Underexposed roll

[zzmike76]

Dear all

I am quite new to B&W developing, and last night I tried a Tri-x pushed @ 1600 in semi stand Rodinal/Adonal (1+100 = 4+396 ml, one hour, first minute agitation, then 3,4 agitations after 30 minutes)

The whole roll looks heavily underexposed, and I would like to understand whether I made mistakes when shooting (M6 no TTL) or whether this could have been caused during the development. I remember I tried to overexpose a bit when shooting so I was expecting the opposite result (most of the pictures were taken in the night or with low light).

I like the effect on the few pictures which were rescued , so I would like to try again.

Any hints?


thanks a lot for any feedback
Michele

 

[mpaniagua]

Most likely a developing issue. If you are starting on B&W developing, I would suggest a more forgiving, general use developer, lik D-76. Any photos from the negatives? May be easier to pinpoint the problem seeing the develped negative.

Regards.

Marcelo

 

[zzmike76]

thanks for the quick reply.

I used so far DD-X (good results) and LC29 (don't really like it), started with Rodinal and tried once semi stand (I would like to avoid powder developers for now 🙂)

here some samples without any modification

2017-01-09-0034.jpg by Michele Donna, su Flickr

2017-01-09-0018.jpg by Michele Donna, su Flickr

2017-01-09-0029.jpg by Michele Donna, su Flickr

2017-01-09-0020.jpg by Michele Donna, su Flickr

2017-01-09-0009.jpg by Michele Donna, su Flickr

this seems correctly exposed though

2017-01-09-0019.jpg by Michele Donna, su Flickr

thanks and regards
Michele

 

[zauhar]

Michele, was it just one roll in the tank?

I think you need about 4 ml PER ROLL, the idea being that the developer is largely used up during long stand processing.

If just one roll, I guess that would not explain it.

Randy

EDIT: Reading again, it does sound like you only did one roll. Can you add any exposure times for the sample images?

 

[zzmike76]

hello

unfortunately i do not have the exposure times..i start to suspect that they have been underexposed by the metering and not by development processing..am also new to Leica M6 so I may have made mistakes during metering, even though now that I had a look at other samples it seems the issues mostly appear with Tri-x (Acros, FP4, HP5 and Tmax seem good)

 

[Jake Mongey]

Look at the writing on the side of the film such as the frame numbers and film type. If they are Black it means its developed fine and the error is to do with in camera exposure, if its a grey color it has been under developed

 

[zzmike76]

hello

yes they are black! thanks for the hint, this means they were underexposed when shooting...need to understand why now

 

[presspass]

The frame numbers should have come out well if you developed the film at it's box ISO which is 400. That's not always a good indicator if you pushed the film two stops to 1600. I can't speak to Rodinal, but other developers, including the above-mentioned D76, work to push process Tri-X. DDX is also formulated to do that. If you are just starting out developing black and white film, you might consider staying with one developer for several months to see how it works at box speed and pushing.

 

[zzmike76]

yes i plan to stay with Rodinal for a while, I don't really like LC29 (which is almost finished anyway). I tried to push Tri-x as I was shooting in the night or inside with not much light..but definitely the M6 underexposed in most of the situations (and am still not able to expose without it 🙂)

 

[ellisson]

Looking at the photos and the tonality from dark to the brightest highlight areas, I think the development was OK and the exposure may have been fine according to the camera metering. Low light conditions can be challenging!