At my wit's end: high density bands on my negatives again

[snusmumriken]

Very glad you have solved the problem, hopefully for others to come too.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

I had these 'strange' streaks and other 'things' appearing, not always, on my home developed films, B&W and/or colour, long time ago.

Unexpectedly, I found the remedy in the ledger of Kodak's Q Lab System, at the time when I did the E-6 processing at home (in the ever lasting Colenta).
Therein Kodak advised against touching the emulsion, AFTER exposure and BEFORE developing, with your bear hands/fingers.
And yes, with this in your mind: when unrolling a roll film and separating it from the backing paper, one is tempted to touch/slide a finger over the film in order to have the paper and the film roll up separately and then to tear the tape holding the film.
And then, again, to unroll the film to load it on the developing reel.

Actually, it's somewhat nearly the same as what causes the strange thin black lines appearing on the sides fo the roll film (120 film): pressure fog, but here by your finger(-s)...
It might appear on 35mm film also, why wouldn't it?

So, NEVER EVER touch image part of the undeveloped film emulsion with whatever it might be: fingers, clamps, the flanges of te developing reels (metal or plastic), the sides of the film itself, the film holder in the camera, just NOTHING!
Hold the roll by it's sides/ends and never stress it!

A pair of cotton gloves could be you best friend, yet 'unhandy'...

PS: sorry if my description isn't that clear, translating, in my head (and with Google translate), from Flemish in to English what I was trying to say, isn't always so obvious, but I hope you can "see the picture"...

 

[logan2z]

I had these 'strange' streaks and other 'things' appearing, not always, on my home developed films, B&W and/or colour, long time ago.

Unexpectedly, I found the remedy in the ledger of Kodak's Q Lab System, at the time when I did the E-6 processing at home (in the ever lasting Colenta).
Therein Kodak advised against touching the emulsion, AFTER exposure and BEFORE developing, with your bear hands/fingers.
And yes, with this in your mind: when unrolling a roll film and separating it from the backing paper, one is tempted to touch/slide a finger over the film in order to have the paper and the film roll up separately and then to tear the tape holding the film.
And then, again, to unroll the film to load it on the developing reel.

Actually, it's somewhat nearly the same as what causes the strange thin black lines appearing on the sides fo the roll film (120 film): pressure fog, but here by your finger(-s)...
It might appear on 35mm film also, why wouldn't it?

So, NEVER EVER touch image part of the undeveloped film emulsion with whatever it might be: fingers, clamps, the flanges of te developing reels (metal or plastic), the sides of the film itself, the film holder in the camera, just NOTHING!
Hold the roll by it's sides/ends and never stress it!

A pair of cotton gloves could be you best friend, yet 'unhandy'...

PS: sorry if my description isn't that clear, translating, in my head (and with Google translate), from Flemish in to English what I was trying to say, isn't always so obvious, but I hope you can "see the picture"...

I always wear a new pair of nitrile gloves when loading film onto developing reels to avoid leaving fingerprints, etc. on the emulsion prior to development.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

I always wear a new pair of nitrile gloves when loading film onto developing reels to avoid leaving fingerprints, etc. on the emulsion prior to development.

Nitrile isn't cotton by far, nitrile doesn't slide that easy, actually it has tendency to stop/stick and then, in order to compensate that, you somewhat change the pressure on your fingers, I encountered that too.
Besides, nitrile is, in a sense, 'harder' than cotton due to its lack of gentle structure.

 

[logan2z]

Nitrile isn't cotton by far, nitrile doesn't slide that easy, actually it has tendency to stop/stick and then, in order to compensate that, you somewhat change the pressure on your fingers, I encountered that too.
Besides, nitrile is, in a sense, 'harder' than cotton due to its lack of gentle structure.

So far, I haven't encountered any issues using Nitrile gloves to load film onto reels. I feel I have better dexterity using them since they fit more closely to the skin than cotton gloves do. But whatever works best for you...

 

[npl]

You may have already tried that, but I'd start by eliminating the water and agitation variables by mixing the developer solution with distilled or demineralised water, and use a manual "kodak" agitation method : a few inversion AND twisting of the tank every 30 seconds. And no dev time less than 7 minutes. Ilford don't recommend less than 5, it's just to be on the safe side for the test... according to the fp4+ datasheet rodinal 1:50 15min, d76 stock 8min, HC-110 (b) 9min.. either one of them should be fine.

 

[gone]

I never had any of these issues w/ roll film, and just used my bare hands, which occasionally touched the emulsion side during the loading process. Same w/ 35mm, I have accidentally touched everything loading them onto a reel. None of this was intentional as I try not to ever do that, but it happens in the dark.

What npl said is good advice. The only time I ever got surge marks was when using one of those little twirley sticks. After throwing it as far as I could, tank inversions w/ a slow twist has worked perfectly every time. Don't forget to bump the tank every now and then either. I give it a good whack on a piece of wood w/ several washcloths around it.

This is what makes film photography fun. We get to use words like wits, twist, twirley and whack. Could easily be the name of a law firm, although twits, writs, fits and quits might be more accurate.