Developed my first BW film: results

[zdav]

This week I developed my first roll of film.
I did everything wrong and still got some results.
I hope this post is an encouragement for those who are afraid of trying it themselves.

equipement
film: 1 x kodak tri-x 400
camera: yashica minister-d
developer: kodak T-max
stop: ilford stop
fix: ilford rapid fix

mistake 1: accidentally opening the paterson tank
I used my neoprene wetsuit as a light-free bag for getting the film into the paterson tank.
This worked but there was sand on the tank when I got it out of the wetsuit.
While trying to whipe some sand of I accidentally opened the paterson tank 😱
The top half only came of for about 0,5 cm but I feared the film would be lost.
I decided to carry on anyway, just for practice.

mistake 2: using soapy water to mix the chemicals
Since I don't have a "wetting agent" I decided to use a liter of bottled water with 2 drops of dishwashing soap as I read on the forum.
Then, by mistake, I used this water to mix the chemicals :bang:. I only realised this when I poured the developer out of the thank and it was foamy.

mistake 3: not starting the timer
When I poured the developer in the tank I tried started the timer on my cellphone but missed the button.
I saw the timer didn't start after I put the lid on the tank and started agitating.
I tried to compensate by pouring out the dev. 15 seconds earlier.

mistake 4: not knowing how long to stop and fix
I forgot to write down the times and agitating times for the stop and the fixer.

I poured the stop in, agitated for 15 seconds and poured it out
I fixed for 4 minutes agitating the first 30sec. and then 5 sec every 30sec.

results

To my surprise there were some images on the film when I got it out of the reel.. About half turned out ok, a quarter has a funny effect and one quarter is empty. I selected some scans to show:

1.

2.

1. looks ok to me, although a bit gray.
2 seems to have very dark shadows,
3 and 4 look like they have been "posterised" in photoshop.
4 seems to have been damaged by opening the lit of the tank
It also has refelctions from scanning because the film is curled.

I know I made lots of mistakes but does anybody know what causes the effect in 3 and 4?
It looks like some "stuff" sticked to the dark areas.
I used 290 ml of dev. stop and fix as stated on the paterson tank.
Is that enough ?

lessons learned
Don't be impatient and prepare well.
Make sure you write the steps down in detail so you know what to do when the heat is on. Use a decent timer.
I used my cellphone and the screen keeps blacking out so I had to go through the menu each time to see how far I was.

After all it is very fun to do and not really difficult once you know what to do.
I can't wait to develop my second roll to see if I can get better results.Any advise ?

 

[Proteus617]

I think your developing is better than your scanning! Those blocky dark areas look like digital artifacts to me. Can you see them on your negs? The strange rainbows in #4 are Newton rings from the negative contacting the platten. Are you using a negative scanner, or just a plain old flatbed?

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Considering all that you know you did wrong the results aren't at all bad for a first go.
I'd hold judgement (and too much analysis) until you've done a second one - correctly.
But I agree it looks like the scanning didn't go so well either. If you can start with a properly exposed and developed negative then the scanning might pick up by itself, or at least show where some improvement in technique can be usefully suggested.

 

[ruby.monkey]

Turn off dust/scratch removal when you're scanning silver-based film. The film's grain confuses the scanner and you get those ugly blotches everywhere.

And learn to love the spot healing brush. 😉

 

[wiedo]

Looks like you have Digital ICE turned on.. don't do it on BW film! That's the posterized look!

 

[oftheherd]

Good job for a first time. Don't worry about having made mistakes. Many of us who have been doing this for a long time still sometimes pull bonehead mistakes.

 

[zdav]

thanks for the tips.

I scanned these with an epson V500 that I very recently purchased. I haven't spent any time with it trying to get good scans. I'll try to find good settings with a lab-developed roll of film first.

These negatives are indeed scanned with ICE or scratch/dust removal ( 🙂 I tried to turn them on both but had to choose, don't remember which one I picked)

Problem is I'm new at everything: shooting, developing and scanning.[optimistic] But I'm having fun so I guess I'll learn along the way[/optimistic]

 

[Mablo]

zdav, you did very good for a first timer! I started just a couple of years back and fumbled to the extent that I was about to give up. There are so many different things to remember and chemicals you don't understand and.. and... But you did get nice negatives and got them scanned too! Good work!

One humble advice. Just Keep It Simple. Do not ramble on the quagmire called "push processing" or "I might try that other developer as well". Stick with one film, one developer and one fixer until you know they cannot give you anything more. It will take a year, maybe less if you shoot a lot of film.

And have a lot of fun. That's the main point.

 

[robbeiflex]

Not bad for a first try! I made similar mistakes the first time around, the best one being the use of a cloth for cleaning eyeglasses that left more dust on the negs than it took away. 😱

I see some hints (Jupiler, Gauloises, Spa) that you are or were in Belgium or northern France. Not sure if you make it to Paris often but I bought a changing bag there at the shops on the Blvd Beaumarchais and do recommend one.

In about six months I've been able to get over most of my learning curve, and if you develop more than my couple of times per month you'll get there faster. I found the following helped a lot:
1.) Use film and developer of the same brand and follow their instructions to the letter
2.) Do a couple of rolls at rated speed before pushing or pulling
3.) Get yourself a proper anti-static cloth to wipe the negs and scanner glass with before you scan
4.) Play around with the scanner at low resolution (because its a lot fater) until you find settings you like.

Otherwise, welcome to the world of developing and enjoy! Especially those of us who use computers to often for work/study, having a large part of the workflow in the physical world is very rewarding. 😉

 

[zdav]

Thanks for the advice guys.

@robsomogyi: I live in Belgium. Didn't realize there were so many brands in the shots, well spotted !

I thought the marks on my first scans where scratches but on close inspection it's just dust on my scanner en negatives. So an anti-static cloth is on my shopping list.