How badly did I screw up (6th edition)?

[pbromaghin]

Saturday night I did my first multi-tank developing session. When the first was safely in the fixer, I started developing the 2nd. 5 minutes in I realized that number 2 is in stop, not developer. I emptied it, gave it a real good rinse, and set it upside down a towel to drain. I did not try to start over, but decided to save it for another night. Am I correct in thinking that stop bath doesn't hurt anything and it should be alright?

 

[Chris Lange]

You should be fine, just make sure you do another good pre-wet when you actually develop the film.

 

[Chris Lange]

That said, I wouldn't dillydally much...get it done asap.

 

[MattKing]

I wonder how much acid was absorbed by the gelatin in the film.

I would think that at the very least it might affect the results by changing the initial pH of the film plus developer combo. If you have a choice of developers, I would recommend something that gives a longer developing time. Having excess developer in the tank might be a good idea as well.

I have never made that mistake (there has to be at least one I've missed) so I would be interested to hear from someone who has..

Assuming of course that Chris isn't speaking from specific experience.

 

[Chris Lange]

I've never done this myself, but if you did a sufficient rinse/wash after dunking it in the stop, it should have rinsed out most of the acid/developing stopping gremlins. Matt is right though, if you have a developer available with a longer dev time, something like 10-15 minutes, that will give you some peace of mind. Definitely make sure you give the film a good pre-wet, (fill and agitate the tank for 20 seconds, dump) make sure you do this at least 3 times to really give the film a good clean start.

At the very least you will get something so just go about business as usual after the pre-wet and you'll more likely than not be completely fine.

That said, I would be very careful with your chem temperatures, the wet/drying cycle may have made the emulsion more brittle/fragile than usual, and you don't want to risk reticulating your film.

 

[pbromaghin]

Thanks to all of you. I'm using tmax, which is pretty aggressive at only 7 minutes for 68f. Pretty much everything (room air, chems, film, cold water supply) is all at 68 in the evening. I might not get to this till next Saturday. If anything good comes out of it, it will be a small miracle.

 

[pbromaghin]

This film is probably toast. Last night, concerned about how much acidity it might have picked up, I gave the film a rinse. Dumping it out, it looked like dirty, grey dishwater. That's gotta the emulsion coming off, doesn't it? The blue AH layer was already washed off the other night.

I'll find out for sure next Saturday, but thanks to you, Chris, Matt and Michael, for helping. Having people like you as a backup has really helped me to dare to explore and take risks. This roll is really a disappointment because it was done at a place I won't soon return to and had some people I may not see again.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

If it's gray, forget about it. That's the emulsion coming off. There will be nothing on that film.

 

[pbromaghin]

Thank you for the confirmation, Thomas. Into the trash it goes, another lesson learned. Check label twice, pour once.

 

[Chris Lange]

in the case of stop, if this happens again, it's best to quickly wash the film and develop ASAP while the emulsion is still wet.

 

[pbromaghin]

Hmmm. I was at that decision point, to do it now or quit and ask APUG and do it later. I just made the wrong choice.

 

[cliveh]

To help aviod this happening again, why not colour code your chemical containers (photographer - visual recognition). Dev = blue (alkali), Stop = yellow (indicator stop bath), Fix = red (acidic).

 

[pbromaghin]

Clive, that's a good idea. They are already clearly labeled in large letters on both the jug and cap and are sitting left-to-right in the order they should be used. Apparently even this isn't enough to keep me from screwing up.

 

[MartinP]

The colour coding is ok, but then one (anyone, everyone, not the OP) has a brain-fart and chooses the wrong colour. I go for numbers on everything 1, 2, 3 etc. and then set the containers out in the right order and use them according to the usual numerical order.

Timing is taken care of by an Android app, which also beeps for agitation, and a backup kitchen-timer for the developer time. Fixer is tested for clearing-time before every run, then timed appropriately.

The critical point then comes with placing the correct chemical in each numbered container, but at least that can be done in a leisurely way, with extra time to check! However, three stages for black-and-white film should be simple enough almost every time (and I have now jinxed myself...).