Negatives disappeared overnight, thoughts?

[thefilmexperiment]

Hi all,

The strangest thing happened to me, my negatives disappeared overnight. I tried pushing TriX to 3200 for the first time, and developed it at home in D76. Every frame came out just fine.

I scan my film, and get a little impatient, so I took it down from the hanger just a little early, it may have been the slightest bit damp. I scanned a couple negatives, all went well. It was late, so I decided to finish in the morning. I left the film on my desk on its side, and was perplexed by what I found in the morning.

A handful of frames, in a seemingly random order, disappeared. They were now just splotches - appearing almost like a histogram in Lightroom, about half black, half white. But, this only happened to about half, and the rest were perfectly fine. Does anybody have a clue what happened here?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[sevo]

Images please! It most probably is bad fixing, as that is the common reason for delayed image loss in processed film. If you only noticed in the morning (while it happened last night), it might also be a meltdown of the (wet) emulsion in the scanner - but then some of it ought to have transferred to the scanner glass, film frame or other film strips.

 

[ulrich.von.lich]

Yes photos please! I would get scared and call the cops.

Perhaps that's what had happened to Jackson Pollock.

 

[Dwig]

...
A handful of frames, in a seemingly random order, disappeared. They were now just splotches - appearing almost like a histogram in Lightroom, about half black, half white. ...

Black & white = probably an issue with improper fixing. Perhaps the film buckled in the tank and fixer get to portions of the film very well

Black & Clear = very odd but could be overly soft emulsion that started to slough off, but when that happens there is usually some distorted Dali-esque image detectable in the darker portions.

On the other hand, consider the possibility of either deamon possession or some variant of "the dog ate my homework" 😱

 

[finguanzo]

Maybe a silver thief.? Sometimes people go around stealing copper power cables, maybe there's a new trend... 🙂

 

[rwintle]

Do you own a cat? Does it like licking film?

Clearly, I have nothing. 😉

 

[x-ray]

Do you own a cat? Does it like licking film?

Clearly, I have nothing. 😉

I had a cat that would chew along the edges of prints.

Cats and dogs like the taste of wetting agents. Ethylene glycol is the main component in Photoflo 600 and the old 200 and is quite toxic to dogs. It's the Main component in automotive antifreze. It can be toxic to dogs depending on the agent and most agents are toxic to cats.

 

[Moto-Uno]

We certainly have a way of going full circle in some of these discussions, don't we ? Peter

 

[Pherdinand]

do you happen to have a cat? 😀
edit: ok it's difficult to be original when you're in the wrong timezone.

 

[kbg32]

Some "after" photo's of the negatives would have been helpful, but I'm kind of suspicious given the OP's name. The fact that he/she hasn't responded to any questions in this thread leads me to the conclusion that the negatives were not properly fixed.

Time will tell....

 

[thefilmexperiment]

Some "after" photo's of the negatives would have been helpful, but I'm kind of suspicious given the OP's name. The fact that he/she hasn't responded to any questions in this thread leads me to the conclusion that the negatives were not properly fixed.

Time will tell....

1. You are very astute 🙂 if I am correct in thinking that you are implying I am a film newbie, you are right. I only have about a year of home development under my belt (hence, the "experiment).

2. I haven't responded because I am also a forum newbie, I thought I would get emails about replies, I was excited to find 10 helpful souls! (Minus the cat tangent, although entertaining).

3. I have no images, I got pissed off and tossed the negatives.

I am going to go with improper fixing, because, like I mentioned, I am impatient, and fix to the minimum recommended time if not cut it a little bit short.

Lesson learned, thank you all for the replies!