Develop|Stop|Develop|Stop|Fix

Ariston · Jul 20, 2019

Did I do the right thing? You guys know better than I do.

I was developing a roll, and was in the middle of the stop bath, when I realized that I had used a weaker dilution of HC110 than I thought. It was my fault for not labeling the bottle like I should. I rinsed off the vinegar water and then developed an extra two minutes, to arrive at the correct time for the (actual) weaker dilution. I then stopped it again and fixed it.

The film came out looking okay to the naked eye. It is hanging to dry now. I'll let you know if it looks worse on the light table.

Is this what you would have done?

Kino · Jul 20, 2019

Yep. If the density is good, you are good to go...

Interesting idea (sure its not original), what about "split developer processing"?

1/2 in D-76 and the second in Xtol?

Would take some experimentation for sure...

Pentode · Jul 20, 2019

Kino said:
Yep. If the density is good, you are good to go...

Agreed. As long as the negatives look good you should be fine. You took an odd route to get there but you got there just the same.

Eric Rose · Jul 20, 2019

An excellent application of the age old engineering term "high velocity fudge factor".

mshchem · Jul 21, 2019

Like Captain Sully, first things first : Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. He didn't crash, he made a water landing on the Hudson!

You didn't panic, rinsed off the weak acid, put the developer in, good job!

MattKing · Jul 21, 2019

Don't do this with developer you intend re-using!
Otherwise, as long as you don't feel the need to try to reliably repeat the results, it shouldn't cause any problems.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jul 21, 2019

If your developer has carbonate in it and your stop bath is acidic, the probability of pinholes appearing in the negatives is now doubled due to the two times application of stop bath.

Ariston · Jul 21, 2019

Just as an update, the negatives look the same as any I developed normally, so yay. There were no important pictures on this roll, thank goodness, so I'm not worried about archival quality. I will probably toss it, but am glad to know I was able to salvage a mistake, even if only for scans.

The developer was a one off, but I rinsed the negatives very well after the premature stop anyway.

If someone one have handled the situation differently, I would be interested to know how.

Thanks for all the insight!

MattKing · Jul 21, 2019

Ariston said:
If someone one have handled the situation differently, I would be interested to know how.

The only other option was to accept the film as is - not fully developed.
If the amount of under-development was relatively small, I might have elected to go with it as is - it depends somewhat on the lighting and subjects on the film.
And if you discover too late that your well exposed film is under-developed, there are some remedies available - intensification being one - that can help you restore some of the missing contrast.
Your approach was probably better than the other remedies.

removed account4 · Jul 21, 2019

Kino said:
Interesting idea (sure its not original), what about "split developer processing"?

I do this all the time !
1st bath is either dektol or ansco130 1:10 for 5mins
2nd bath caffenol c with a splash of either ansco130 or dektol 5 mins
i don't use stop bath...

koraks · Jul 21, 2019

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
If your developer has carbonate in it and your stop bath is acidic, the probability of pinholes appearing in the negatives is now doubled due to the two times application of stop bath.

I'm not sure if this is still an issue with contemporary films. I've only seen something that looked like it with xray film.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jul 21, 2019

koraks said:
I'm not sure if this is still an issue with contemporary films. I've only seen something that looked like it with xray film.

I face this problem often with Orwo UN54 film when using Pyrocat HDC or Obsidian Aqua.

koraks · Jul 21, 2019

I can imagine that the orwo films have a little less robust emulsions than other brands, and both pyrocat and obsidian are quite high-pH developers which exacerbates the issue. If stain is not crucial for your purposes, something like xtol may alleviate the problem.

NB23 · Jul 21, 2019

Good that you noticed while it was time!
I once ruined very important negatives by developing in HC110:63 instead of 1:31.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Jul 21, 2019

koraks said:
I can imagine that the orwo films have a little less robust emulsions than other brands, and both pyrocat and obsidian are quite high-pH developers which exacerbates the issue. If stain is not crucial for your purposes, something like xtol may alleviate the problem.

A water stop bath alleviated the problem for all practical purposes.

koraks · Jul 21, 2019

Of course, that's also a perfectly viable (and likely even better/more practical) solution.

jim appleyard · Jul 21, 2019

koraks said:
I'm not sure if this is still an issue with contemporary films. .

I had it happen with a roll of FP-4, not the film's fault, but mine.

Kino · Jul 21, 2019

jnantz said:
I do this all the time !
1st bath is either dektol or ansco130 1:10 for 5mins
2nd bath caffenol c with a splash of either ansco130 or dektol 5 mins
i don't use stop bath...

Ah! good to know!

bsdunek · Jul 21, 2019

Now, if you had fixed and then tried to do more developing, it wouldn't have worked. Sounds like you did just fine.

jvo · Jul 22, 2019

you "stop"ped development and restarted it. if you didn't use a water bath after the vinegar/water and put the developer in directly, i'd dump the developer.

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