rpbrownphoto
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2021
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- 28
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So, I'm having a pretty frustrating problem..
Before the Kodak price hike, I shot Tri-X and developed with HC-110 Dil B for years. My negatives were always nice, punchy, and clean. Then came the price hike and I switched over to HP5.. I only get results I'm happy with when pushing to 1600 but I'm getting off topic here.
Ever since I switched over, I've been getting this strange problem where I'll have tiny little black streaks all over some of the frames and basically always the last 6 or so. Also, the last 5-6 frames are always mushy and crappy looking.
The bottle of HC-110 I'm using now was purchased 6 months ago but was immediately transferred to several little glass bottles in order to keep it fresher longer. I bought the glass bottles on Amazon and I rinsed them very well with hot water before transferring the HC-110 to them. I tried D-76 a handful of times with HP5 at box speed to see if that would get me the results I wanted, but it didn't, and I'm pretty sure I got the same black marks with that developer as well. And I cannot remember if I experienced this before switching film stocks, but my HC-110 is very foamy after agitating and pouring into the drain. I don't recall that happening before??
I didn't know any better but for a long time, I've been immersing my plastic Paterson reels in a photo-flo solution inside of the developing tank. I'm not sure if I started doing that before or after I began to get these strange marks and mushy, disgusting negatives towards the end of the rolls. But I'm wondering if, like, even though I would rinse the reels and tanks under hot water afterwards, if possibly the gunk from the photo-flo has ruined the reels or tanks? Could that possibly be causing this problem??
My girlfriend shot a roll of Tri-X with her point and shoot the other day and when I processed, I got the same black marks but on more than half of the frames this time. So I know it's not my camera or the film stock.
Sometimes, only the last few frames or so have the black marks, and sometimes it will pop up randomly on certain frames, or sometimes several frames. And the last of the roll being mushy doesn't;t always happen, but it seems to be happening more and more lately.
I'm not really sure what to do here. Would you recommend swapping out the reels and seeing what happens? Would it also be wise to swap out the tanks in that case? Could it be the HC-110 even though its been kept air tight in small glass bottles? Perhaps there was some weird residue on the glass bottles that didn't come off with the initial rinse that is contaminating the developer? I developed Tri-X with HC-110 Dil B for a few years and never had a problem ONCE. I'm getting so bummed out spending all this time and energy taking pictures only to have the negatives get compromised in the developing process.
Oh and I tried to wipe the black stuff off the negatives using my warm breath and a microfiber cloth to no avail. I know photo-flo sounds unlikely but I cannot think of anything else it can be. My stop/fix solutions are nice and fresh.
Attached are a couple of samples:
The first picture is of a good negative in the middle of the roll with the black marks (all the negatives are properly exposed in the roll until the last 6)
The second picture is of the last of the frames on the roll which all look dark and mushy and crappy (this same thing happens on rolls pretty frequently) and I'm wondering if there's a specific reel causing the issue??
Pleeeeeeease let me know if you have any ideas, I'm dyin' here.
Thanks!
Before the Kodak price hike, I shot Tri-X and developed with HC-110 Dil B for years. My negatives were always nice, punchy, and clean. Then came the price hike and I switched over to HP5.. I only get results I'm happy with when pushing to 1600 but I'm getting off topic here.
Ever since I switched over, I've been getting this strange problem where I'll have tiny little black streaks all over some of the frames and basically always the last 6 or so. Also, the last 5-6 frames are always mushy and crappy looking.
The bottle of HC-110 I'm using now was purchased 6 months ago but was immediately transferred to several little glass bottles in order to keep it fresher longer. I bought the glass bottles on Amazon and I rinsed them very well with hot water before transferring the HC-110 to them. I tried D-76 a handful of times with HP5 at box speed to see if that would get me the results I wanted, but it didn't, and I'm pretty sure I got the same black marks with that developer as well. And I cannot remember if I experienced this before switching film stocks, but my HC-110 is very foamy after agitating and pouring into the drain. I don't recall that happening before??
I didn't know any better but for a long time, I've been immersing my plastic Paterson reels in a photo-flo solution inside of the developing tank. I'm not sure if I started doing that before or after I began to get these strange marks and mushy, disgusting negatives towards the end of the rolls. But I'm wondering if, like, even though I would rinse the reels and tanks under hot water afterwards, if possibly the gunk from the photo-flo has ruined the reels or tanks? Could that possibly be causing this problem??
My girlfriend shot a roll of Tri-X with her point and shoot the other day and when I processed, I got the same black marks but on more than half of the frames this time. So I know it's not my camera or the film stock.
Sometimes, only the last few frames or so have the black marks, and sometimes it will pop up randomly on certain frames, or sometimes several frames. And the last of the roll being mushy doesn't;t always happen, but it seems to be happening more and more lately.
I'm not really sure what to do here. Would you recommend swapping out the reels and seeing what happens? Would it also be wise to swap out the tanks in that case? Could it be the HC-110 even though its been kept air tight in small glass bottles? Perhaps there was some weird residue on the glass bottles that didn't come off with the initial rinse that is contaminating the developer? I developed Tri-X with HC-110 Dil B for a few years and never had a problem ONCE. I'm getting so bummed out spending all this time and energy taking pictures only to have the negatives get compromised in the developing process.
Oh and I tried to wipe the black stuff off the negatives using my warm breath and a microfiber cloth to no avail. I know photo-flo sounds unlikely but I cannot think of anything else it can be. My stop/fix solutions are nice and fresh.
Attached are a couple of samples:
The first picture is of a good negative in the middle of the roll with the black marks (all the negatives are properly exposed in the roll until the last 6)
The second picture is of the last of the frames on the roll which all look dark and mushy and crappy (this same thing happens on rolls pretty frequently) and I'm wondering if there's a specific reel causing the issue??
Pleeeeeeease let me know if you have any ideas, I'm dyin' here.
Thanks!