I have been using FP4+/HP5+ 4x5 with HC110 & PMK Pyro formula [with help from G Hutching's excellent book on Pyro] for 5 years. I have recently noticed I have a problem with some of my negs [same problem affects HC110 and Pyro negs]. The problem is that I can see on some negs with the naked eye [no magnifying glass needed], blotchy areas of increased density. The effect is most noticeable in ares of smooth tonal gradation such as blue skies and dunes. The effect is replicated on any print made from the defective neg.

The strange thing is, I can develop 4 negs in a stack in an open 10"x8" tray and only one will exhibit the problem.

I would describe the blotches as areas of increased density in the neg that have no particular shape, but which resemble interconnected flattened loops with a strong 'North-South' allignment i.e. the loops appear longer parallel to the short side of the neg than to the longer side of the neg.. They are never longer parallel to the long side of the neg. Where the blotch is its density falls off very gradually and smoothly to the background density of the general subject matter either side of the line of the blotch. The blotches can appear in a connected but random pattern, with typical dark blotch width of 1mm with any where between 4 and 7 running through a given 10mm width of film and with the whole of the area of the neg affected. On most of my negs there are no blotches at all, and the development density accress the neg is even across the whole of the neg [and in the case of Pyro negs the stain is even accross the neg]

Here's how I develop the negs... I tansfer one neg at atime into the pre soak I pre soak in distilled water at 2degC above dev temp, I make up dev using distilled water. I tansfer one neg at atime into the dev. I slant the 10x8 tray up at the far end so I have greater depth of dev at the near end I keep the stack tidy in the lower left hand corner of the tray - the deep end I remove the bottom neg quickly and drop it on the stack and sink the stack and repeat this one more time than the number of negs in the stack, then I rotate the stack in the horizontal plane through 90 degrees and repeat the shuffle. My technique is not fast enough to comfortably do this with 6 negs in 15 seconds so I am now working with 4 negs in stack. Hope you will be able to respond. Thanks in anticipation. Highest Regards Peter Moore Mob +44 (0) 7770 471 476 - UK number peter.moore@ceragon.co.uk

-- Peter Moore (peter.moore@ceragon.co.uk), September 26, 2000

Answers

Two thoughts (admittedly longshots) come to mind. Is all the film from the same box or batch? It's possible you've got a bad batch. The other thing to check is fixing. Is it absolutely certain that this is a density problem on the emulsion side? What's the total processing time? Naturally, short development times can cause trouble, but I suspect you already know that. A bunch of narrow blotches closely spaced together also could be some type of storage problem, pre or post exposure, rather than processing. Hope you get lots of input, as this might be a tough one!

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), September 26, 2000.

Another long shot. Did you store the negs in the refrigerator or something and not give them time to warm up leading to condensation on the surface of the film? DJ

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), September 26, 2000.

Are you developing them emulsion up or down? Next time you develope a stack of film, check and see if it's the bottom piece of film that has the blotches. It could be that the bottom piece is getting some extra agitation from the contours of the tray or there are uneven areas of temperature in the bottom of the tray. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), September 26, 2000.

Peter, you didn't say how long you presoak....try 3 min. in distilled water. You might also take a look at Phil Bard's developing panels. I build one of these for developing pyro negatives and they work great.

http://philbard.com/panel.html

-- Don Sparks (Harleyman7@aol.com), September 27, 2000.

I suggest that you add a couple of drops of Edwal LFN wetting agent to the presoak. It sounds like you may be developing your film emulsion side down and there are air bubbles trapped underneath some of the films. I develop six sheets at a time, emulsion side up, and rotate through the stack every 30 seconds. It is easy to do six at a time this way. In addition, my development times for sheet film and roll film are the same, agitating 5 seconds every 30 seconds in tanks.

-- Michael D Fraser (mdfraser@earthlink.net), September 29, 2000.