My First Developing in 25 Years

[Frank R]

On Saturday I developed my first B+W film since I took a photography class in high school.

Everything was new:

• I was shooting EFKE 100 for the first time in my new 9x12 Patent Etui.
• I used a Beseler drum on a reversing motor base.
• I used a digital meat thermometer (looks like a big fork) that I bought a few years ago to use in the kitchen, which I never did.
• All the other equipment was either given to me or bought real cheap.
• I was given all of the chemicals for free. I bought an enlarger last year and the guy gave me a box full of chemicals.
• I mixed my own chemicals for the first time. Keeping everything close to 68 degrees was the only difficulty.

I only took three shots because I only had three original film holders. When I went to unload the film holder for shot number one I found that the dark slide had somehow come out of the grooves, ruining the shot.

Shot number two developed well but had a serious light leak. It looks like I pulled the filmholder away from the camera slightly when I pulled the darkslide.

Shot number three is shown here. I am pretty happy with the results.

It looks like I have quite a few tiny dots in the sky and the brick pavers; are these pinholes that I have read about? How do I prevent them?

I wanted to thank everyone for all the help they provided while I was trying to come up with a recipe and procedures to use with all my available equipment and chemicals (especially you Diwan and Bob).

The shot is a scan of the negative. No adjustments other than two small uses of the healing brush to get rid of what looked like tiny threads of dust.

 

[Neal]

Dear FrankR,

Welcome to the dark side. It's all fun here.

The the white dots are probably dust on your negative when you printed. Holes in the emulsion would, in my mind, result in black dots. I say that as I have never experienced pinholes first hand. (Or maybe I should say I don't remember an pinholes as my memory seems to be less dependable than it once was.)

Neal Wydra

 

[Frank R]

The the white dots are probably dust on your negative when you printed.

Thanks. I haven't printed yet though. This is a neg scan.

 

[Paul Sorensen]

Thanks. I haven't printed yet though. This is a neg scan.

It's the same thing with a negative scan or print. If you think about it, a pinhole would be clear on the neg, so since everything is reversed on either a print or negative scan, it will be black on the resulting image. Dust on the negative, or scanner (much more problematic, at least for me) will end up making white spots on your resulting image. Pinholes are much more scarce than dust.

I just noticed you are using sheet film. With sheet film, dust on the film before exposure, resulting in clear spots on the negative, is also extremely common. Since you have clear spots on the negative, you will end up with black spots on your print. Depending on your particular climate, loading area, etc, it can get really bad at times. I am only seeing white spots, which would be in the scanning, not dust on the film during exposure.

 

[Frank R]

I am only seeing white spots, which would be in the scanning, not dust on the film during exposure.

Ok, I will check and clean my scanner.

 

[Curt]

Forget the scanner and clean the enlarger lens, the scan is fine and shows that you have a good eye and will progress quickly.

Best regards,
Curt