problems developing. HEEEEELLLLLLLPPPP

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patrickc

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I've just started some home B&W development in a dark room/ bathroom, but i am having problems. ive got a few 36 rolls that i want to turn into negs but before i ruin them i thought id do some tester films. the actual development process is fine - i seem to have got all the chemicals, times etc, correct. however, the film has loads of weird gaps between the first 20 exposures which isnt very good news. the only reason i can think of is ive loaded the film into the dev tank wrong, but still cant see how ive done it wrong. can anyone help me please??

many thanks

pat

ive got a photo of the problem negs but cant attach it. whats the best way the put it up?
 
loading film into developing tank wrongly would not cause that problem , i can only think that the camera isnt winding film on properly.

by that i mean that camera is winding film on more than a frame
 
Hi,
The best way to show the image of the negs is to upload it photobucket and then use the image attach button looks like the mountain with the sun above it and use the direct link address. It does sound like daftbugga is right
 
If the film is sticking together during the dev process the chemicals can't get at it and you will get gaps though they will be more patches and not regular in size/shape.

If you are using the small black dev tank (paterson style, like a large plastic coffee jar) with a spiral film holder you should practice loading the film onto the spiral with a gash film in daylight a few times first to get the hang of it, then do it again in the changing bag or whatever dark medium you're using before trusting a film you want to develop to it.
 
daftbugga said:
loading film into developing tank wrongly would not cause that problem , i can only think that the camera isnt winding film on properly.

by that i mean that camera is winding film on more than a frame
Click to expand...

I agree, the other alternative is that the camera was wildly overexposing some of the shots, completely blowing out the negative.
 
h'mmm having seen the photos of the negatives i'm still inclined to say the problem lies in the camera film transport but i'ts an odd one to me.:shrug:

sat here typing this does evoke memories of old and the unmistakable aroma that can only come from dev,stop & fix and the hours spent fumbling and groping in the dark,

without a woman :'(
 
Thjere's a patch on the middle strip that looks like my suggestion, but the rest are too regular. Since you seem to be getting only 1/3 of a frame sometimes I think it might be a sticky shutter curtain on the camera itself?
 
steep , looking at it again i 'm sure you diagnosis is correct as frames are evenly spaced as it were.
 
Yep, agree with Steep!

Either your shutter or winding mechanism (or both) is faulty or you have been fiddling with shutter speeds beyond 1/60 of a second as it seems your camera's shutter moves from left to right and not top to bottom.
 
Consider the bottom strip of negs:

The far right-hand negs look like they were taken at night with a shutter speed of about 1/250 sec shutter with flash.

The middle strip seems a bit confusing...

What camera did you use?

A classic such as the K-1000 or similar should give you half frames, quarter frames and so forth IF INDEED IT IS A PROBLEM OF FLASH SYNCHRO...

More modern film bodies will, of course, give you half and third stops on the shutter which, in turn, will give you 1/3 exposed frames...

Top strip:

Neg #20 looks like a dog close to a wall with a flash shadow to the left when facing the dog and here it looks like you have roughly 2/3 of the frame exposed well.

Your shutter speed should have been roughly 1/90 then (neg#20)

Please tell us more!
 
I would agree with the flash sync. theory. If the developer / fixer was not covering the surface properly you would see problems on the edge of the film near the sprocket holes, but that area seems to be developed / fixed evenly.
 
I am no authority on the whole range of development products but I would imagine that they all work the same.

I always used ID-11 (Stock) and Ilford paper fixer.

You are supposed to agitate the cylinder for 10 seconds out of every minute anyhow and I cannot see how one could possibly have untreated areas on the film if you did this?:thinking:

Anton
 
It's a long time since I developed a film. As I recall, the frame numbers, etc, were pre-fogged onto the film which meant it required development to become visible. You can see the frame numbers in this case so the problem lies at the exposure 'end' of the process.

I'm quite happy to be wrong though ;)
 
Certainly looks like a sticking shutter curtain to me.
You don't say what sort of camera it is but if you can remove the lens or open the back in order to see the shutter clearly you can check it for yourself, at the slower speeds anyway.

Hold the camera against a bright light and fire the shutter at all the speeds. At speeds below about 1/60 you should be able to see the second curtain move in a jerky fashion rather than smoothly. Depending on shutter mechanism you may even be able to hear if there is a problem.
 
FWIW, I agree with the above. The problem occured during the exposure, not during development.

- CJ
 
thanks for all the help guys. the camera is an olympus om10, pretty basic really. i have had problems with a sticky shutter before but that was when winding on the film, and all seems to be fine now. my theory is that when i wound on the film i overwound it somehow so the first part of the film got coiled up and overlapped other film, could this even happen?? other tester films i have done since seem to be fine.
 
Patrick,

Typically if you've somehow wound the film wrong onto the spool, the sprocket holes are the giveaway. You'd see indications that the film was lying against itself because the holes would be exposed onto the film they overlapped. Does that make sense? I don't see any evidence of that here, and it's all but impossible that the holes would just happen to line up perfectly.

It really has to be a camera-related problem.

- CJ
 
Patrickc

I thought about your problem a bit more - this doesn't happen often:lol:

I still say that there is no mechanical fault with your om-10 and here is why I say so:

the winding gives you a consistent 24 x 36 mm exposure every time on the negs you posted.

The problems in your exposures are not constant - e.g. 2/3 frames well exposed with 1/3 blank: bottom left negs -

1/3 well exposed with 2/3 blank frame: middle negs centre -

1/3 well exposed with 2/3 underexposed: middle negs right hand side -

2/3 well exposed with 1/3 blank: top negs,all.

I would like to believe that, if you had a mechanical defect in your camera, you should have had consistently similar defects.

Even if the shutter magnets could be playing up, the clincher to me are your middle negs right hand side.

These clearly show that your full neg was exposed by the shutter but not constantly and properly exposed. I would therefore like to believe that winding and shutter operations are constant and correct.

Do you have this manual adapter for your om-10 or do you have the manual for it?

You will have to master your shutter speeds as these are the source of your problem.

Please excuse if you think that I am talking down to you but I have no idea as to how experienced you are in the technical aspects of photography!:D

The shutter in your camera (as already said) opens and closes from left to right or right to left and therefore travels the whole 36 mm aspect of the negative frame.

The important thing about this is that you are seriously limited in shutter speed when you use a flash.

The moment your shutter runs faster than 1/60 (i.e. 1/90 or 1/125...) the whole frame is not open during the optimal firing of the flash and this is why the whole neg is not exposed properly.

Typically at 1/125 shutter the second shutter curtain will start closing when the first curtain has only travelled halfway in opening the frame.

The faster your shutter works, the worse this scenario becomes.

HTH!

Ask away if I waffled in an unclear manner! :thumbs:
 
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