Any help for under-developed negatives?

[jpa66]

Can anybody help me out, here? I just developed ( last night ) two rolls of 120 film. Or should I say: under-developed. Before anyone asks if they were simply under-exposed, I can assure you that they were not. I just got a larger developing tank, and developed two rolls at a time as opposed to my usual one. So instead of developing the film in Rodinal 1:50, I developed it in 1:100 ( I used the same amount of concentrate that I normally use for one roll - yes, completely stupid, less than amateurish mistake ).

Anyway, I was wondering if there is any way that I can improve the negatives, or am I simply stuck with them? I did scan them, and can get them looking decent, but I'll eventually be ( attempting ) to print some. A few are salvageable ( well, about half ) but it's going to take a lot of darkroom time to get halfway decent prints out of them.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jan

 

[Finder]

The first thing you want to do is to try to make the best print possible. It is amazing what variable contrast paper can do.

If you cannot get a good result, you have two options:

A chemical intensifier which changes the silver into something else--chromium intensifiers is the most common. The density and contrast in increased, but so is the granularity. There is no way back from here.

Or use your scan data to make a digital negative for contact printing.

 

[Finder]

One more thing with intensifiers, the first process is the strongest. If you process it again in the intensifier, density and contrast is reduced.

 

[gns]

I'm not an expert on what exactly that dilution change will do, but in general, if your negatives are exposed properly, but underdeveloped, all you are dealing with is pulled down highlights/lower contrast which shouldn't be problem to boost back up in printing.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Freakscene]

You can do several things, depending on how much additional density you need. You can try selenium toning the neg, which if the toner is strong enough will increase the density.

You can try intensification. There are several and they work different ways. The mercury intensifiers are reversible in their effect, others are not. I have used this chromium intensifier: http://www.digitaltruth.com/data/chromium.php and unlike some others repeat intensification will continue to increase the density. Re-developing in a staining/tanning developer can add density from the stain.

Good luck.

Marty

 

[jpa66]

Thanks, gentlemen. When I get back to the darkroom, I think I'll just try printing a couple negatives on VC paper, and see if I can get a decent image. I may also try to intensify one of the negatives, just to see how it goes, and if it is worth doing to the others. Either way, I'll definitely check out information on intensifying.

I figured that a good scan would be a viable option, but I plan on printing the images in a darkroom, and not on a printer.

Thanks again for the help.