Have I solarized my negatives?

[OGTrout]

You always see other people ask "what happened to my film" and never think it could be you, but here we are. Last night I developed a roll of FP4+ that I'd shot the day before.

Everything was going as normal, until I took the film out after washing and noticed the film base was very dark, I thought maybe it hadn't fixed properly so I got it back in with some fresh fix. That didn't seem to make a difference and this is how the film base looks: https://imgur.com/a/Wvlw88m

And here is a snippet of the proofs exhibiting the odd result: https://imgur.com/a/6YloutT

And here is one of the prints I did:
https://i.redd.it/dox915irqrp11.jpg
The reflections in the water appear to be in negative.

And this is another:
https://imgur.com/a/mw647x3
I quite like the effect on this one, mostly stayed in positive save for the coat.

Now, I do know of one error I definitely did make during development. I developed the film for too long, I was looking at the time for Ilfosol S, not Ilfosol 3. However, I only discovered this error today, and have previously developed a few rolls of FP4+ in the same way. And I don't think over-development would cause the film base to go so dark.
As far as I know I exposed the film as I normally would.

The only other explanation is that I've solarized the film at some point but I can't for the life of me work out when that would have happened or how it seems to have happened so uniformly.

I'm stumped. As for the would be pictures, I'm not too upset about them, I can visit the place again, and I got to experience something new. But I would like to know happened, I've only been doing this for a few months and this is probably the first unexplainable development issue I've had.
Was it during exposure, developing or fixing? Or maybe a little bit of error in all three came together.

 

[Kino]

Yes, I would say you have lightly solarized negatives, but it is so evenly distributed I would suspect some sort of chemical contamination issue rather than an inadvertent exposure.

Usually when you accidentally flash film, it is very uneven; this looks very even. In fact, this would be quite hard to reproduce intentionally...

How is the rest of the roll other than the shots you have posted?

Of course, it could have somehow come from the factory "pre-flashed" like that, but I tend to doubt that as Illford quality control is usually very good.

However, if you look at the edge numbers on the film, it DOES look as if it were flashed prior to being spooled.

Maybe your original fix was so weak, it did not fully fix the film and you flashed it when you exposed it to light after the first fixing. Did you totally unspool the film?

A mystery...

 

[OGTrout]

That was my thoughts as well, it felt too evenly fogged to be me letting the light in. Contamination is a possibility, but I'm not sure what would cause this.
Out of the 36 frames, only a few don't appear to be affected although that may change once enlarged.

I doubted any issue with the product, as honestly I'm probably the not the best lab worker and would prefer to blame myself. But I suppose it could be a possibility.

 

[Kino]

I would bet it has something to do with your double fixing the film coupled with the over development.

Did you remove the film from the developing reel prior to fixing in the new fixer, or did you just look at it on the reel?

It would be good knowledge if you could figure out how to reproduce this effect consistently!

 

[MattKing]

I'm not sure how a weak first fix would accomplish this, unless you added another development stage in between.

 

[Kino]

It wasn't specified if there was an acid stop bath employed or water in between development and fix.

 

[MattKing]

It wasn't specified if there was an acid stop bath employed or water in between development and fix.

Even if it was a water stop, I'd be surprised if you were to see this amount of continued development.

 

[Svenedin]

Even if it was a water stop, I'd be surprised if you were to see this amount of continued development.

But the OP didn't knowingly expose the film to light until after washing. Surely even with exhausted fix the development would stop fairly promptly just from dilution?

I'm thinking that either the film was somehow exposed to light whilst in the developing tank (I can't see how) or prior to development when loading onto a reel. Otherwise why would the film be exposed right across the whole width of the film and not just within the frames? What is really odd is it is so uniform as already noted by the OP and Kino.

You weren't wearing a luminous dial watch when loading were you?

 

[OGTrout]

I used Ilfostop between developing and fixing.

After initial fixing, I did my wash with an essentially extended ilford wash. It was as I was taking off the reel that I thought it looked a bit dark. Reloaded it, so it was exposed to light at this moment. I put it back in the tank and poured the fixer back in. I then mixed some fresh fixer and replaced the previous fixer and gave it a few more minutes. But it looked exactly the same afterwards. During the second fix I found a scrap of undeveloped film and chucked it in with the old fixer in a tray to test and it cleared fairly quickly, so I don't think that lot was bad. The film was probably in rapid fixer for about 10 minutes in total.

I wasn't wearing a watch while loading the reel.

I bought the film on Saturday and shot it mostly on Sunday, developing on Monday. I also bought 4 other rolls of FP4 at the same time and they all came from the same bulk pack in the shop.

 

[Svenedin]

I’m at a loss to explain it. Is there any way your developing tank is damaged so that the light trap is ineffective? A crack in the funnel or central core? If a Paterson tank, was the funnel properly clicked in place? Highly unlikely I know but I have to confess I once forgot to put the central core in and I once put it in upside down. In either case it isn't light tight. I was at school at the time.

Do you pop open the cassette or use a film leader retrieval tool? I suppose with a leader retrieval tool it might be possible to fog at least quite a few frames but not the whole film.

Finally I'd really check your darkroom out for any light leaks (or changing bag if thats what you use).

 

[Kino]

I simply cannot imagine any light leak being so uniform and consistent. It has to be something else...

 

[Svenedin]

I simply cannot imagine any light leak being so uniform and consistent. It has to be something else...

Looks that way but what is it?

 

[mooseontheloose]

Your film base looks like my old Kodak HIE - after 10+ years it hasn’t aged well and the film base is pretty dark, no matter how soon after exposure I develop it (it’s kept frozen otherwise). As for the even solarization, perhaps it’s a development issue? I’ve done some stand development with a rodinalXtol mix, and when I look at the film after washing, the base is dark and the images (especially the high contrast ones) are often solarized. I know that’s not what you were doing, but it would explain the evenness across the roll, in a way a light leak wouldn’t.