joram
Hello!
I’ve got a problem: some of my films have strange streaks after development, which are particularly noticeable at the edges. These aren’t caused by a leaky camera, as both my girlfriend’s Leica and my Canonet GIII QL19 regularly provide excellent exposure results. No streaks.
That’s why I’m putting it down to the development process.
I can’t remember exactly which films they were, but I mainly develop with Rodinal, X-Tol and, before that, D76, mostly Fomapan and Neopan 400, often pushed to 800 or 1600. Afterwards, I fix with Adofix or Ilford Rapidfix (admittedly, the bottle is from a car boot sale, but it’s worked perfectly fine so far).
I shake it about 2 to 3 times a minute; in summer I was working at around 25 degrees, otherwise at 20 degrees Celsius.
And now a friend of mine is having the same problems; he performs exposure with T-Max and shoots with a Leica M4, which works perfectly and has just come back from CLA.
Perhaps someone here has an idea what might be causing this.
bernhardmangelsgmxde
It's going to be a bit tricky to get to the bottom of this...
StefanCaspari
Hello Joram,
Could you describe the streaks in more detail:
Do they run lengthways, i.e. along the film, or are they across or at an angle?
Are they lighter or darker than the negative? Are they very fine or slightly thicker? Do they have sharp or blurred, soft edges?
Do you have one or more films in the canister, etc.?
Only then can we try to investigate the causes.
Best regards, Stefan
uworischki
Hi Joram,
Perhaps you could scan a negative or a positive?
That would make things a lot easier...
Best wishes, Uwe
Andreas_23
Hello joram,
It is indeed difficult to troubleshoot the problem without a picture.
Best regards,
Andreas
joram
I’ll scan the relevant images as soon as possible and post them here. I’m a bit swamped at the moment, unfortunately, but thanks for your quick help ;)
piu58
Bromide strips? A denser negative beneath each perforation hole?
Not enough agitation during development!
MarcS
Sounds interesting – perhaps the "streaks" look
like the ones in my thread?
[topic="0"]http://www.fotolaborforum.eu/index.php?showtopic=2204[/topic]
Best regards
Marc
joram
Apologies for my long absence; I’ve been busy.
The streaks haven’t appeared for a while now and are probably down to a combination of a lack of, or insufficient/incorrect, agitation and a stale fixer. The fixer is fresh, and the can is now swirled gently so that the developer isn’t just moved up and down, but also undergoes a slight sideways movement. Since then, the negatives have looked perfect.
andreasdegner
Hello,
I had similar problems with my last film development (Delta 100 in Ilfosol-S 1+9, 6 mins, 20°C). In the image below, you can see vertical streaks of varying density, particularly in the sky on the right.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
I also noticed with this film that many contours are extremely out of focus. This cannot be due to incorrect focusing, as the black border (which should actually be sharp) is also affected.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
I developed the film using the standard 10-second agitation cycle per minute. Do you think this is down to the developer, or could it be the fixer? I’ve read elsewhere that Ilfosol can go off quite quickly. The film also seems to me to be underexposed.
I’d be very grateful for any tips!
Regards
Andreas
StefanCaspari
Hello,
I had similar problems with my last film development (Delta 100 in Ilfosol-S 1+9, 6 mins, 20°C). In the image below, you can see vertical streaks of varying density, particularly in the sky on the right.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
I also noticed with this film that many contours are extremely out of focus. This cannot be due to incorrect focusing, as the black border (which should actually be sharp) is also affected.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
I developed using the standard 10-second agitation cycle per minute. Do you think this is down to the developer, or could it also be the fixer? I’ve read elsewhere that Ilfosol can cause streaking quite quickly. The film also seems underdeveloped to me.
I’d be very grateful for any tips!
Regards,
Andreas
Hello Andreas!
Could you perhaps post another scan showing the entire negative, including the border mask?
From the way I see the streaks on the 28_18 copy, it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the development; it could(!) also be an unevenness in the emulsion. To be sure, however, we’d need a size comparison with the whole negative.
I think the out-of-focus area at the 128:edge is a resolution issue with the scan (a size comparison would be helpful here too).
Best regards, Stefan
StefanCaspari
Hello again!
Tell me: for a Delta 100, the whole thing looks absolutely brilliant to me; I’ve only just realised that the entire negative is visible.
And another question: did you scan the negative itself, or an enlargement of it?
I’m guessing it’s an enlargement (because of the sharp, fine white scratches, which have a different texture to the rest of the grain).
Best regards, Stefan
andreasdegner
Hello again!
Tell me: for a Delta 100, the whole thing looks absolutely brilliant to me; I’ve only just realised that the entire negative is visible.
And another question: did you scan the negative itself, or an enlargement of it?
I’m guessing an enlargement (because of the sharp, fine white scratches, which have a different texture to the rest of the grain).
Best regards: Stefan
Hello Stefan!
You’ve guessed wrong – it’s a scan of the negative at quite a high resolution (Reflecta Crystal Scan, 3600 dpi). But you’re right, it looks very impressive to me too. Incidentally, the uploaded image looks grainier than it actually is when I view it in Photoshop. That’s also why the vertical streaks in the top right of the sky aren’t very visible. You can see them best whilst the image is loading shortly after clicking on it.
The cropped enlargement hasn’t been saved in good quality. Here it is again:
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
To compare the graininess, here’s another cropped section from a different Delta100 at the same magnification:
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
There’s certainly a difference.
The out of focusness of the edge isn’t a resolution issue with the scanner. You can see that the finer grain structure is also being resolved. And on my other negative scans, the edge is actually always sharp.
I’m quite at a loss...
Best regards
Andreas
StefanCaspari
Hello again!
Tell me: for a Delta 100, the whole thing looks absolutely brilliant to me; I’ve only just realised that the entire negative is visible.
And another question: did you scan the negative itself, or an enlargement of it?
I’m guessing an enlargement (because of the sharp, fine white scratches, which have a different texture to the rest of the grain).
Best regards: Stefan
Hello Stefan!
You’ve guessed wrong – it’s a scan of the negative at quite a high resolution (Reflecta Crystal Scan, 3600 dpi). But you’re right, it looks very impressive to me too. Incidentally, the uploaded image looks grainier than it actually is when I view it in Photoshop. That’s also why the vertical streaks in the top right of the sky aren’t very visible. You can see them best whilst the image is loading shortly after clicking on it.
The cropped enlargement hasn’t been saved in good quality. Here it is again:
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
To compare the graininess, here’s another cropped section from a different Delta 100 at the same magnification:
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
There really is a difference.
The out of focusness of the edge isn’t a resolution issue with the scanner. You can see that the finer grain structure is also resolved. And on my other negative scans, the edge is actually always sharp.
I’m quite at a loss...
Best regards
Andreas
Hello Andreas!
You’re right, that really is a huge difference!
Tell me, is that particular mountain scene rather hard or soft, with high density or sparse?
You write, if I remember correctly, that it seems underexposed – but that wouldn’t fit with this graininess, because underexposure specifically avoids the formation of large silver grains or clusters of grain...
One more question: could this film possibly be pre-exposed – due to heat, chemical fumes, X-rays, etc.?
That might explain this graininess, which is really quite severe for a Delta 100.
Best regards, Stefan
Macbeth
I can tell you without a doubt what the problem is:
The film was wound onto the developing spools the wrong way round.
- It’s happened to me too.
Best regards,
Macbeth
