposure look excellent though.

Agitating the negs in photoflo is not recommended, shaking the negs dry is unnecessary as well. It's meant to be just dip and hang.

[The Dry Box]

Quote: Agitating the negs in photoflo is not recommended

Thx, will try that.

Found this one just now, the patches should be more obvious. I wouldn't want to be patching all that.

[welspain]

Originally Posted by The Dry Box I am developing at 29 degrees(using streetshooter's tutorial, Thx!),

i think its not 29 degrees... maybe that's the reason of white patches in your negatives. try to develop at 20 deg and maintain that temperature all throughout the process even during washing. don't use tap water as the temperature of tap water is between 27-30 deg. and ice cubes or keep in fridge until it reaches the 20deg temp.

[Xtol19]

Wouldn't develop at 29 deg if I were you. Could lead to abnormally short development times which makes pushing/pulling difficult, not to mention risk of uneven development.

Originally Posted by The Dry Box I had scanned and develop my first roll of film (tri-x). After scanning, I found white patches all over the images. After inspecting the negatives, I found that the same patches are on the negatives itself. It might not seem like a great deal, but I am just worried about the amount of pp I need to do when I have a low-key picture that I want to use. I do suspect it is due to uneven drying... After fixing, I had rinse the negs by doing inversions of 5, 10 and 20s(might be more) with tap water before soaking it in ilford wetting agent 1:200 dilution, doing gentle agitation with the rod before... aggressively shaking the water of the negs. I thought I was kiasu enough with all the precautions taken already, I even dry my negatives in an enclosed, dust free "cabinet", though I was wondering if that could be where it went wrong since it's obviously poorly ventilated(more like no ventilation actually). Squeegee? I am developing at 29 degrees(using streetshooter's tutorial, Thx!), I heard the negative surface will be easlier to scratch? If it helps, I am using a paterson tank and did 1 roll with 300ml of chemicals each(tank says 290ml is enough for 1 roll), cept for the fixer which I use a 500ml quantity. Thoughts, solutions, film donations welcome.

[alucard]

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Cr...rocessing-4639

I think this describes it very well. It is not necessary to maintain the same temperature throughout, but avoid drastic changes in temperature.

[leej0038]

i'd agree with everyone who has advised against developing at 29 deg. higher temps actually push the developing time down to sometimes ridiculously short timings. and if you were following the stand developing tutorial, there is actually no agitation during the process maybe agitation would have prevented the spots from appearing?

[The Dry Box]

Actually I think there's nothing wrong with developing at tropical water temp...
My new batch is ok, after thorough washing. I found out some of the spots are actually due to dust from the scanner! Should have known given how dusty my room is. The taint on the negative of my first roll is prolly due to unevening drying, though I thought the wetting agent at 1:200 ought to do it...

Tri-X pushed to 1600. I actually reused the same wetting agent, and no taints on this one.

[Celebring]

Originally Posted by The Dry Box Actually I think there's nothing wrong with developing at tropical water temp...

I agree with you, I generally develop my film at around 26-27 degrees, which is on cool evenings in Singapore. Needed a few ice-cubes this month though.

As mentioned before, the risk of developing at too high a temperature is that your development time drops under 5 mins and risks uneven development. 26-27 degrees gives me 6-10 min development times for D76/ID11 1+1.

If you want to develop in tap water and not care about the temperature, maybe try Diafine or use highly diluted HC-110 and stand development. The former can be used at a range of temperatures; for the latter an extra few minutes or so may not matter so much since development times are likely to be very long anyway. Not for those concerned with getting the very best from their negatives, I should think. I've not experimented with either, so try at your own risk.

I've had white spots on some of my scans, but think it's more dust than emulsion flaking off. Cleaning the scanner periodically helps and at worst just do a quick clean in the image editor of your choice.

[sloth]

Originally Posted by Celebring If you want to develop in tap water and not care about the temperature, maybe try Diafine or use highly diluted HC-110 and stand development. The former can be used at a range of temperatures; for the latter an extra few minutes or so may not matter so much since development times are likely to be very long anyway. Not for those concerned with getting the very best from their negatives, I should think. I've not experimented with either, so try at your own risk.

I used to love the smooth creamy results of ID-11 at 1+1/20C but it got to be too much work. I then switched to HC-110, 1:100 in whatever came out of the tap with no temperature control.

You will have to develop a new set of timings for this combo, but other than that it works fine. I used to stir halfway through the development process but got even lazier and no longer stir. Macham like no difference. The timings are around 10 minutes or thereabouts, very controllable. I don't even time with stopwatch nowadays, just a wall clock.

Results look decent and I have gone through a whole bottle of HC-110 already (nearly 100 rolls at this dilution). Doesn't seem to have much of a quality impact to my eyes although sometimes not as smooth as ID-11 - but that could be the different nature of the developer.

I'm sure those who are really concerned about extracting maximum quality from their images would use proper process and temperature control, but for the rest of us who are not too worried (or way too busy with our harried lives), I don't see a downside to this strategy

[Yatlapball]

Oddly enough, I have seen the exact same thing happening on my Kodak negatives (occasionally) but not my Ilford. Always start developing at 20deg, rinse at around 25deg... So temperature shock and reticulation might not be the reason for me. I use the "finger squeegee" method... maybe Kodak's emulsions are more prone to flaking off than Ilford?