I screwed up developing some negatives

[Travis Nunn]

I just shot a roll of Fuji ACROS 100 and really screwed up developing it. I mixed up some Rodinal at 1:25 and mistakenly developed it as if I had diluted it 1:50. Now my negatives are truly black and white (almost no mid-tones) There is so much contrast that nothing is usable.

Is there anything that can be done (bleaching or something else) to reduce the contrast in the negatives? There are a couple of shots that I really want and I don't want to have to drive to the spot again to reshoot, its 3 hours away. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[argus]

I screwed up developing some negatives

It happens to everyone someday. Don't worry.
Manipulating developed and fixed negatives by bleaching or anything else is very risky.

G

 

[micek]

This might not be very helpful, but if the negatives can't be saved you can always experiment with the prints, i.e. print them huge, push contrast even further, etc. Cock ups like that are often an unexpected door to new possibilities...

 

[vet173]

Micek has a good idea. After that you might try farmers reducer, nothing to loose.
John

 

[Les McLean]

Go into the darkroom and print the negatives on softer paper grades and be prepared for long exposure times for the information is on the negative despite the fact that it is very dense. Film will hold up to 14 stops of contrast so the information is there. The likelyhood is that you will have increased the grain but that could well be a serindipidous mistake. As has already been said experiment and you may well find you might be surprised at what you find.

 

[Lukas Werth]

I think you negs will have all the midtones, just an extended tonal range as it is useful for many alternative processes.
My advice: try making a fuzzy mask for impotant shots.

 

[Travis Nunn]

Thanks everyone. I'll do some experimenting and see what I can come up with. In the meantime, I'm still going to go back and re-shoot the shots I really wanted, but you all are right, experimentation can lead to something good.