Fixer before developer

Nodda Duma · Aug 4, 2017

Arrrgggghhh!!

*shakes fist*

Realized what I had done after a GREAT 30-second initial agitation. Four 4"x5" negatives, two of which were taken with my precious stock of old-school Type 40 Flash bulbs on the Graflex.

Please feel free to commiserate with me.

-Jason

Kevin Caulfield · Aug 4, 2017

Sorry to hear your news.

Helios 1984 · Aug 4, 2017

Gerald C Koch · Aug 5, 2017

Labeling things could have prevented this.

Bill Burk · Aug 5, 2017

Sorry for your loss.

On the bright side. These will be easy to file.

albada · Aug 5, 2017

That's like shooting a roll with the lens-cap on. Grrr...

Mark Overton

Patrick Robert James · Aug 5, 2017

That is a bummer. Can feel your pain. On the upside, no matter how long you do photography, or how long you have already done it, that is a mistake you only make once! You have now cursed yourself to paranoia about not putting fixer in the tank...

I can't say I have ever done it myself, but my fixer jug has always been a gallon which is never confused with the one shot developers I use straight out of the graduate. (Knock on wood. knock knock! I probably just totally jinxed myself)

I have unscrewed the top off the tank to pour in the developer. Holding the top in my hand, looking at the tank full of the film, is again, only a mistake you make once! And trust me when I say that no matter how incredible your reflexes are putting the top back on the tank, light moves much faster! I wasn't even a newbie when I did that. I still can't explain that brain fart to this day.

Richard Man · Aug 5, 2017

The feeling when you realize the mistakes...

I did that once. The keyword is ONCE. Now you will change your workflow, bottle arrangement, notes on the wall, ANYTHING possible to make sure it does not happen again.

wiltw · Aug 5, 2017

I feel your pain. 50 years ago, after shooting photos that needed to go to the printer that evening to make the press run of our high school newspaper, I put fixer in first, realizing that 'ohshit' moment just as I finished filling the tank with fixer. I had to drive back and reshoot, and go back to the darkroom, with 1.5 hours lost before the deadline!
I made the deadline, by printing wet negatives.

teejay · Aug 5, 2017

Yeah I did that last week for the first time - shot a roll of 120 and thought I'd treat it to distilled water instead of tap water for the dev , went into garage and measured out from the "distilled water" container - but I picked up a container that I'd put fixer in and had only labelled one side - damn - lesson learnt

Europan · Aug 5, 2017

The images are not lost. The latent image withstands fixing. You only need to move from chemical development to physical. Physical development works with formulae that deposit more silver on the initially reduced silver germs. I can pass you over formulae that you can prepare baths by. PM me, please

Europan · Aug 5, 2017

bump double

narsuitus · Aug 5, 2017

Nodda Duma said:
Please feel free to commiserate with me.

A few decades ago I was developing a tank of four 36-rolls of color slide film and accidentally added the properly labeled bottle of fix to the tank before the second color developer. It was a total loss.

Nodda Duma · Aug 5, 2017

Gerald C Koch said:
Labeling things could have prevented this.

Oh they were labelled. I completely ignored said labels. And the fixer smell.

removed account4 · Aug 5, 2017

bummer !
i did the same thing but with alum hardener instead of developer
"best plates i ever took"

paul ron · Aug 5, 2017

got dam it!

I feel your pain.

bdial · Aug 5, 2017

BTDT

One of the precautions I use is that I usually pour from a graduate rather than directly from the bottle, and I don't measure out the fixer until I've got developer in the tank.

Anon Ymous · Aug 5, 2017

I haven't done that... yet. The only precaution I take is that I line up any bottles or beakers in the right order.

ChuckP · Aug 5, 2017

After years of developing I did that last year for the first time. Just on autopilot and screwed up. I'm blaming old age.

winger · Aug 5, 2017

My sympathies! I haven't done it, yet, but I won't rule it out. I label and put things in order, but I'm sure there will be one time I'm in too much of a hurry. There was once that I forgot the stop bath and went straight from developer to fixer.

pentaxuser · Aug 5, 2017

Europan said:
The images are not lost. The latent image withstands fixing. You only need to move from chemical development to physical. Physical development works with formulae that deposit more silver on the initially reduced silver germs. I can pass you over formulae that you can prepare baths by. PM me, please

This is new to me. I always thought that if the fixer is reasonably fresh then 30 secs of immersion and agitation was enough to make rescue impossible. Can you tell us more about your process?

Thanks

pentaxuser

silveror0 · Aug 5, 2017

As the saying goes: "No pain, no gain."

LarsAC · Aug 5, 2017

bdial said:
BTDT

One of the precautions I use is that I usually pour from a graduate rather than directly from the bottle, and I don't measure out the fixer until I've got developer in the tank.

That's what I do as well - I do not open the fixer until the developer is in the tank.

Lars

MattKing · Aug 5, 2017

bdial said:
BTDT

One of the precautions I use is that I usually pour from a graduate rather than directly from the bottle, and I don't measure out the fixer until I've got developer in the tank.

I use both a pre-rinse and stop bath for film.
I measure out the developer while the film is in the pre-rinse.
I measure out the stop bath while the film is in the developer.
And I measure out the fixer when the film is in the stop bath.
Clearly, I have had dreams about making the same mistake as the OP!

mnemosyne · Aug 5, 2017

To quote a funny bloke ...
"I think there is a lesson there for all of us"

Fixer before developer

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