I've just started developping my film at home and my negatives keep comming out washed out(like all grey no black and no white) I'm not sure if I'm under developping them or over developping them. Please help.

-- sam (s01@soffet.com), May 27, 2001

Answers

Response to Problems with developping Please Help !!

Sounds as if you need to develop longer and agitate more. How do the prints turn out? Do you have to use high-contrast papers or high-number (4 or 5) VC filters to get good prints? Your negatives could be a bit underexposed, too. You should be able to print most of your shots with grade 2 or 3 paper or a 2 or 3 VC filter.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols@iopener.net), May 27, 2001.

Response to Problems with developping Please Help !!

Sam, explain your process, including developer, dilution, temps and times, agitation method... Also, are the edge numbers a solid black or washed out too?

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), May 27, 2001.

Thank you both for your responses,

Saving my pictures is not so much what I am worried about, I would like to just be able to develop my film properly. About my process, I am using Ilford FP4 Plus 125 film, and developing with Ilford @ 1+14 at 20C for 6min, and I use that "spinner" every 30 sec. for 5 sec. And the numbers at the edges are washed out too. Thanks again

-- sam (s01@soffet.com), May 28, 2001.

I want my negatives to have shades of grey, rather than blacks and whites. Overexposed, overdeveloped negavives or parts thereof contain no detail. Same with underexposed, underdeveloped negs. I find is far easier to increase contrast in printing than to decrease, given the lesser ability of paper to reproduce shades of grey. I am also not convinced that the edge markings are a great way to determine properly developed negs. Try printing some negs, see what happens. Your negs may be better than you thought.

-- Paul Oosthoek (pauloosthoek@hotmail.com), May 29, 2001.

Sam, It sound like you are underdeveloping... being that the printing on the spockets are thin also. Try increasing your time by 20% to start. If your negs look better, this is close to your new time. 1:14? What developer are you using? If it is ID11, to my recollection, it is a dilution of 1:1. I would say do a clip test... go out and shoot a roll of the same subject including sun, and deep shadows. Shoot the whole roll. When you get ready to develop, a clip test is the process of "clipping" a small portion of the roll, maybe 5 frames or so, and developing that at N (normal development). The next clip, after looking at the first set and determining what you have to do next, develop N+1 (+20% of your last time) and so on. Testing is a must to find out your "normal" time for your setup. After you do all your tests, pull a print to see what prints the way you want, having detail in the shadows and highlights. You may have to cut back on your processing time or boost it some more. This is a must for our life. Everytime you change a new film or development... testing is a must. Hope this helps to start you on your way. Cheers, Scott

-- Scott Walton (f64sw@hotmail.com), May 29, 2001.

If your using 1:14 dilution, I'm guessing your using Ilfosol S. Is this right? If so, how long have you had the bottle and more importantly, what colour was/is the liquid in the bottle. If it's brown, it's probably gone off. Have you bought new stuff to try? I believe the edge markings give enough information to indicate major problems, and washed out ones indicate under development. Your 6 mins is the Ilford recommend time for Fp4+ in Ilfosol S, so I'm guessing the developer was off.

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), May 29, 2001.

do your negs look a little milky (sort of foggy) or are they clear and crisp looking. if they are foggy looking your fixer may be tired or the concentration may be wrong or the time spent in the fixer not long enough. so if they are milky all is not lost, just mix up a new batch of fixer and put the negs in it for say five minutes or so keep agitating and then re-rinse.the foggy looking deposits will have gone and you will have something like the contrast you are looking for. telboy.

-- telboy (onecall.web@btinternet.com), June 23, 2001.