Neg developing blunder..

[fearc]

There i was last night - very excited about developing my film from a recent trip and following one beautifully crisp set of negatives I proceeded with the next.... Only when i was pouring the fix into the tank did i realise that it wasn't fix - but the developer. ....argh..

In panic (I don't really know what to do in this situation) I opened the tank to look at the negative and saw they were partially developed.. I rinsed them and went through the process again. In have ended up with really really dense negatives .... Help.... is there anything i can do to rescue them, they aren't hugely precious - but its so frustrating...? bleach?

 

[Steve Smith]

I don't know what you can do to fix these (others may have some ideas) If I understand correctly, you have opened up the tank and exposed the film to light whilst in developer - not a good combination!

If it happens again (unlikely after this mistake) pour the developer out and put the fix in. The few extra seconds of development would not make a noticeable difference.

Steve.

 

[Woolliscroft]

You might be able to get prints with very long exposures, but from the sound of how they were processed they will probably be solarised.

David.

 

[fearc]

That was what was really strange - opening the tank didn't seem to fog them - they were 'stopped', 'fixed' and then 'developed'......when i opened the tank the images were visible and clear on the glossy side of the film but the back was 'creamy'. I thought i've ruined it opening them and waited to watch them fog - they didn't so i decided the 'creamy' surface was just underdeveloped and so hurried to put them back in. I fear that what I have now done is then redeveloped them - far too long and so overdeveloped the set. They are really really dark but holding up to the light you can see the frames and the images - just...

No - it won't be happening again....

 

[fearc]

solarised.... could be a fun mistake then....

 

[Steve Smith]

Did you use a stop bath? If so, it may have been sufficiently strong to resist the developer for the short time you had the lid off.

So all you really did was develop for twice as long as needed.

The creamy surface was the emulsion which would have been cleared by the fixer.


Steve.

 

[Fotohuis]

One simple solution and then this will NEVER happen again:

http://shop.fotohuisrovo.nl/product_info.php?products_id=244&osCsid=beabf435caba12fd6b4258f491a365f7

Best regards,

Robert

 

[Moopheus]

Hmmm..I should have done that--last week I made the opposite error--poured in the fixer first. Oops. A whole roll of 120 pictures literally washed down the drain. Nothing real vital, but still. The sort of mistake that makes sure you'll always check twice before pouring.

 

[Fotohuis]

This idea is not new but is comming from 40 years darkroom experience only

The same you can see on Jobo's graduates from the processors:

Green: developer
Red: stop
Yellow: fix (or blix)

If you mark your bottels always in the same way this is never a problem, also not when you're very excited to see results from important films.

Simply DO IT and you will never have this problem again!

Best regards,

Robert

 

[fearc]

Off to buy coloured tape......

 

[Toffle]

There i was last night - very excited about developing my film from a recent trip and following one beautifully crisp set of negatives I proceeded with the next.... Only when i was pouring the fix into the tank did i realise that it wasn't fix - but the developer. ....argh..

I did precisely this about two weeks ago. After the stop bath I grabbed the next bottle on my shelf. (I'm very precise about these things, but I guess I must have rearranged things somehow) It is only when I went to place the empty bottle beside my tray that I realized that I had added the developer once again. After about two seconds of panic, I took stock of the situation. I figure that at most I only added about 5-10 seconds developing time, which is well within the latitude for the film I was using. I poured it out immediately and to be safe, I re-applied the stop solution. Then I fixed as per normal. The results were not noticeably overdeveloped, so I guess I got things in time.

Mistakes do happen. Sometimes the best you can do is grab a new roll of film. Other times you can salvage your work with little or no damage. (especially if you don't panic.)

Cheers,

 

[gainer]

The creamy stuff you saw when you opened the tank was undeveloped emulsion. If you had poured the fixer in at that moment instead of the developer, the creamy stuff would have gone away and your negs would probably be good. Proper development never develops all the emulsion.