Fog on the film

Gast · 2017-12-31T10:54:08+00:00

Hallo Leute, ich habe dieser Tage drei SW-Filme in meinem Fundus entdeckt, die bis über die Perforation einen gleichmäßigen, zum Teil recht dunklen Schleier...

Gast

Hi everyone, I’ve recently discovered three black-and-white films in my collection that have an even, and in some places quite dark, fog extending beyond the perforations. The films are more than 20 years old and were developed in a professional lab at the time. The films I’ve developed myself don’t have this problem. Could it be that they were poorly fixed or rinsed, or both? I was thinking of using Farmer’s stop bath to clarify them, but I have no experience with it. Is separate bleaching by visual inspection followed by fixing a safer option? How can I salvage the films? Best regards, Jürgen

Wolfgg

Hi Jürgen, € It’s best to start by trying to re-fix and re-wet it. And only on a small section (cut it off if necessary). € Best wishes and a Happy New Year Wolfgang

Gast

Hello Wolfgang, ? Thanks for your reply. I fixed and washed a sample today, but it didn’t make any difference. I read in a reference book that the Farmer’s diluent reacts regardless of temperature or exposure time. That leaves only the concentration of the solution as a controlling factor. Does anyone have any experience with this? ? Regards, Jürgen

KlausWehner

If re-wetting and fixing afterwards doesn’t help, you’ll probably just have to live with the fog. Does it cause any problems when enlarging the print? € Please look up the effects of Farmer’s reducer again. It attacks the silver in the image. That can’t be the effect you’re looking for. € Without knowing exactly what kind of fog these are, it’s difficult to make recommendations. Perhaps you could describe the fog in more detail? € Best regards Klaus

Gast

The fog is uniform and looks as though the films have been pre-exposed across their entire length and width. If I were to describe the intensity on a scale of zero to one hundred, I’d estimate it at around 30–50, with zero being clear and one hundred being completely black. I won’t know for another week whether I’ll get satisfactory results with the filtering to achieve high contrast. I’ll have more time then. I was thinking of the Farmer’s attenuator because the thin areas – and thus my fog – are affected first. Is my approach correct? ? Regards, Jürgen

grommi

Is my approach correct? € Regards, Jürgen

I think so. It’s possible, of course, that you’ll lose some shadow detail, so I’d try it without first. Perhaps you have ‘normal’ negatives that simply require a longer exposure time during enlargement because of the fog.

Wolfgg

If possible, the negatives should first be scanned before each experiment. Then produce a test print to see whether the negatives might still be usable; a hard paper gradation would be a good starting point. There are subtractive and proportional toners. Subtractive means the same amount of silver is removed everywhere. Proportional means removing more where there is more, i.e. always a percentage of the existing silver. Farmer is a subtractive toner. However, if you do not mix the two components together but apply them one after the other, it works proportionally. Here are the recipes: https://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Developers/Formulas/formulas.html But always test on a small piece first! Best regards, Wolfgang

Gast

Thank you all for your contributions so far. I’ll try to make some prints, perhaps as early as next week. It’s possible that I’ll achieve usable results by making full use of all the technical options available. I’m using contrast-reversal paper so as not to have to stock so many different types of paper. If the dynamic range isn’t sufficient, I can always experiment with Farmer’s paper (on a scrap). I’ll keep you updated on the results. € Regards, Jürgen

Gast

I’ve now enlarged a few images and have to say that the result isn’t satisfactory. I had to turn the contrast filter all the way up to the maximum setting. As a result, with a sufficiently long exposure, the granularity is so severe that the images are now merely illustrative. I don’t think I can avoid having to remove the very dense fog. I’ll start by trying the Farmer’s mask. € Regards, Jürgen