weird halo / milk white tones on negative

darkkavenger

Massimiliano Mortillaro
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Does anybody has ever had this ? My recently developed negatives (Ilford HP5+) have this look. The neg doesn't looks entirely transparent, and all photos seem to have a veil. Can it happen because the D76 stock solution I have is passed out ? I'm using D76 Stock. Stop solution and fixation solution were prepared yesterday. The D76 solution is probably from beginning of september. It was in a 2L bottle of Coke, bottle filled at about 60%.

Thanks in advance!
 

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Max,

My guess is improper agitation during developing. And perhaps not sufficent amount of developer in tank.

Wayne
 
thanks to both of you. Agitation was done 1 time every 10 seconds during the first minute, then one time per minute till the 7minutes 30 seconds required by HP5+ in D76 stock. There was enough developer in the tank, so I suppose my developer is dead/ worn out. Maybe?
 
fix it again,
I think that's the problem.
Always test your fixer soup before fixing.
Take a undeveloped peace of the film,
hold it in your fixer and wait till it's clear,
the time to fix your film is two times of clearing time.
 
Hi
When you look at the film, has the base emulsion been completely removed? Looks almost like incomplete fixation. You can fix 'em again, and wash again, no harm done.:bang:
 
Sounds like a fixing problem to me also.

It's probably time to dump the fix and mix up a fresh batch.
 
Thanks deeply to all of you! I didn't knew that I could wash again and fix more! Now the negs look tack sharp :D I'll check my solution next time :)
 
I use continuous agitation during fixing. You can't over agitate during fixing. And you'd have to be fixing for like an hour to overfix at all. So fix fix fix :)

allan
 
REFIX REFIX!!!!!

Prepare fresh fixer, and dip it in!
you can do it with the lights on, then wash again
 
what fixer are you using? was it the fixing time? I usually fix for 7+ minutes agitate continuos for first 30, then every 30 for 5 seconds.
 
Max, I'm glad to hear your re-fixing went well! ;)

Now, as for your developer storage, I learned that D-76 is sensitive to light and air. If you're storing the stock solution in a Coke bottle... take some shipping tape and cover it completely or get a dark container to store it instead of a transparent bottle.

I had the same problem you had. However, unlike you, I just haven't re-fixed. I did a test of my fixer today and it gave me a nice 8 minutes for FP4 and 10 for TMax ISO 400. Needless to say, I'll stick to these times in the future (and assuming I always have fresh fixer).
 
Francisco,
It took _8_ minutes for an fp4 leader to clear in your fixer? Did you agitate during your test? If that is the case, then your fixer is past dead. A film leader should clear in less than 30 seconds in fresh fixer under constant agitation.

allan
 
Alan, This is how I did the test to get the time.

First, I took a q-tip and put some fixer on a film piece, clipped from the leader of a roll of FP4. It started clearing out right away. Then, after a minute and a half, when I could see through the clearing, I put the film in the lid of my tank (the lid was upside down) and poured fixer enough to cover the bit of film. I waited until the entire piece when clear (not easy to see because the tank is molded in red plastic). However, I kept checking and, without agitation or anything, the FP4 strip cleared in some 4 minutes.

I did the exact same thing with a clip of film leader of a roll of T-Max ISO 400. The T-max strip cleared in 5. No agitation whatsoever. I figured out the time following the formula I got here: twice as long it takes the strip to clear. Isn't that the rule?

I certainly hope so...
 
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BTW, I just bought the fixer in powder form and mixed it... last week, I think. It hasn't been mixed a month. Can it get old that fast? I even stored it in a brown plastic bottle purchased at the camera store.
 
There are lot of different fixers out there. There are rapid fixers which clear the film in a few seconds and there are classical ones (hyposulfite based) which require a couple of minutes to clear. I use to fix triple of time that pointed out on a package of rapid fixer I use. Just because I'm lazy and it's easier for me fix longer than agitate too frequent :)
Eduard.
P.S. Basically I open the tank after 5-10 mins in fixer and examinate the film, if it's clear I fix 5-10 min more. If it's not cleared yet (never happened so far) I have to mix fresh fixer and dump old one, obviously rinse and refix film stright forward in fresh solution.
 
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