Lucky darkroom session.

Yesterday I had a photo session at Kaaterskill Falls. This is located in the Catskill Mts. of NY and is the highest waterfall in the state. This time of year the cul-de-sac that the falls are in is choked with winter ice and makes for great shots.

Using Pan-F in 120 and usually I soup it in D-76 1+3 for 15 min. I got to the 13 minute mark and realized that I mixed at 1+4! OH DEAR! Ok, so I figured that I diluted an extra 25% and thought it made sense to add 25% to the time. I rounded off to 20 min. Negs look great! I actually made a good mistake.

Please share your lucky darkroom/photo session story with us.

the luckiest experience I remember...

after the developer step...I poured out the developer and then REMOVED the top to the developing tank

I immediately put the top back on and poured in the stop

when I was finished, I wasn't able to see anything wrong with the negatives

Processing E-6 sheet film in 4-sheet 4x5 hangers in hand dip-n-dunk sink line. Going into the pre-bleach noticed one slot in a hanger was empty. Shoved my clean hand into the bottom of the color developer tank and pulled out the transparency and quickly put it back in hanger. Film was fine.

PHOTOTONE said:

Processing E-6 sheet film in 4-sheet 4x5 hangers in hand dip-n-dunk sink line. Going into the pre-bleach noticed one slot in a hanger was empty. Shoved my clean hand into the bottom of the color developer tank and pulled out the transparency and quickly put it back in hanger. Film was fine.

Click to expand...

... but the hand fell off???

Steve

developing E-6 using aquarium as a hot water bath

one of the 1 pound spools of solder that I used to keep the chemical bottles from floating around dropped onto the glass bottom of the aquarium and....10-20 gallons ( I forget the size ) of water at precisely 100F splashed all over the floor

managed to complete processing and film was fine

(...then there was the time the plastic top to the developing tank broke...but luckily I covered it quickly...then realized the homemade developer I was using was so opaque that the film was pretty well protected even without a top )

I photographed those falls quite a few times when I lived in Orange County

david b said:

I photographed those falls quite a few times when I lived in Orange County

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Great spot, isn't it!? I was hoping to climb up to the pool at the bottom of the big drop and then go behind the falls. However, the climb up to the pool was very dangerous; loose scree, ice flows and the ground was still frozen. I chose to live to come back another day.

Sirius Glass said:

... but the hand fell off???

Steve

Click to expand...

Just spit out my coffee!!! Just my sense of humour - sick and very funny

Bob H

DarkroomExperimente said:

(...then there was the time the plastic top to the developing tank broke...but luckily I covered it quickly...then realized the homemade developer I was using was so opaque that the film was pretty well protected even without a top )

Click to expand...

I rapped the tank on the edge of he counter after the first agitation with a 5 reel tank and the entire bottom sheared off. Everything fell out and I found myself up to my ankles in developer, spirals and film. Surprisingly enough........................everything was totally ruined

Bob H

Sirius Glass said:

... but the hand fell off???

Steve

Click to expand...

Actually did this in a dip and dunk in the mid 80's in the colour developer section of c-41. It did take the hair off of my arm, up to the point where I was fishing to find the roll that I could not find.

This happened, when for some reason I heard the machine 'stall' as it lifted the rack that held a one end clipped, other end weighted over a top spool for 35mm or 126 or 120, and then heard something move off the rack. I felt the rack in the next tank - rinse/stop I think was still being used at the time - and realised there was no film on the first position from one end.

The recovered film got a quick rinse in the sink with a hose, as well as my arm, because I was woried ablout how much I would carry over to the bleach when I put the film back on the rack, which by then had moved to the bleach. It turned out the rack had been 'set down not genty enough' by my boss, and he had not noticed that the first clip was slipghtly bent in that process.

All of this was in total darkness. I can still in my mind feel my way around that small room where the dip and dunk lived, and the racks would get loaded.

It turned out the rack had been 'set down not genty enough' by my boss, and he had not noticed that the first clip was slipghtly bent in that process.