My struggles with high density bands on some of my developed negatives have been well documented in another thread on the forum. Unfortunately, it appears as though my struggles continue as these bands have shown up on my latest roll.
The infuriating thing is that these show up no matter which camera, lens, filter (or no filter) I've used, regardless of film (both Tri-X and FP4+), developer (HC-110, DD-X, and now Rodinal), developing technique (inversion agitation, constant rotary agitation), developing tank/reel (steel Nikkor tank with Hewes reels, Jobo tank with Jobo reels), how/where I load the film onto the reel and into the tank (darkroom, changing bag). I think I've covered just about every variation possible and yet the problem remains. And it's pretty consistent as well - the bands almost always show up as a pair separated by a bit of space, running straight down the long dimension of 35mm frames, and almost only when the frame is shot in portrait orientation - of course it's possible that the issue is simply most visible under these circumstance since these frames of mine generally have large expanses of empty sky. It also only usually affects a couple of frames on a roll, and often on adjacent frames. The bands do not extend outside the frame and so aren't likely caused by a light leak somewhere in the chain.
I'm frankly at a total loss as to what could be causing this, and I'm about ready to mothball my film cameras and take up oil painting instead
I've included a photo of one of the negatives from my latest roll, along with a scan. Admittedly, the bands are pretty subtle and I only see them in the scan when the exposure is turned down significantly, but they're there. This is confirmed by the dark band(s) visible in the photo of the negative - also tweaked so that the bands are more easily visible.
For reference, my development methodology was as follows:
I can't for the life of me figure out where this is going wrong. Help me before I lose my marbles!
Two high density vertical bands running down the middle of the frame
(tweaked in Lightroom to show the bands more clearly)
A photo of the top portion of the same negative
(tweaked in Lightroom to show the bands more clearly)
The infuriating thing is that these show up no matter which camera, lens, filter (or no filter) I've used, regardless of film (both Tri-X and FP4+), developer (HC-110, DD-X, and now Rodinal), developing technique (inversion agitation, constant rotary agitation), developing tank/reel (steel Nikkor tank with Hewes reels, Jobo tank with Jobo reels), how/where I load the film onto the reel and into the tank (darkroom, changing bag). I think I've covered just about every variation possible and yet the problem remains. And it's pretty consistent as well - the bands almost always show up as a pair separated by a bit of space, running straight down the long dimension of 35mm frames, and almost only when the frame is shot in portrait orientation - of course it's possible that the issue is simply most visible under these circumstance since these frames of mine generally have large expanses of empty sky. It also only usually affects a couple of frames on a roll, and often on adjacent frames. The bands do not extend outside the frame and so aren't likely caused by a light leak somewhere in the chain.
I'm frankly at a total loss as to what could be causing this, and I'm about ready to mothball my film cameras and take up oil painting instead
I've included a photo of one of the negatives from my latest roll, along with a scan. Admittedly, the bands are pretty subtle and I only see them in the scan when the exposure is turned down significantly, but they're there. This is confirmed by the dark band(s) visible in the photo of the negative - also tweaked so that the bands are more easily visible.
For reference, my development methodology was as follows:
- The film was 35mm Ilford FP4+ loaded onto a Jobo reel and into a Jobo tank inside a changing bag.
- I pre-wet the film for 3 minutes using constant rotary agitation via a Jobo roller - so by hand, not using a Jobo processor. I changed the direction of rotation every 4 rotations.
- I developed the film using Rodinal 1+50 for 10 mins and 15 seconds at 68 degrees F.
- Development was stopped using Ilford Ilfostop for 1 min.
- The film was fixed using Ilford Rapid Fixer for 5 minutes.
* All phases of development were done using constant rotary agitation via the Jobo roller. - The film was washed using the Ilford method.
- The final wash step was done using Kodak Photoflo diluted 1+200 in distilled water. The film was soaked in the Photoflo mixture for 3 minutes then hung up vertically to dry using Jobo film clips.
- After 24 hours, the film was cut and sleeved in a PrintFile sleeve.
- Finally the film was scanned on an Epson V550 flatbed scanner.
I can't for the life of me figure out where this is going wrong. Help me before I lose my marbles!
Two high density vertical bands running down the middle of the frame
(tweaked in Lightroom to show the bands more clearly)
A photo of the top portion of the same negative
(tweaked in Lightroom to show the bands more clearly)