I recently processed a roll of HP5+ using 1:7 HC110 for 5 minutes (massive development chart). When poured the fixer out, it was black. The negatives have this golden hue to them. Would like some advise using this developer. Thanks carol

-- carol maurin (cbmaurin+@pitt.edu), January 31, 2000

Answers

The developing time sounds right. If the developer wasn't old, I'd say it was more a problem with the fix. Are the negatives printable?

-- (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), February 01, 2000.

I am going to make a couple of educated guesses, but it would help if you would say exactly what steps you went through when you processed the roll - ie: pre-soak in plain water -- empty tank and pour in developer / agitation procedures and temperature -- pour out dev and pour in stop bath or water rinse / time for stop bath-agitation -- pour out stop bath and pour in fixer --fresh? agitation times? temperature?

It sounds like the gold color is dichroic fog which is a thin deposit of metallic silver. I have encountered it when I failed to use a stop bath or water rinse between the developer and fixer, end especially when the fixer was well used and contained a lot of silver from previous useage.

Was the fixer itself black when you poured out or are you saying the film was all black? If the fixer was black it may have been a combination of anti-halation dye being rinsed out of the film, which is harmless, or it may be a silver sludge, which means that the chemicals are exhausted and/or contaminated.

Your developer dilution sounds good, so I think I would look at your fixer. Use fresh solution -- it should be water clear, not cloudy or milky or yellow. Make sure all your tanks and graduates are well washed in hot water after each use and are dry before you load film.

I find it helpful to use a plain water pre-soak before I pour in the developer. It removes the anti-halation dye (blue or purple color) and brings everything up to the right temperature. I normally do not use an acid stop bath for film. Instead I use a water rinse. I pour out the developer and add plain water at the right temperature, agitate for a few cycles and pour out, and repeat 3 or 4 times before I pour in the fixer.

If there is an image on your film you can probably print through the gold color, but you will have to play with your variable contrast filters a bit since the yellow color will act like a lower contrast filter.

Hope this helps. Give it another try with clean containers and fresh chemicals and let us know what happens.

-- Tony Brent (ajbrent@mich.com), February 01, 2000.