Long term effects of underfixing

[xavoy]

Hi all,

I've been shooting a lot of film recently, and have spent a couple of long days developing multiple rolls at a time. After the most recent day of developing, I noticed a shift in the base color of my HP5, and after some reading, discovered this was due to under fixing.

The film scanned in just fine (in fact, some of them are up there with the best looking pictures I've got out of HP5!) but as some of these rolls are quite important to me (the birth of my niece) I don't want my mistake of under fixing (due to exhausted fixer) to prevent me from revisiting these negatives in ten, or twenty years time.

What is likely to happen if I DON'T re-fix these negatives? I'm reluctant to do so because they are already cut up and in archival storage sleeves, and re-fixing would not only be time consuming, but the film will inevitably suffer from wear and tear during the ordeal.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Chris101]

Worst case: they will gradually grow darker and contrast will lower. The center of the negative will likely show the problem first. Eventually the negative will become very dark. Refix them in a tray, it won't take that long, and if you are careful and not drop them (then step on them) they will be just fine. Compared to what chemical damage you might get, the extra exposure to water will have a negligible effect. Be sure and wash them well after re-fixing. Hang them to dry by a corner.

 

[xavoy]

Thank you Chris! Appreciate your advice. I'll give it a go later this week and report back to the thread.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Chris is right but the problem will come when you wash them again. You'll need to wash to the same amount as you would normally, or you'll have staining coming along, sooner or later.

When I had to do this, I fed a few strips back into a reel and and refixed. Then I washed as normal, using the Ilford inversion technique: fill tank, invert five times, refill and invert ten times then again for twenty and forty times.

I could get four strips of six into the reel without trouble; after all, I could see what I was doing! 🙂