Interesting/funny/crazy stories of home developing almost gone wrong

FilmCurlCom · Jan 9, 2017

Hi all!

Who has some interesting/funny/crazy stories of things that almost went wrong when developing films at home?

I develop for a long time already but have almost screwed up 3 films today, this just happened to me one hour ago:

I was doing C-41, had the 3 films in my tank with 38° pre-wet water in it and was warming up the chemicals in my sink. As I saw the the developer was getting close to 38°, I read my check list which told me to "pour out the pre-wet water".

Being distracted somehow, I started to screw open the tank for a split second to "pour out the pre-wet water" until I noticed with horror what I was doing and stopped. Fortunantely I haven't lifted the tank's top... or did I lift it a tiny bit?

As you can imagine I was really scared the next 8 minutes until the bleach fix step was finished and I could look at the results.

Have been lucky though, all the negatives look fine, nothing was fogged it seems.

Bernhard

captain ZZM · Jan 9, 2017

When l processed a E6 slide film by my hand in 2015, the first and second film are normal, but the third got full crazy image. I do not know what is wrong.

railwayman3 · Jan 9, 2017

captain ZZM said:
When l processed a E6 slide film by my hand in 2015, the first and second film are normal, but the third got full crazy image. I do not know what is wrong.

I had a similar result about 2 years ago with Ektachrome processed by a "professional" lab which I had not used for some time. After research on the web, the result seemed to point to partly exhausted developer(s). (SFAIK, this particular lab discontinued E6 processing about that time, so maybe they were just not bothered with QC ! Similar films processed by another lab have always been fine.)

klownshed · Jan 9, 2017

FilmCurlCom said:
... I started to screw open the tank for a split second to "pour out the pre-wet water" until I noticed with horror what I was doing and stopped...

I did just that recently only didn't have your luck and opened the wrong part of the tank quite a bit before I realised. But (luckily?) it was film from a Holga so it added to the 'Lomo' effect... That's my excuse anyway ;-)

I am just about to finish a 366 project, today is my last day. A couple of the 'ruined' shots were the only photo I'd taken on a particular day but I managed to salvage some kind of image, but not something I'll do again deliberately that's for sure!

This was one of my photos of the day. There's just about an image there! You can see how far down the light leak got before I put the lid back on!

FilmCurlCom · Jan 9, 2017

Your image looks very interesting! I like it.
How long was the tank opened, do you know that?

fdonadio · Jan 9, 2017

Just happened: forgot I had the phone with me and entered the darkroom. The screen flashed 30 seconds after I had closed the lid of the tank. The film is drying right now, unharmed.

Cheers,
Flavio

Nodda Duma · Jan 9, 2017

Sometimes I'll develop some film when it's time to get the kids to bed. Which is a lot like herding cats into a bathtub.

"Sorry, honey. 5 more minutes on this. You'll have to take them upstairs."

Yes it may be a bit selfish and I don't know why the wife hasn't killed me yet, but by God it's so much quieter down in the kitchen when they're all upstairs.

Rudeofus · Jan 10, 2017

Nodda Duma said:
Sometimes I'll develop some film when it's time to get the kids to bed. Which is a lot like herding cats into a bathtub.

Sounds awfully familiar

BTW: why do bathrooms always have their light switches outside?

Jesper · Jan 10, 2017

After having used three identical bottles for developer, stop and fix successfully for about 20 years I decided to reduce risk and get another kind of bottle for the fix. I had of course marked the one I used for fix before with an ”F” but developer in Swedish also starts with an ”F” (framkallare) so I don't know what had been preventing any previous disasters (20 years means a lot of potential catastrophes). However, flawless running so far.

New and very different bottle for the fix, and this time clearly marked ”Fix”. No room for error one would think, but think again. For the first (and so far only) time in my life I started with fix and ended with developer before rinsing. Luckily it was just a test film to check out a new lens.

When you think you're safe, you stop thinking.

Nodda Duma · Jan 11, 2017

Rudeofus said:
Sounds awfully familiar

BTW: why do bathrooms always have their light switches outside?

Funny... I only ever saw that when we moved to New England. Everywhere else I've lived had "normal" light switch locations.

GRHazelton · Jan 12, 2017

Back when I was in my early teens and just beginning to develop BW film I relied on the "pickle smell" of the fixer to distinguish it from the developer. You can see where this is going.... One day when processing with a "good" head cold I put fresh fixer into the loaded tank.......before using the developer! From then on I labeled my chemical bottles.

And yet....just a few months ago, after decades of developing film.... I'd loaded a tank and set aside for processing later. Yes, I opened the tank. Takes only a brief flash of room light. Now if I load for future developing, I "seal" the lid with masking tape, on which I write what the film is.

The moral of these stories is that you're never too old to mess up. Full disclosure, I'm 73. Still vertical and ventilating.
'

bdial · Jan 12, 2017

A friend and I were processing a couple of rolls. When the stop bath went in, I put the developer bottle away and got the fix out, friend didn't see the switch. So he put the fix back in the cabinet, and got the developer out, which I didn't notice.
The film got another 3 or 4 minutes of developing, then we opened the tank to see two unfixed rolls of very developed film.
We quickly put the lid back on, figured out the mistake and got it in the fixer. The rolls survived the experience with no particular damage. And we learned that it doesn't hurt to stop and actually read the labels of whatever stuff you're using.

Fordmondeo · Feb 17, 2017

I didn't even get to the wet stage when processing my first roll of 120 many years back.
After 25 minutes of trying to stuff the backing paper into the spool, I opened the changing bag to see what was going wrong.

GregW · Feb 17, 2017

Fitbit, #$7^?! fitbit, when taking a sheet out of the holder forgetting to take it off first and it illuminates all over a sheet of bw ruining the left side of the 5x7 negative. It's the model that when you hold it up to check the time it lights up the digital display. I have to pocket it when going in the darkroom.

Luckless · Feb 17, 2017

So far the only 'interesting' things I've run into were 'interesting' times trying to get the outer tank lid of my paterson tank on evenly and tightly after pouring chemistry in. It has 'usually' gone on just fine for me, and a quick little rotation while pressing down with my thumbs has given me a dry tank exterior more often than not. So the first few times where it didn't seat perfectly for me and leaked a little were a bit of a surprise. "Oh, this must be what other people online were complaining about with them..."

Still waiting on the first real bone headed mistake in mixing up chemistry, but so far, so good.

One photographer I've met had a a decent looking system to deal with "Surprise Lighting devices" - A light tight container with a reversible lid. Watches, jewelry, phone, everything from his pockets, etc, all get placed into the container, and the lid flipped to the green side. If he has to take anything out, the lid gets flipped to the red, and he doesn't go light-safe till he has double checked that the lid is green. (Among other things.) A strict, consistent formal ritual of movements seems to make 'interesting mistakes' a whole lot harder to make.

FilmCurlCom · Feb 17, 2017

Fordmondeo said:
I didn't even get to the wet stage when processing my first roll of 120 many years back.
After 25 minutes of trying to stuff the backing paper into the spool, I opened the changing bag to see what was going wrong.

I've had the same issue once, was under time pressure and didn't know if I had backing paper or the film in my hands.
But then I thought, I shouldn't be able to simply tear film easily so I gave it a try. I could tear it, so it must have been the backing paper, worked out fine.

Interesting/funny/crazy stories of home developing almost gone wrong

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