Help

[unohuu]

I developed a roll of Orwopan 125 normal exposure for 12 minutes in Rodinal 1 +25 @ 66 F. The negatives were stopped 30 secs (Ilfostop) and fixed 2.5 minutes. Rinsed 5 minutes. They came out so dark that I can't scan them. Is there any hope of salvaging them? I do not have a darkroom to print them in? Is it worth a trip to custom lab to see if they can help me?

New to this processing..

Luke

 

[Konical]

Good Evening, Luke,

If I recall correctly, there used to be (maybe still is) a product called Farmer's Reducer which might be of help. I think Kodak provides or provided it. I have never used it, but I'm sure someone else on APUG has.

Konical

 

[Neal]

Dear Luke,

There is a Kodak product called "Farmer's Reducer" that reduces the silver proportionally throughout the negative (reducing contrast while reducing density) to simulate reducing development time. There are other reducers that go from reducing equally across the negative (only lowering density) to increasing contrast (reducing more in the shadows than in the highlights). You can find several of these sold by Photographer's formulary.

Be warned, they are not pleasant chemicals.

Neal Wydra

 

[Jordan]

I think Orwopan 125 is re-labelled FP4+ (seem to remember reading that somewhere). Digitaltruth.com (Massive Dev Chart) gives 9 min at 20C for FP4+ in Rodinal 1+25 so I think you have a fair bit of overdevelopment for starters. What does "so dark" mean? Is there fogging (i.e. are the spaces between the images and at the film edges perfectly clear or are they dark?)

 

[photobackpacker]

Farmer's reducer will reduce the density but....

You probably already know but there are others who might not - When you over develop a film, the development continues in the areas that received the greatest exposure to light - where the density is already present. The shadow areas of the subject imparted far less light cast upon the negative. These areas of the negative have very little density (fewer grains of silver) and so they are uneffected by the longer development times.

Farmer's reducer acts by dissolving the silver grains in the emulsion. It acts equally across all densities and so the few grains in the least dense areas are virtually cleared of silver - often before the overly dense areas are reduces to a printable level.

The overdeveloped - blocked up negative is a problem that is not fixable via chemical means I am aware of.

 

[Nige]

yes, you may have another problem other than too much development. Maybe your meter wasn't set correctly and you've over-exposed as well.

 

[unohuu]

Massive Dev suggests 12 mins for 18C. So there must be something else. This came out of my 800si and the meter has been spot on heretofore.

 

[Bob F.]

Is there any image at all that you can see on the film? Is the edge clear? If the edge is clear then it implies that development etc was OK and exposure is the problem. Conversely, if the edges are not clear then it suggests that processing went wrong in some way or that the film is defective.

Check that the fix was OK - see how long it takes to clear a piece of undeveloped fresh film, or make up some fresh and re-fix the film.

Bob.