Stupid Darkroom Mistakes

I opened my tank after pouring out the developer to check on the status of the negs, before putting in the fixer. Lost that roll *shrug*

One time, I had just got off an intense conference call for work -- I was home for the day, ill and in between developing the negs. I took a deep whiff of hypo to see whether it wasn't expired. I woke up a few minutes later on the floor. 😱
 
I have read so many stories besides these... that I've labeled all my bottles with huge letters just to prevent the stop-bath-instead-of-developer story.

But even though I've developed a number of rolls of film already, only my second (and relatively most important) turned up dinged... because I rushed through the spooling. :bang: :bang:

BTW, even if you are going to have a darkroom, Stephanie, a black bag is useful in more than one way. Get one, they're not expensive and may save you some grief in the future.
 
jano said:
I opened my tank after pouring out the developer to check on the status of the negs, before putting in the fixer. Lost that roll *shrug*
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I fail to see the problem with that. Did you not stop the development with a stop/water bath and the developer was still reacting with the negs? If the developing was stopped, there shouldn't have been any reason why you couldn't have fixed it and still had perfectly good negs...
 
Most serious recent screw-up - the Ilford rapid fix and multi-grade print dev bottles look remarkably similar 🙂

Thankfully I realised 1 minute into "fixing" so the negs were saved, but were, um, rather contrasty...
 
In the mid 1960s some of us made up baths from separate chemicals. Once, when it was my turn, I added acetic acid to the developer. This stupidity would have been exciting (read: wildly destructive) if I hadn't been the first to develop film that night. There's one joker -- also grey like me now -- who just does not forget that.
 
sienarot said:
I fail to see the problem with that. Did you not stop the development with a stop/water bath and the developer was still reacting with the negs? If the developing was stopped, there shouldn't have been any reason why you couldn't have fixed it and still had perfectly good negs...
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Because the film isn't light safe until it's been fixed.
 
My "best" one is my most recent. I got a HP Combiplan daylight sheet film tank. It holds 6 sheets & isn't too bad. However, loading it in a changing bag can be interesting. There's this little clamp like thing that goes over the center to hold the film in place. You take it off before you load the sheets & then put it back on before closing the tank. If you slide in the sheets with it still on, you can badly scratch the emulsion... :bang: Only the most important of the 4 being developed had that happen, of course.

William
 
I have developed my own film for a little less than a year. About 25 rolls. I use russian tanks, which are fool-proof when it comes to loading them or keeping them light tight. The biggest "screw up" was when I dropped the film, and it unwound on the floor. I want to do some printing in the near future. Im sure I manage to screw something up then.
 
wlewisiii said:
My "best" one is my most recent. I got a HP Combiplan daylight sheet film tank. It holds 6 sheets & isn't too bad. However, loading it in a changing bag can be interesting. There's this little clamp like thing that goes over the center to hold the film in place. You take it off before you load the sheets & then put it back on before closing the tank. If you slide in the sheets with it still on, you can badly scratch the emulsion... :bang: Only the most important of the 4 being developed had that happen, of course.

William
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I thought about getting one of those but then decided that it may be better to just use trays for a bit...I'll probably be posting a lot here about that.

(OH, and off topic, but where'd you get that Symmar? Any idea if it'll focus correctly on a press camera? 😛)
 
among other things... accidently flicking on the darkroom lights while in the middle of a printing session........ aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh
 
My most serious mistake lately was relentlessly teasing the girlfriend about an unnamed something, then putting both my hands in the changing bag directly afterwords. She waited a few minutes to be sure I was good and immersed in light sensitive materials in there, then proceeded to attack me with a barrage of wet-willies and such.. :bang:
 
Stephanie Brim said:
I thought about getting one of those but then decided that it may be better to just use trays for a bit...I'll probably be posting a lot here about that.
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I received a FR sheet film developing tank today from a fellow rff'r and put it to good use this evening. It holds 12 sheets and is very easy to use..No more tray or dip and dunk for me..
 
I have some sort of tank that I've used a couple times made by Yankee. It takes a lot of chemistry considering I only dev about 3 or 4 sheets at a time. I usually tray develop in a big bag though. What's this "FR sheet developing tank"? Sorry to veer off topic!
 
f/stopblues said:
I have some sort of tank that I've used a couple times made by Yankee. It takes a lot of chemistry considering I only dev about 3 or 4 sheets at a time. I usually tray develop in a big bag though. What's this "FR sheet developing tank"? Sorry to veer off topic!
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It's a fairly large (holds nearly 2 qts. ) square tank and has slots for 12 sheets. It's also adjustable to hold 2 1/4x2 1/4, 3 1/4x3 1/4, or 4x5 sheets. I believe it was first introduced in the 40's. Once loaded the remaining steps can be carried out with the light on..
 
I put a red filter on my c/v 35/3.5 (Bessa R) and shot a nice roll of desert stuff with huge monsoon clouds hovering above. The next day I stuck in a roll of Fujicolor ISO 400 and shot a car show. Oops, forgot to take the red filter off.
 
Over close to five decades of shooting and developing I have probably made all the mistakes at least once and some more than that. Added to the risk factor is that i make all my chemistry from scratch and this ups the ante for f*****g up.
One thing that was not entirely my fault: In the early 60's we lived in Paris for a year. The "studio" apartment had a nice bathroom and a sep. toilet with a good close seal on it. Perfect for loadind developing tanks. As any old building in Paris, it had cockroaches. We had a deal, lights on they stayed away - lights off you could hear them training in roman formations. OK, now loading tanks, lights off and multiple roaches wandering around. Of course, one of them got into the Paterson tank with five rolls of tri X and D-76. When I uncapped the tank after the rinse, he emerged and shook himself "Now that was refreshing!". I swear there are small foot prints on some of those negs!
 
Yes I remember one particularly difficult neg I was printing. There was 11 different places on the neg that needed dodging/burnin, so I had to make a plan on paper. Ok, then I went on to work, 10 sec there, 6 sek here and so on.
After number eleven I just sighted, lift up the easel, and took the paper... Hmm, where´s the paper?!
 
Just loaded up the developing tank in the kitchen and thought I'd have a cuppa before I put the developer on. Mug next to the tank, kettle boils, and I must have thought my mug was covered when I come to pour the water. So off comes the lid of the developing tank...
 
Stephanie Brim said:
Because the film isn't light safe until it's been fixed.
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No. Once development has been stopped, you can expose the film to white light and fix it later. The fixer will remove the undeveloped silver halide - light will not develop that.

I had a student fix her film in stop bath. She showed me the mess and asked what she could do. Simple. Just run it through the "real" fix and it fixed it.
 
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