Light leak after stopping

marsellus · 2011-10-04T12:52:10+00:00

Moin, neulich ist mir bei der Filmentwicklung ein Missgeschick passiert, das jetzt zuerst "kunstvoll" aussieht. Und zwar ist mir unmittelbar nach dem Einfül...

marsellus

Hi, I had a bit of a mishap the other day whilst developing film, which now actually looks quite 'artistic'. Basically, immediately after adding the fixer (the timer had already stopped) and whilst putting the spout cap back on, the lid of the Jobo tank popped open for a second. The lid stayed on, but it was enough to create a 3mm-wide streak of exposure along the perforation. That in itself wouldn’t be a problem. Afterwards, as usual, 3 minutes in Superfix with hardener (used up half the batch first, tested later: clearing time 80 seconds), rinsing, Mirasol bath. When I finally removed the film from the wetting agent, it had an irregular fog that stuck to my fingers in patches as a silvery-black residue, but this did not go away despite further rinsing and also re-fixing with fresh fixer followed by another 15 minutes of rinsing. The developed image is perfectly fine: dense, good contrast, stable. It is simply overlaid by this fog. The emulsion side has a silvery sheen, not a matt black finish. Am I right in thinking that the overexposed, undeveloped material was distributed across the emulsion during fixing? I was bold enough afterwards to wipe the dry film with cotton wool and Tetenal Filmcleaner – it didn’t affect the image much, but the deposited material formed really lovely streaks in the process. Digital photographers have to go to great lengths to create a result like this with scratch textures. What interests me most, however, is whether the result can now be archived in this form, or whether I should transfer the film instead.

piu58

Once the stop bath has been added, no further development takes place. If fixer is present, none at all. Even after rinsing, without any stop bath, any additional density develops only very slowly, taking several minutes.

bernhardmangelsgmxde

Yes... with the positive process, I switch the light on when the image is in the fixer. So the paper is exposed to normal room lighting across its entire width. No fog, nor any other noticeable effects. That can’t be the cause.

Urnes

Yes... with the positive process, I switch the light on when the image is in the fixer. So the paper is exposed to normal room lighting across its entire width. No fog, nor any other noticeable effects. That can’t be the cause.

Namir, that depends heavily on the fixer used and how fresh it is. As a rule, you should wait for half the fixing time to elapse before turning on the light. As for the other issue, something like that doesn’t happen through accidental overexposure. If it hadn’t already happened to Lee Miller at the start of the last century, you’d probably have invented solarisation by now :lol:. But seriously, I reckon there was something wrong with the chemicals or the temperature. But why not just give it a go? Take a piece of film, expose it, put it in the fixer and see what happens. And yes, I don’t think much will happen to the fixed film now. Regards, Sven.

marsellus

The same fixer worked perfectly well with subsequent films. So did the stop bath. But the film is clear – 3mm wide at the perforation edge, with an out-of-focus edge, quite typical of leaky lid rings. Except for the thin fog that has spread everywhere. It somehow suggests that whatever has settled everywhere must have come from there. And the subject is really nicely dense in the highlights, so there’s no lack of it there. urnes: basically like a settling time test with film strip snippets. Obviously, the film gets bleached in the process. But the fixer you test this way, which ends up full of silver, is usually poured away, and you don’t run another film through it. piu58: there was no mention of further development; I wrote “over-exposed, undeveloped”

bernhardmangelsgmxde

"post-exposed, undeveloped film" ->Once it’s been developed, you can’t really call it undeveloped film anymore, can you? As for my positive printing process: it takes me a bit of time anyway to get the tray moving a little... that’s always been enough so far. No fog or anything.

piu58

... which is quite typical of leaky lid rings. Apart from the thin fog that has spread everywhere

It is far more likely that the lid did not sit properly throughout the entire development process and only flew off during the fixing stage. I once forgot the inner reel, so the pour spout was pointing directly at the film. Interestingly, only the innermost two turns were affected by this massive error.

marsellus

It’s far more likely that the lid didn’t fit properly throughout the entire development process and only came off during the fixing stage. I once forgot to put the inner reel in, so the spout was pointing straight at the film. Interestingly, only the innermost two turns were affected by this massive mistake.

I don’t think these tanks are watertight if the lid fits so poorly that light gets in. Once, one of the sealing flaps wrapped itself around the tank instead of over it, and the solution ran out immediately when I tilted it. But I don’t understand the chemistry behind it. Why would silver dissolve and spread wildly during exposure? If it had been exposed and developed at the same time, the edge would be black, not shiny. I can only attribute this to the fixer. But it was by no means used up. And the film was from a batch of Efke 50 that seems perfectly fine. Expired in 2005, I suppose. But all the others are fine. I’d also forgotten about the spool core once – only the inside was exposed during exposure. But even if you accidentally open the camera briefly, the images on the inner coils usually survive.