My darkroom blunder: a happy ending.

I was developing a roll of film recently. As I agitated the stainless roll film tank with my standard 6in10 taurus agitation scheme I thought to myself how remarkable it was that I had never dropped a tank during agitation. Three seconds pass and the tank flies from my hands. The lids pops off, the tank landing face up with the reels and the majority of the developer intact. I quickly replace the lid-maybe a full second after it pops off. I spend the next 15 seconds contemplating my options. Do I pretend nothing happened and complete the development cycle? I could throw the tank across the room and seize the opportunity to express a few latent expletives. Several things then occur to me: I am two thirds of the way through the development cycle, enough to yield a usable negative; the film may be somewhat desensitized at this point and the room is not that bright; any new exposure will too have to be developed to show density and shouldn't be emerging for about 4..3..2.. I dump the developer. I then run a hasty water stop and fix.

The negatives are fine! Somewhat flat and absolutely printable. There is some fog where the roll edge sat in the reel spiral and was most exposed. I later make a nice print and life is good. It never happens again. The end.

As you say, a happy ending. Well done.

Nice save, and correct decision. Pat youself on the back (but keep a tube of liniment handy when you do).

Final score: Photographer 1. Murphy's Law: 0

Good show!

When it happens again... continuous random agitation for the remainder of the development time. Perhaps cut down 10% on the remainder of the time. That way, you get usable highlights and even development.

Good save though.

tim in san jose

FWIW, with stainless tanks I *always* tape the lid on (just a wrap with a couple inches overlap of 1" wide masking tape over the joint). That way, even if the tank gets wet, and slippery, and gets away from me, or if I (for some reason) hold it upside down by the bottom, it'll stay closed. Also cuts down mightily on the chemical leakage... I also, after loading, put a little tag of tape on the tank that says what film, how much, and from what camera is inside the tank. That way, if something comes up and it sits on the back of the bathroom, er, darkroom sink for two weeks, I won't have to wonder what's inside...

I've done something similar, forgetting to firmly secure the "light trap" lid. Popped off the top lid to dump the chem's, lo and behold, the 2 120 rolls plunked right out in the sink as well. After immediately getting them back in the tank and some choice expletives I competed the dev. cycle. Neg's came out very nicely. I asked in a thread here, I think, how they weren't destroyed. Seems the "silver" is quite non-reactive once the processing has begun (and that's about the extent of my technical chemistry know how...).

As my mom always taught me, use electrician's tape. It's reusable, easily removed, and very effective at preventing disasters.

kmuxloe said:

As my mom always taught me, use electrician's tape. It's reusable, easily removed, and very effective at preventing disasters.

Click to expand...

I'm just curious, did your mom teach you to use electricians tape in general, or did she teach you photography? That's pretty cool either way I suppose.