negatives becoming more purple each time I develop, fixer deteriorating?

GeorgK · Mar 6, 2014

Washing out the purple stain depends on pH, where a high pH (alkaline/neutral) is better than a low (acidic). Your fixer (a neutral type) obviously became more acidic over time, probably by carryover from the stop.

G.

Jaf-Photo · Mar 6, 2014

effae said:
What do you guys consider a longer wash to be? I've gone by the instructions, and thus wash my kodak films for 30min and ilfords for 10mins. I rinse both in distilled water for an additional 5min to avoid stains. My tri-x films are still rather purple, but I recon they're within normal limits.

It depends on the film. TMAX and Tri-X can be very purple.

With those films I presoak for 5 minutes, fix for 8-10 minutes (depending on freshness) wash for 10 minutes and soak for 15-20 minutes.

That gives me completely clear negatives.

There is still a hint of purple before the final soak, but it's gone after 15-20 minutes.

Probably these times could vary depending on water and chems as suggested by previous poster.

Thomas Bertilsson · Mar 6, 2014

Jaf-Photo said:
It depends on the film. TMAX and Tri-X can be very purple.

With those films I presoak for 5 minutes, fix for 8-10 minutes (depending on freshness) wash for 10 minutes and soak for 15-20 minutes.

That gives me completely clear negatives.

There is still a hint of purple before the final soak, but it's gone after 15-20 minutes.

Probably these times could vary depending on water and chems as suggested by previous poster.

For me, I don't pre-soak, used TMax 400 and Tri-X 400 in either Xtol or D76, and with a 6 minute cycle in fresh fixer get completely clear negatives after a 20 minute wash.
With partially spent fixer I get slightly pink/purple Tri-X but the TMax stays clear. Presoak makes no difference for me. Fresh fixer does.

Jaf-Photo · Mar 6, 2014

That sounds familiar. I reuse 1 litre of diluted TMAX fix for five times and after the third time the negs come out a little purple but that goes away in the final soak.

But the presoak water comes out purple bordering on black, so I guess it must have some effect, either on the film or the chems?

Arcturus · Mar 6, 2014

Is it really that important to get all the purple out? I just thought some films were a little purple, like tri-x, others like Acros 100 are crystal clear. I used to drive myself crazy trying to get the purple out but then I figured it didn't make any difference when printing so I stopped worrying about the purple. I just follow Ilfords recommendations for fixing and washing so all of this seems like overkill to me, but I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. Also, the water bill can add up fast!

Thomas Bertilsson · Mar 6, 2014

Arcturus said:
Is it really that important to get all the purple out? I just thought some films were a little purple, like tri-x, others like Acros 100 are crystal clear. I used to drive myself crazy trying to get the purple out but then I figured it didn't make any difference when printing so I stopped worrying about the purple. I just follow Ilfords recommendations for fixing and washing so all of this seems like overkill to me, but I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. Also, the water bill can add up fast!

A little of that purple makes no difference in printing, if that's what you ask. And no, it's not important to remove it. Some people still get their underwear in a bunch because of that tint anyway... There are five million threads about it here on APUG already.
If you fix your negatives according to the manufacturers' instructions, using fresh fixer, and then wash properly, you have archival negatives (just store them well). The end.

negatives becoming more purple each time I develop, fixer deteriorating?

GeorgK

Jaf-Photo

Thomas Bertilsson

Jaf-Photo

Arcturus

Thomas Bertilsson

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency