Suddenly I'm useless at developing

VirtualAdept

VirtualAdept

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Mads
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All of my negs are coming out overdeveloped, it's an absolute nightmare.
What confuses me most is that my last roll was stand dev'd, and even that's overcooked.
I don't think they're overexposed, since it's been several rolls now from several cameras, on semi auto.
I use rodinal but it's been decanted into smaller bottles with some glass pebbles in em.
 
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Obvious question, but is your temperature okay? Have you changed chemicals, processing equipment or agitation method?
 
Temps were fine on all recent rolls, I had changed agitation from 2 inversions every 30 seconds to some twirling since I found the twirly stick but went back to my original inversions whem they were overcooked.
Last roll was stand dev'd so no agitation after the initial few.
Same tanks and chems.
Its a quandry aint it.
 
I suggest New developer and do things by the book. get a concertina bottle rather than marbles, or a can of nitrogen if you can find one.

even over developed negatives should not fill in the shadows, but ones spoiled by chemical fog will.
 
I guess its time to mix up the D76 I've got and give that a bash til I get some more rodinal.

As an aside, is there any way to tell if the fixers expired (rather than exhausted) without running film through it?

Cheers for the advice fellas, top notch as usual
 
VirtualAdept said:
Fairly, but I've used older and its been fine.
I'm wondering if the marbly things I used weren't as inert as I thought :confused:.
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I always used to use glass marbles to fill developer bottles as they were easy to wash and obviously inert.

Anthony.
 
VirtualAdept said:
I guess its time to mix up the D76 I've got and give that a bash til I get some more rodinal.

As an aside, is there any way to tell if the fixers expired (rather than exhausted) without running film through it?
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is there a difference?
 
just check the clearing time and make up some fresh if needed

and what do the negs look like Mads ? when you say overdelvoped are they mega contrasty ?
 
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Stored unused fix does not go off.
Glass marbles may not always be neutral some contain large quantities of soda, or other chemicals.
there was craze in the 50s to develop to finality.... this increased the speed by 3 and a half stops.
of course it also increased the contrast and grain.
developing to finality entailed developing till there was no further change usually about an hour. It still provided printable negatives on grade one bromide paper.
 
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Terrywoodenpic said:
Stored unused fix does not go off.
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Just to make sure we're on the same page, it's an opened bottle of concentrate, not sealed.


Glass marbles may not always be neutral some contain large quantities of soda, or other chemicals.
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Yeah, I'd say I've messed up with my choice of marbly things.

Negs...


Darker edged negs are newer, lighter ones are older and scanned/printed lovely.
 
the one on the left looks slightly underfixed ,, and i would say a little overexposed ,
the one on the right looks a bit thin to me ,,,,when you say printed lovely ,was that from a digi scan ?
i would think it would be tricky to print from an enlarger
 
Unused fix keeps if diluted or not

The negs on the right look fine... It used to be said if you could read news print through them, they are perfect.
However the thinner they are, the more easily blemishes and dust show up, so some might find those a little too thin.

I expect many would find those on the left not far off, but for my taste they are over cooked, but not by a mile, as they are not fogged nor are the deepest shadows filled in.

Some where between the two would be a better compromise for ease of printing.

Affordable Scanners do have problems penetrating and recording maximum blacks on film, so it is often better to avoid over exposure combined with over development, as this will result in very little distinction in highlight details.

This is a medium contrast shot I took in Germany in 1953 on a solinette ll and scanned a couple of years ago





This very high contrast shot was taken on a rolleiflex and also scanned recently
 
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donut said:
the one on the left looks slightly underfixed ,, and i would say a little overexposed ,
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All my recent ones are like that from several cameras, hence why I was thinking overdevelopment
the one on the right looks a bit thin to me ,,,,when you say printed lovely ,was that from a digi scan ?
i would think it would be tricky to print from an enlarger
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I had to use a filter to get some extra contrast, but they came out nicely from the enlarger.
 
i agree with Terry , somewhere between the two would be about right ( for me ) has your metering method changed lately ?
 
donut said:
i agree with Terry , somewhere between the two would be about right ( for me ) has your metering method changed lately ?
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Nope, all still the same, and like I said, different cameras.
Is the general consensus moving towards overexposed and underfixed?
 
im thinking along the lines of ,if you are doing the same thing now that you were doing before, and got the negatives that you were happy with then ,whats changed ? . to be honest i dont think the strip on the left look all that bad ,,maybe a little dense for my liking , have you printed any of them yet ?
 
donut said:
im thinking along the lines of ,if you are doing the same thing now that you were doing before, and got the negatives that you were happy with then ,whats changed ? . to be honest i dont think the strip on the left look all that bad ,,maybe a little dense for my liking , have you printed any of them yet ?
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No, not yet... my scanner really struggled with them, which is the reason I'm unhappy with them. I haven't changed anything from normal, except I have a new batch of fixer thats gone cloudy and stinks of eggs.
Its why I thought it was the dev gone manky, since I'm not sure the glass beads I used were completely inert.

Thanks for the feedback so far guys, its much appreciated :)
 
change the fixer if you think its off in any way ,,,,
i meant print as you did the other negs ,,,,,not from a scanner
 
I can see no evidence that it is under fixed.
If there is a slight creamy milkiness when you examine the film then it is certainly under fixed.
There is nothing to stop you refixing negs to solve that problem, unless they have started reverting to silver from strong light action.
but even then it will prevent further deterioration.
 
If your fixer stinks of eggs, it is certainly contaminated by developer and has gone off.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
If your fixer stinks of eggs, it is certainly contaminated by developer and has gone off.
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The concentrate should be ok to mix a fresh batch though, right?

EDIT: scrap that, the concentrate smells even worse of eggs and has loads of chunky bits in it. Tis rather old though.
 
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Sounds like you have have mixed up the bottles at some stage.
 
I dunno, I mix fixer from concentrate then leave the concentrate alone for ages, nothing goes back into it at all.
 
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