Film development: dark negatives + colour of film

El_Stino · Jul 10, 2022

So I just developed my second roll of B/W film.

I noticed immediately that the negatives are quite dark compared to those on my first roll. This made me suspect I consistently overexposed images, since I executed the same developing process (both fomapan 100, ilfosol 3...). Yet, I believe I did meter correctly and it would be strange for every single one of the images to be overexposed, after all. I read and heard that temperature is less of an issue with monochrome film than it is with colourfilm, but could perhaps a degree over 20°C have made an impact? Or perhaps too much agitation?

Another issue for which I just cannot find an explanation is the difference in colour of the film itself, between my first and second roll. The film of the first roll turned entirely to grey, while the second roll of film kept some of its typical sepia film coloured tone. As stated before, I haven't altered the process in which I develop film in the slightest, or at least not conciously. How could this be explained? Now I'm also a bit confused about how my developed film should look: colourless or still a bit (undeveloped) film-toned? Could tiny residual fixer (or even traces of stopper/developer) from the previous round of developing have caused this? I did wash my paterson tank after having poured out the fixer, though.

I'm still quite new to the wonderful world of film photography, so any advice would be much appreciated.

Edit: Not sure how to delete. Found out it was just a stupid mistake on my part. Thank you for your help.

The first roll (fomapan, 100), having turned grey after developing (frame spacing issue: different thread, problem most likely found)

The second roll (fomapan, 100), the film still has some colour, all negatives are quite dark.

pentaxuser · Jul 10, 2022

I think you need to show us digital pictures of your film to help us. Otherwise we can suggest many possible causes, most of which may not be the cause First time I have even heard of Foma 100 having a typically sepia colour?

Are you saying that in all your previous cases of development Foma 100 is normally a sepia colour and grey is suddenly the exception? However that just me being curious about it being sepia. The main thing is to show us the negatives

Thanks

pentaxuser

El_Stino · Jul 10, 2022

pentaxuser said:
I think you need to show us digital pictures of your film to help us. Otherwise we can suggest many possible causes, most of which may not be the cause First time I have even heard of Foma 100 having a typically sepia colour?

Are you saying that in all your previous cases of development Foma 100 is normally a sepia colour and grey is suddenly the exception? However that just me being curious about it being sepia. The main thing is to show us the negatives

Thanks

pentaxuser

Thank you for your reply.

I haven't gotten to properly scanning my film yet, still trying out some setups for shooting them with my digital camera. I'll add some quick shots though to give an idea of the differences.

I'm still very much new to film photography and this is only the second roll I have ever developed, so I'm not sure what would and should be the normal outcome. With the "sepia" tone, I meant the normal brownish tone which undeveloped film has as well is still there in the second roll only. My first roll turned grey.

El_Stino · Jul 10, 2022

El_Stino said:
Thank you for your reply.

I haven't gotten to properly scanning my film yet, still trying out some setups for shooting them with my digital camera. I'll add some quick shots though to give an idea of the differences.

I'm still very much new to film photography and this is only the second roll I have ever developed, so I'm not sure what would and should be the normal outcome. With the "sepia" tone, I meant the normal brownish tone which undeveloped film has as well is still there in the second roll only. My first roll turned grey.

Update: I found out the issue was that I wrongfully remembered/assumed that they were the same iso, which wasn't the case. First was 400, second 100, so the second roll was developed for the 8:30min needed for iso 400, longer than the actually recommended 5min for 100. Left open the wrong instructions on the massive dev chart. Thanks again for your reply though.

pentaxuser · Jul 10, 2022

While the second roll was developed for 3.5 mins more is required for a 100 Foma, the negatives look strange for a film that has simply been overdeveloped. It is as if the definition that should be still there in the negatives has gone. From what I have seen of Foma the greyness you speak of in the first 400 film should still be there in the 100 You are right there is a definite brownness in the second in the clear sections between frames and on the clear edges which I feel should not be there

Perhaps others can comment on this and my comment on the second roll which was a 100 compared to 400 does not seem to have the definition that I expect to see in what is referred to as a thick negative, that is, an overdeveloped negative

What does a scan of the negative which is reversed for the positive without manipulation look like?

Thanks

pentaxuser

Andrew O'Neill · Jul 10, 2022

It's a little hard to tell what's going on due to scan quality. To me, the first negatives look under exposed and maybe a little over developed. Second roll looks kind of looks like what you'd get after developing a roll of colour film in B/W chemistry... Could be exposed properly, but over developed. Lot of guess work here, though.

albireo · Jul 10, 2022

El_Stino said:
So I just developed my second roll of B/W film.

I noticed immediately that the negatives are quite dark compared to those on my first roll. This made me suspect I consistently overexposed images, since I executed the same developing process (both fomapan 100, ilfosol 3...). Yet, I believe I did meter correctly and it would be strange for every single one of the images to be overexposed, after all. I read and heard that temperature is less of an issue with monochrome film than it is with colourfilm, but could perhaps a degree over 20°C have made an impact? Or perhaps too much agitation?

Another issue for which I just cannot find an explanation is the difference in colour of the film itself, between my first and second roll. The film of the first roll turned entirely to grey, while the second roll of film kept some of its typical sepia film coloured tone. As stated before, I haven't altered the process in which I develop film in the slightest, or at least not conciously. How could this be explained? Now I'm also a bit confused about how my developed film should look: colourless or still a bit (undeveloped) film-toned? Could tiny residual fixer (or even traces of stopper/developer) from the previous round of developing have caused this? I did wash my paterson tank after having poured out the fixer, though.

I'm still quite new to the wonderful world of film photography, so any advice would be much appreciated.

Edit: Not sure how to delete. Found out it was just a stupid mistake on my part. Thank you for your help.

View attachment 310124

The first roll (fomapan, 100), having turned grey after developing (frame spacing issue: different thread, problem most likely found)

View attachment 310125

The second roll (fomapan, 100), the film still has some colour, all negatives are quite dark.

First batch of samples are strongly underexposed and quite overdeveloped. The second batch appear to have been underfixed. Can you describe your fixing routine? Was the fixer fresh?

As for colour/tone: 35mm Foma is colourless. No brownish/sepia tone whatsoever. 120 Foma has a green antihalation layer which will mostly come off after development.

koraks · Jul 10, 2022

albireo said:
The second batch appear to have been underfixed.

That's it; refix those to see if it turns out better.

Bill Burk · Jul 10, 2022

I suspect not enough fixation as well because the film has overall brown color.

If the only problem was overdevelopment, the sprocket areas and area between frames would be clear.

Sirius Glass · Jul 10, 2022

albireo said:
First batch of samples are strongly underexposed and quite overdeveloped. The second batch appear to have been underfixed. Can you describe your fixing routine? Was the fixer fresh?

As for colour/tone: 35mm Foma is colourless. No brownish/sepia tone whatsoever. 120 Foma has a green antihalation layer which will mostly come off after development.

I agree with this assessment.

Film development: dark negatives + colour of film

El_Stino

pentaxuser

El_Stino

El_Stino

pentaxuser

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

albireo

koraks

Moderator

Bill Burk

Sirius Glass

Film development: dark negatives + colour of film

Moderator

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency