Steve M.
Veteran
This is a comedy of unfortunate errors, all my own making I think, but what do you folks suppose went wrong? I shot some Neopan 400 for the first time in a camera that always exposes perfectly, and I set my ISO to 250 w/ a yellow filter. My camera's meter always takes care of the filter factor correctly. So far, so good.
When I went to mix up my developer (TD-16 from Photographers' Formulary) I saw that they had sent me the 8 liter kit, not the 4 liter one that I had ordered. It's a simple kit of 2 packages of powdered chemicals. Figuring I wasn't going to be doing much film developing for a spell as I have a lot of printing to do, I halved the packages of chemicals as best I could and mixed up one of the halves. I had once asked the folks at P.F. if I needed to wait a day before using the TD-16 like you would w/ fresh D76, and they had said no, I shouldn't have to do that.
Well, here it is, and it's strange. I went w/ the same developing times that I use for Tri-X, so could that be the problem? Shooting the Neopan at 250 wouldn't do this, right? Or maybe I didn't half the chemicals correctly? Or maybe the TD-16 really needs to calm down for a day like the D76? I'm going to shoot another roll of Tri-X tomorrow and use this same developer, but any ideas? There sure are a lot of possibilities as to why it didn't go right, that's for sure. The first two shots look fine, but look at the following two! That's the crazy thing, why do just some of the shots look over amped or something?
When I saw the first 2 shots I thought, woo woo, this Neopan is fantastic. Tight, tiny grain, really sharp, good tones. But the other shots....from ecstasy to despair, all on one roll. That goose is ducked.
When I went to mix up my developer (TD-16 from Photographers' Formulary) I saw that they had sent me the 8 liter kit, not the 4 liter one that I had ordered. It's a simple kit of 2 packages of powdered chemicals. Figuring I wasn't going to be doing much film developing for a spell as I have a lot of printing to do, I halved the packages of chemicals as best I could and mixed up one of the halves. I had once asked the folks at P.F. if I needed to wait a day before using the TD-16 like you would w/ fresh D76, and they had said no, I shouldn't have to do that.
Well, here it is, and it's strange. I went w/ the same developing times that I use for Tri-X, so could that be the problem? Shooting the Neopan at 250 wouldn't do this, right? Or maybe I didn't half the chemicals correctly? Or maybe the TD-16 really needs to calm down for a day like the D76? I'm going to shoot another roll of Tri-X tomorrow and use this same developer, but any ideas? There sure are a lot of possibilities as to why it didn't go right, that's for sure. The first two shots look fine, but look at the following two! That's the crazy thing, why do just some of the shots look over amped or something?
When I saw the first 2 shots I thought, woo woo, this Neopan is fantastic. Tight, tiny grain, really sharp, good tones. But the other shots....from ecstasy to despair, all on one roll. That goose is ducked.



