Argh...darkroom problem...please help!

[laudrup]

Hi Gang,

I recently bit the bullet and set up a darkroom, I managed to develop my first film ok, but I had a problem with my first attempt at printing and wondered if anyone could perhaps tell me where i'm going wrong.

I made sure that the darkroom was totally light tight. There is one door and this is covered in blackout material so no light can get in.

My problem was that I exposed a negative onto some photographic paper, I tried to do a test by covering the paper and gradually exposing more paper at 5 second intervals to see what exposure worked best. I had the enlarger apperture at f8. Within a few seconds of putting the paper into the developer tray it went totally black.

I want to figure out why.

I don't have a safe light yet, just a red light bulb and wondered whether this would have affected the paper. It wasn't a specific darkroom bulb just a general cheap red bulb and figured maybe the frequency of the light caused the paper to be over exposed. Generally safe lights have a filter that covers the bulb and use a low wattage. This was a general 60 watter.

Another thing I thought was that I was using multigrade paper and didnt place a filter in the filter tray of my enlarger so it was just exposed to white light. I'm not sure whether this is an issue or not?

As for anything else I'm at a loss to work out what the issue is. I followed the instructions for mixing the developer etc.

Any help would be appreciated as I am at a loss to work out where i've gone wrong.

Cheers

Adam

 

[pvdhaar]

Multi grade paper responds with different contrast to different colours of filters in the enlarger. But assuming that you didn't completely overexpose during enlargement, the only effect of not using them is that you don't have a particular well defined grade..

I would suspect the bulb. First the colour. If it's an ordinary light, the glass may look red when it's off, but as soon as it is switched on it will have significant components in the orange/yellow part of the spectrum. Besides, 60 Watt is an awfull lot of light, and safe lights put out much less, to the point where your eyes need to adapt to the darkness..

 

[laudrup]

Thanks for the advice, i thought that could be the problem. i'll buy a proper safelight this evening and try it.

Cheers

Adam

 

[markinlondon]

60 watts is way over the top as Peter suggested. Most safelights run 7 or 15 watt bulbs. Also with Ilford MGIV (say) and depending on your enlarger's light source, 5 secs might be all the exposure you need at f8. Do the safelight first, then try the 2, 4, 8, 16 second test strip method. This will get you a better idea of the exposure range you need. A second test strip can then be run to nail exposure exactly.

Mark

 

[x-ray]

If you opened your pack of paper under the 60W bulbs illumination there's a very good chance that you have ruined the entire pack. Develope a half sheet with no lights on and see if it is fogged. Don't expose it under the enlarger just process and fix it normally.

 

[tetrisattack]

X-ray is wise.

Turn off the light completely. Open your pack of paper and put a sheet into the developer. Now turn the safe light back on.

If it's already black, your paper's hosed. If it's white and then turns black after a few seconds, the safelight isn't safe. If it stays white, then you were somehow way overexposing your test print.

I'm willing to bet you'll see the second scenario, a white sheet of paper that blackens under the "safe" light. If so, don't throw the rest of the undeveloped paper away -- due to the way it sits in a stack, it's likely that only the extreme edges are fogged, making it good enough for test strips and scratch prints. 🙂

 

[canonetc]

Also, reset your lens aperture to f/11. Depending on how close the lens is to the paper, f/8 seems way too much light for an evenly-processed negative and no contrast filters.

Using or not using a contrast filter on Variable Contrast paper is not an issue. While filters do cut the amount of light by about 30-40% (I usually have to open the aperture up one stop to get the same exposure time as a non-filtered print), the density of your negative is the real issue in determining aperture settings. Density, in simple terms, is determined by initial exposure at the time of shooting, or by film processing time/temperature.

Films with an ASA of 400 will require more light than films of ASA 100. The emulsion, from my experience, is simply thinner with ASA100. Something to consider when selecting aperture. With most ASA100's, if 35mm, an aperture of f/16 to f/11 is a good place to start, and not f/8.

And, as everyone recommended above, get a real safelight.

Cheers!

Chris
canonetc

 

[titrisol]

Safelight is not safe.
60W is a lot!!!!!
IIRC mine was a 25 W and I still needed to use lots of celophane (red+green) to make it inactinic.

It'll be cheaper to buy a used safelight,

Hi Gang,

I recently bit the bullet and set up a darkroom, I managed to develop my first film ok, but I had a problem with my first attempt at printing and wondered if anyone could perhaps tell me where i'm going wrong.

I made sure that the darkroom was totally light tight. There is one door and this is covered in blackout material so no light can get in.

My problem was that I exposed a negative onto some photographic paper, I tried to do a test by covering the paper and gradually exposing more paper at 5 second intervals to see what exposure worked best. I had the enlarger apperture at f8. Within a few seconds of putting the paper into the developer tray it went totally black.

I want to figure out why.

I don't have a safe light yet, just a red light bulb and wondered whether this would have affected the paper. It wasn't a specific darkroom bulb just a general cheap red bulb and figured maybe the frequency of the light caused the paper to be over exposed. Generally safe lights have a filter that covers the bulb and use a low wattage. This was a general 60 watter.

Another thing I thought was that I was using multigrade paper and didnt place a filter in the filter tray of my enlarger so it was just exposed to white light. I'm not sure whether this is an issue or not?

As for anything else I'm at a loss to work out what the issue is. I followed the instructions for mixing the developer etc.

Any help would be appreciated as I am at a loss to work out where i've gone wrong.

Cheers

Adam

 

[John Rountree]

testing safe lights

testing safe lights

Actually, no light is "safe." You should always test your safe light to see how safe it is with any paper you use. Take a strip of paper and place a couple of coins on the papaer. Let the paper and coins sit on your easel for at least 2 minutes (that is approximately the total amount of time your paper will be exposed to the safe light during focusing, exposure and development. Now develop the paper. If you see any discoloration around the areas where the coins were, you have too much safe light. I would suggest doing another test at 2.5 and 3 minutes to see what your margin of safety really is.