ok darkroom guru's. where did I mess up?

Brian jdc · May 5, 2016

Hi everyone. Decided to give home developing a shot. Using diafine for the developer, Kodak fixer, some photoflo at the end. Film is orwo un54. Followed the instructions and time I found on the orwo flickr group. This is my first attempt at developing. I definitely got some frames to develop fine but I have several patches that look like the film didn't develop (see pic). What might have caused this? I'm going to shoot a couple 10 exp rolls to try and get my dev technique down. Any help would be appreciated

Old_Dick · May 5, 2016

Looks like you had a problem with spooling the film. It appears each layer of the film was in contact with each other. You may have other problems.

mooseontheloose · May 5, 2016

Was the film touching itself at some point? That greyish-blue section looks like undeveloped neg to me. I used to get this when I first started developing, either because the film buckled slightly when loading a plastic reel, and almost always using cheap metal reels. That stopped when I bought better steel reels (Hewes) - but even now, years later, I still run a finger slightly along the film when I load the reel to make sure it is lying absolutely flat in the reel.

greg zinselmeier · May 5, 2016

that splotch is due to film touching film during development, not allowing to develop in that area. Also it looks like you have empty frames, ( no exposure, or radically underexposed) or lens cap on lens trick, other frames look under exposed, although hard to say for sure.

Brian jdc · May 5, 2016

Yep I did notice there was a slight hump when I took the film off the reel. The stellar tank and spools were donated by a friend. Would I be better off with plastic ratchet type spools? Or justhe practice loading some more? Thanks everyone

Brian jdc · May 5, 2016

There were blank frames on purpose. I tried different iso speeds to see which the diafine liked best and wanted clear seperations

Old_Dick · May 5, 2016

Practice, I did the same thing as you, actually worse.

mehguy · May 5, 2016

Metal reels take a little practice to load but they are still quite easy to load.

Truzi · May 5, 2016

Sacrifice a roll and practice loading in the light, first looking at it, then without looking. Then do it in the dark (or in a changing bag). When you feel confident, do your next real roll of film.

As I roll film onto a steel reel, I'll periodically take a finger nail and count the spaces from the film to the top of the reel, on both sides (at the same spot). Just gently rest your nail on top of the film that is on the reel, slide it to the side in between the wires, and slowly "click" up to the top. Do this on both sides, from the same spot on the reel - you can use the support wires for orientation to make sure you're in the same spot for each side.

If the count is different, I know I messed up somewhere, unspool and start again. With practice you should be able to tell by sound if something is not loading right.

Sirius Glass · May 5, 2016

When I re-started developing film after many years in between, I found the loading problems disappeared when I used Hewes reels.

ic-racer · May 5, 2016

Probably need to increase development time 20%. If you have a rangefinder camera, make sure the lenscap is off.

Nige · May 6, 2016

not 100% sure need more development (edge marking sort of look ok... hard to tell with mis-focused snapshot) but I reckon underexposed. I'd cut EI to half whatever you used.

Sirius Glass · May 6, 2016

Nige said:
but I reckon underexposed. I'd cut EI to half whatever you used.

No, not under exposed. It was under developed. Increase the development time by 15% to 20% longer. You should be able to read a newspaper through a negative. This is not too thin, like yours, nor to dark to read a newspaper through.

summicron1 · May 6, 2016

Brian jdc said:
Yep I did notice there was a slight hump when I took the film off the reel. The stellar tank and spools were donated by a friend. Would I be better off with plastic ratchet type spools? Or justhe practice loading some more? Thanks everyone

In my experience, you are better off practicing with the steel reel. Dry this strip of film and use it to practice a few times in a darkroom, no light at all, until you get the feel of letting the film slide between two fingers, crimping it ever so slightly inward just enough so it slides onto the reel.

Once you learn this you will never have trouble loading reels. Plastic ratchet-type reels are very finicky -- they must be perfectly dry or the film binds up and as you get to the end of a long roll of film the resistance gets pretty strong.

Others, of course, disagree, but this has been my experience.

with a 36-shot roll, making sure the film is on the reel right is easy -- it should be an inch or so from the end of the final reel. Also, when loading film, if it doesn't track on the reel correctly it will bind and turn sharply in your hand -- if this happens back off and do it again more gently.

MattKing · May 6, 2016

ic-racer said:
Probably need to increase development time 20%. If you have a rangefinder camera, make sure the lenscap is off.

Nige said:
not 100% sure need more development (edge marking sort of look ok... hard to tell with mis-focused snapshot) but I reckon underexposed. I'd cut EI to half whatever you used.

Sirius Glass said:
No, not under exposed. It was under developed. Increase the development time by 15% to 20% longer. You should be able to read a newspaper through a negative. This is not too thin, like yours, nor to dark to read a newspaper through.

As the OP is using Diafine, I don't think increasing the development time is going to help.

One caution though - Diafine doesn't function well when it is cold. I would recommend using it at at least 72F to ensure you don't slide down into a problem temperature range.

Diafine is a strange developer for a newby to start with, because it disrupts the normal time and temperature relationship. It also affects different films in markedly different ways. Finally, it can give you quite low contrast.

I think of Diafine as more of a special purpose tool which gives better results to people who understand and want its peculiarities.

ic-racer · May 6, 2016

As the OP is using Diafine

I missed that, thanks for pointing that out. I have never used Diafine, so I can't comment.

Nige · May 9, 2016

ic-racer said:
I missed that, thanks for pointing that out. I have never used Diafine, so I can't comment.

me too, I withdraw my comments.

kreeger · May 10, 2016

Get an old roll of film and practice loading it 10 times in daylight with your reels. Then practice 20-30 times in darkness. For best results, practice by switching ends of the film to load each time. It takes some practice but once you know how it will seem easy.

Rick A · May 10, 2016

You now have an "old roll of film" to practice loading SS reels with. It will only get better now, practice, practice, practice. First in the light with eyes open, then in the light with eyes closed, then in the dark. Listen to the film as it slides into the reel, you can hear when it's correct, and when it binds or overlaps.

Saganich · May 10, 2016

Everyone goes through this exercise. Some people swear by plastic, some metal, if you stick with metal please please splurge on Hewes reels and keep the other ones as fillers. My experience with fighting every roll and having overlapping problems was instantly solved with high quality reels. I've been using the same 4 Hewes reels for ten plus years without a single issue. I even dropped one once.

Dali · May 10, 2016

And drop Diafine at least for the beginning. As some noticed, it gives weird results with some films.There is plenty of no-brainer developers around... D76, Rodinal, Microphen to name a few, no need to make things more complex than they should.

StephenT · May 10, 2016

Just practice - it will get better. If you opt for the plastic reels, start your 35mm in the light (while still in the cassette, of course - you many need to get a leader retriever). Once it is spooling correctly, cut the lights and keep winding. Cut the film when you reach the end, wind the rest on, put it in the tank, and there you go.

rpavich · May 11, 2016

+1 for Hewes reels. I know they seem expensive but trust me, having no issues or fear of issues is a big thing.

Buy a couple of Hewes reels, a metal tank and some D-76 and develop per manufacture's instructions to start with. Start with a "known" in all areas so that if something does go wrong, you don't have 20 places to look for the error.

mooseontheloose · May 11, 2016

rpavich said:
+1 for Hewes reels. I know they seem expensive but trust me, having no issues or fear of issues is a big thing.

Buy a couple of Hewes reels, a metal tank and some D-76 and develop per manufacture's instructions to start with. Start with a "known" in all areas so that if something does go wrong, you don't have 20 places to look for the error.

+1 to all of this

ok darkroom guru's. where did I mess up?

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