Fogginess in dark part of print...

[Luke_Osborne]

This is a print I made in my university's darkroom, and for some reason the dark jacket on my friend came out very foggy. It's not really a very good print, her face is far too dark, but I think that might be more of an exposure problem. I actually printed this through a 4 1/2 contrast filter, as the first straight print I did came out even more muddy. I'm still just learning, but my main question was how do I avoid this type of fogginess in the future? I can't see it on the negative, though a low-power magnifying glass is all I've been able to use to look at it. The picture was taken on TMax 100 film, developed in straight D-76 for 14 minutes at 68F, 5 sec agitation every minute. The print was developed in Dektol (I don't know the concentration, as it's mixed by our professors, this could be a problem) for 1 1/2 minutes, 30 sec in stop bath, and fixed for 5 minutes.
As I'm more or less forced to use the university facilities, it does add a bit of randomness to developing, as I never really know how fresh the developer or fixer is in the trays. I may have to start mixing it up fresh when I use it, as I'm usually there after hours when nobody else is around to tell me I can't, haha.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

 

[jp498]

Start with a known good negative. I'd suspect the negative you have there is underexposed (since you had to use a high grade contrast filter with it and there is a bright sky behind the subject.

If a good negative has weak shadows like this when printed, it's probably bad Dektol. Dektol will be like this if it's below 60f or too old and muddy looking.

 

[David William White]

I suspect the same.

I don't know where you are in the craft of making negatives and prints, but there are a few things that you could follow up on and a few simple tests to isolate if the problem is with the exposure, development, or printing.

In your case, I would go backwards and confirm your paper & Dektol first. Just start with a clear section of your developed film (leader or trailer or clear frame), and do a test strip (ask if you haven't been shown this yet), using white light or grade 2 filter, at mid-aperture, so you can determine how long to expose to get good blacks through clear film. It only takes about 5 minutes, but will help you calibrate all of your printing. If you can't get good blacks no matter how long the paper is exposed, then there is a problem likely with the Dektol. Paper doesn't generally fail in that manner -- it may fog, but it will still reach black. The only other common possibility is that you're exposing the paper upside down, but forgive me if I'm insulting your intelligence.

If you can get good blacks through clear film base, then the next thing to look at is the negatives & your exposure and development. The standard procedure for determining 'normal' or 'printable' negatives is the contact sheet, done in a standard way. Contact sheets are dynamite for showing you just exactly how good your negatives are, whether you consistently over or underexpose, and whether you are developing sufficiently for normal contrast. Read how to make a proper contact sheet or ask here. They are powerful when done right, make printing a whole lot more deterministic, save a ton of time, and are pretty quick to do as well. Big ROI on contact sheets.

 

[Luke_Osborne]

Thank you everyone for your input, I finally got a (in my opinion) good print of that photo, I think I figured out what went wrong. The dodging tool I was using had too thick of a stick on it, and it was showing up as a foggy area because I wasn't moving it enough. But I have at least started mixing up fresh Dektol when I'm doing work in the school darkroom, so I'll know it's (probably) not that if I have further problems. Thanks again!

 

[Ronald Moravec]

Ypu exposed for the sky underexposing the subject.

Film handles only so much subject contrast. To deal with more,you need to epose for the darks, and cut development, use fill flash, use a reflector to brighten the subject.

The golden rule is expose to get shadows recorded, develope to make the highlights print properly. This rule is true always forever, no exceptions.

For starters, keep the sun at your back.