DARK HALO Around Blacks on 35mm neg

Kino said:

Phil,
If the negatives are irreplaceable, and they don't photographically print well, you might want to research Farmer's Reducer.

http://stores.photoformulary.com/se...=ON&price_from=&price_to=&featured=&shipping=

Talking about prints here, but same concepts apply:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

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Thanks so much to all of you... Matt, Kino, Petrario... So helpful... Yep... I overdeveloped them... Argh! I haven't done that since 8th grade! So weird that I did that... had just come back from Greece the night before... I'll blame it on jet lag...! But again... thank you for the help!

And since I mention developer... Does anyone have a preference of HC110 vs. D76... I do prefer contrasty images if that helps... Thanks!

Even though the negatives are dense, something is up with your scanning.

I inverted your strip and as you can see, they look noramlish here.
Make sure you have turned off dust removal and any automatic enhancements in your scanning software, scanners also need cleaning to avoid internal light-scatter.

As a last resort, using a good macro-lens and a makeshift light-box, can provide good quality scans.

I would agree with Kino, the negs are over developed but not a disaster. There's still something going wrong during the scanning process. I've had B&W negs worse than that which still scan OK.

What software and settings are you using?

Again, after just 1 minute messing around in very basic software I can get this:

Phil Joanou said:

Hey everyone... thank you for your help on this. What is the best way to post the negs? Shoot them on a light Box? I want to do it the right way. I'm using a Nikon super cool scan 4000 to scan the negs and haven't had any trouble in the past. Thanks again!

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The problem with scanning is that unless you turn off ALL the auto correct software you are not getting an accurate idea of the correctness of such things as exposure, development, etc.

Agulliver said:

Again, after just 1 minute messing around in very basic software I can get this:

View attachment 179431

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Way overdeveloped.

Phil Joanou said:

Here is one strip of the negs. It includes the photos I posted...

Click to expand...

So I think one of the problems is actually underexposure.

Take the first frame for example. The rebate and the girls pants and skirt are the same density in the scan. These areas of the negative will naturally produce black without detail in the print.

At the camera setting you used, the pants and skirt areas of the negative (like the unexposed rebate area) simply didn't receive enough exposure to make the film record anything. To solve that problem going forward you'll need to open up the exposure settings or meter differently.

Regarding the halo, it isn't visible to me on the neg so probably a scanning issue.

Uneven development including areas of over development could be due to your HC-110 syrup not being fully dissolved in water. Kodak recommend several minutes mixing. If you have undissolved globs of HC-110 sitting up against your film there are bound to be adverse effects.