Note To Self: The Fixer Comes Before The Fixer Remover

[wgerrard]

My adventures in b&w processing have moved onto their second roll. I have a question about the shot below.

I'm using an all-Kodak Xtol regime: Tri-X 400 shot at 400, Xtol, stop bath, KodaFix, hypo clearing agent, PhotoFlo. This photo was processed with Xtol 1:1 for 7-1/2 minutes at 72F, per the Kodak PDF's instructions.

The thing is I jumped from the stop bath to the hypo clearing agent, forgetting the fixer. (No, I can't explain it.) I caught it immediately, poured the hypo clearer back into the beaker, rinsed the film in water, added the fixer, and kept going. Most of the negatives looked OK, but a few did not, showing water spots a cloudy areas.

In the shot below, I see cloudy regions in the upper right. The marks on the bricks to the right of the bike may or may not be splotches. It was late afternoon and a bright sun was shining in from over my right shoulder. Minimal PS tweaking happened after the scan.

Is what I see the result of my little fixer-hypo clearer kerfuffle, one too many water rinses (i.e., getting the hypo clearer off after the screwup), or something else?

 

[venchka]

Looks ok to me. The darker areas on the bricks might well be ON the bricks. I have several recent negatives that show things I didn't or couldn't see at the time I took the picture. The street is very even. The brick wall behind the low building is very even.

It could have been worse. Fix before developer is FATAL!

 

[Ducky]

Also, you cannot reduce D-76 with fixer. I tried it once. Even labeled and marked, keep bottles seperate during the process.
However, your example does show how tolerant the system can be.

 

[Al Kaplan]

As long as you were using an acid stop bath it should have halted all development action at that point. Many of us just use a water rinse, which doesn't; it merely keeps the fixer more acidic and longer lasting. The distinct vertical alignment of what looks like a shadow on the bricks towards the right couldn't have happened from a chemical screw-up.

 

[sevo]

As long as no light reaches the film before fixing, it won't matter (other than that it will extrend the development time by a small amount, and that you might get a slight hazing from cross-pollution with hypo if the clearer was already used).

Hypo clearer is sodium sulfite, which does not interact with developers in any negative way - indeed, it is a extremely widespread alkaline in photo chemistry and the main component, going by weight, of most popular ready-mixed developers. Besides, a sulfite bath between developer and fix is a regular contrast reducing technique.

 

[wgerrard]

Yep, there's a wash in there. If I don't use the clearer, how long does the wash need to be? 20 minutes? I'm giving it 5 minutes now.

 

[wgerrard]

That's reasonably close to the regime I've followed. I use Kodafix for 7 minutes after a test with Tri-X, Kodak's hypo clearer for a minute, a 5 minute wash, and PhotoFlo for a minute.

I know opinions on PhotoFlo vary, but my negatives so far have been much cleaner, after carrying them through two rooms to a closet for drying, than the negs I've been getting back lately from some of the usually recommended processors. I don't keep a dust-free place, as my vacuum can testify.

After I use up my Xtol, I think I'll try Delta 100 (bought some recently) and Ilford chemicals.