I would be really grateful for some help.
I did a lot of film photography in the 80s and 90s, developing and printing hundreds of my own black and white films without any problems. I then moved into digital, but have recently restarted black and white film photography.
The problem is that all my negatives have multiple tiny black spots of different shapes and sizes translating into white spots when scanned. They are small enough to need a magnifying glass to see on the negative, but so many as to wreck the image. I have developed about 12 films so far and have tried changing different things, but it seems to be getting worse rather than better. I sent one film off to be professionally developed and it was fine.
The setup is: Ilford Pan-F or FP4 (well in date and from different suppliers) Developer - started with Ilford ID-11, then bought a new packet as I thought that it might be caused by the developer not being dissolved properly then Adox XT-3 which someone recommended, and then Ilford Perceptol, all using distilled water and dissolved at recommended temperatures and developing with stock solutions. Ilfostop to stop, but have also tried just a wash with distilled water and then fixing with Ilford Rapid Fixer 1 in 4, which I have also renewed with a fresh mix in distilled water.
I have kept the temperatures very close to 20 degrees. A wash with many changes of water and a final rinse with Kodak Photo-flo 200 1 in 200.
I then hang up the negatives to dry for a few hours.
The whole thing is driving me mad, as I have yet to develop a usable negative!
Many thanks in advance.
I did a lot of film photography in the 80s and 90s, developing and printing hundreds of my own black and white films without any problems. I then moved into digital, but have recently restarted black and white film photography.
The problem is that all my negatives have multiple tiny black spots of different shapes and sizes translating into white spots when scanned. They are small enough to need a magnifying glass to see on the negative, but so many as to wreck the image. I have developed about 12 films so far and have tried changing different things, but it seems to be getting worse rather than better. I sent one film off to be professionally developed and it was fine.
The setup is: Ilford Pan-F or FP4 (well in date and from different suppliers) Developer - started with Ilford ID-11, then bought a new packet as I thought that it might be caused by the developer not being dissolved properly then Adox XT-3 which someone recommended, and then Ilford Perceptol, all using distilled water and dissolved at recommended temperatures and developing with stock solutions. Ilfostop to stop, but have also tried just a wash with distilled water and then fixing with Ilford Rapid Fixer 1 in 4, which I have also renewed with a fresh mix in distilled water.
I have kept the temperatures very close to 20 degrees. A wash with many changes of water and a final rinse with Kodak Photo-flo 200 1 in 200.
I then hang up the negatives to dry for a few hours.
The whole thing is driving me mad, as I have yet to develop a usable negative!
Many thanks in advance.
