Circles on my Negatives

[flyingfortfan]

I've been getting some weird circles on my negatives. I think they may be air bubbles, but I'm not sure. I presoak the film for 3 minutes, tapping a few times after I put in the water. I'm using a semi-stand development with Rodinal at 1:100. First 3 minutes I agitate/invert. And tap a few times during. Then I let stand for 30 minutes and invert slowing 3 times. Then I let it stand for another 30 minutes. Developer is fresh. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

They're air bubbles, and the streaks you're seeing from the bubbles are from not agitating enough. I've never gotten good results from stand or semistand developing. Regular agitation is needed to get even developing.

 

[flyingfortfan]

Thanks Christopher… I have some D76 on the way. Hopefully it will go smoother.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Thanks Christopher… I have some D76 on the way. Hopefully it will go smoother.

Rodinal is good developer. I've used it for 25 yrs, and its the developer I learned to develop film with way back when I was in high school. If you use it a more conventional dilution (Rodinal is usually used at 1+25 or 1+50) and give normal agitation (First 30 seconds, then two inversions every 30 seconds) then Rodinal gives gorgeous negatives.

You didn't mention what film you're using. I think Rodinal is just about the best developer for fine-grained films like Kodak Tmax 100 and Ilford Pan F. With 400 speed films, it gives a gritty but very sharp look. I like it with Tri-X. D-76 will give a smoother tonality and finer grain with 400 films. I choose D-76 or Rodinal for those films depending on the look I want.

Look on my tutorial site for developing times for several films in Rodinal 1+50. I also have times for D-76, Tmax Developer and PMK Pyro developer.

http://crawfordphotoschool.com/film/developing.php

 

[flyingfortfan]

Thanks for the additional information. I was shooting 120 Tmax 100. I'll give the Rodinal at 1 +50 a try. I checked out your website- lots of good info on there. I just ordered some Ilford film (HP 5 and FP4)to try out. It should arrive about the same time as the Bronica SQ-A.

 

[rybolt]

This is a weird problem. The prewet and the invert, agitate and tap in the first three minutes should have taken care of the airbell issue. I agree with Chris about agitation being a necessary part of the development process but this looks like something besides airbells. I don't know what, though.

 

[sevo]

Air bubbles create dark (or even black) disc or donut shaped spots in the positive - nothing brighter inside, and no drag either. This here is a zone of increased development (the brighter central spot), surrounded by a (darker, in the positive) zone of reduced development, which fades out into something that looks like bromide drag. My guess would be some kind of activating particles in the developer. Precipitated developer, water impurities, dried up fixer in the tank?

 

[Hatchetman]

I'm with sevo. Not air bubbles.

 

[rybolt]

Air bubbles create dark (or even black) disc or donut shaped spots in the positive - nothing brighter inside, and no drag either. This here is a zone of increased development (the brighter central spot), surrounded by a (darker, in the positive) zone of reduced development, which fades out into something that looks like bromide drag. My guess would be some kind of activating particles in the developer. Precipitated developer, water impurities, dried up fixer in the tank?

Since it was Rodinal it shouldn't be a precipitate in the developer but it certainly could have been something in the tank from a previous session. Just when you think you've seen everything...

The only other thing I can think of is that something splashed on the film during the reel loading process. It would have been very tiny droplets, though.

 

[Bill Clark]

I use Rodinal with stand development process. Haven't had that happen to me. That leads me to agree with those that say something could be in the tank from previous developing, did tank get washed thoroughly after each use, something in the water, I don't pre-soak, I agitate only for ten seconds or so at the bginning and, the same amount of time, at 30 minutes. At the beginning, I lightly tap the tank on the bottom to get rid of air bubbles. So far so good. Hope you figure it out. Thought this little ditty might help you.

This is an interesting read on stand developing:

http://jbhildebrand.com/2011/tutorials/workflow-tutorial-2-stand-development-with-rodinal/

 

[flyingfortfan]

Thanks for all of the help. Unfortunately it took me a awhile to rule out what was the actual cause. Ultimately it looks like using a cheap stainless steel bbq skewer to agitate my film was the cause of the problems. I had lost the small plastic piece that came with the tank. And the back up plan failed. Thanks to Chris and Bill for the links. I'm using them both for future reference.

 

[Ronald M]

If stand consistently gave better results, the film manufacturer would advise. Stich with Chris. He always puts up perfectly toned photos.

Same with presoak which is required only if you are hand interleaving sheet film in a tray.

 

[JoeV]

Thanks for all of the help. Unfortunately it took me a awhile to rule out what was the actual cause. Ultimately it looks like using a cheap stainless steel bbq skewer to agitate my film was the cause of the problems. I had lost the small plastic piece that came with the tank. And the back up plan failed. Thanks to Chris and Bill for the links. I'm using them both for future reference.

Interesting. So, was this scratches on the film or bits of barbecue residue? Mesquite or hickory? 🙂

~Joe