Tri-x exposed uncorrectly, how to save?

[Juan Valdenebro]

Thanks Chris: I know it looks like 5 stops over, but I was just wondering if camera and lens have the settings to be checked...

Obviously it will be a very short development in that case... I normally expose Tri-X three stops over to pull it on direct sun (with yellow filter), so a wilder pull may give very decent negatives IF settings were stable and direct sun was the only light used...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[cambolt]

How about developing by inspection, if possible?

 

[Roger Hicks]

It sounds like 5 or 6 stops according to the OP's estimate.

Ah.... I missed the second post with the estimate in it. But we have a REAL problem here in that the OP just doesn't know, and that some shots may (or may not) be correctly exposed. Whatever he tries, it's going to be a gamble, but if the film is developed to a low gamma (0.4, say), all the information should be there.

I'd not be inclined to go for a compensating or two-bath developer, because the mid-tone compression would probably be horrific, so I'd wholeheartedly back your suggestion of 5 min. in D76 1+1 or (better still) a low-contrast developer such as D25 (8 minutes at 25C), as D25 wipes off a stop of film speed anyway.

Of course, a lot depends on how important the pictures are, what developers are available, and how much trouble the OP wants to go to. For REALLY important pics, I'd overexpose another (test) roll; develop that (possibly trying Cambolt's idea of inspection); and go from there.

Cheers,

R.

 

[ipu]

lots of answers again, thank you all.
To specify a little,
first about 10 frames are correctly shot at 200asa, then the next 20 or so frames are shot on manual settings and this is the part that she does not know which aperture and shutter speed are used, she has changed the lens during photo session. She now told me that the shutter speed was 1/250 or 1/125 and the aperture has been according to lens 1.8 on a 50mm and 4 on 24mm and 100mm. the last 6 frames should be again correctly exposed at 200asa. Those 20 or so frames are all shot in bright sunlight, on a bright sunny day..
And for her the images are important and she would like to get something out of them. There has been quite a pause with her film experience so I would like her to have a nice experience with film so that she would do it again in the future.
I have rodinal, d-76, microdol-x and microphen. I have no experience with others than rodinal, but that should not be a problem.

 

[ipu]

there are a couple of terms I did not understand in here.
Develop by inspection? What is that?
And developing to low gamma(0.4) What is that?

After reading this topic several times and thinking about this situation, I think I could shoot a test roll, if the sun came out behind those clouds...
And develop it in 1:1 D-76 for 5minutes or less.. If I understand correctly, 1:1 d-76 means that I mix the powder as it states in the package, and then add 1part water and 1part D-76 that i just mixed...? Is this 1:1 so called one-shot or can it be used several times? I believe the D-76 without the extra water (called stock???) is usable for multiple times...? As you can read, I am new with D-76...

 

[charjohncarter]

This is a short answer, but for your purposes it seems to be what you want:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090823234853AAUhoai

 

[Roger Hicks]

Gamma is just a measure of contrast. Standard ISO contrast is about 0.62, and Ilford used to give times for 0.70 (high) and 0.56 (low). Gamma 0.4 would be VERY low, but probably just about high enough to save the correctly exposed (but hopelessly underdeveloped) shots at the beginning of the roll. If you can find a time/gamma curve for the film in use and a developer available to you, give the time that gives a gamma of 0.4 or so. As their name suggesrs, gamma/time curves plot contrast against development time.

Good luck!

Cheers,

R.