Old Age Strikes!!!

Gary892 · Nov 1, 2006

I would have bet I exposed that negative... but apparently I didn't!
My normal operation for loading film in my 4x5 film holders is once everything is clean; I slide the darkside in with the black side facing out. After loading I turn the darkslide over and reinsert it with the white side out. After exposure I again reinsert the darkslide with the black side out. So I always know that if a film holder has the black side out it is either exposed film or empty.

I always take one sheet of film from each exposed holder and develop them. If there is a problem then I still have another sheet from the same scene to develop.
I did just that with only one sheet of film, Illford HP5.
I developed it in HC110 dilution H for 6 minutes water stop for 1 minute, fix for 7 minutes rinse and then wash.
The film was absolutely clear. No exposure what so ever. I ran it through my densitometer and no change anywhere. So I am left scratching my head, literally.
My questions are:
Did I not expose the film?
Did the developer oxidize, I mixed it in 8/22/2006 and stored in a caped brown plastic bottle.
Is the developer bad?
Did I mislabel the fixer and developer bottles?

Does AARP have film insurance?
AGGHHHHHHHHH!!!

Thanks
Gary

JBrunner · Nov 1, 2006

LOL, I wish I had a snapshot of the look on every LFr's face taken at the moment of realization, staring through a freshly processed blank neg.

Steve Smith · Nov 1, 2006

My usual trick is to release the shutter then realise that the dark slide is still in.

Steve.

juan · Nov 1, 2006

I'd be inclined to think you didn't expose. However, I wonder about the developer. I have not heard of mixing HC110h and keeping it around for two months. Have you done this before? My practice has been to mix HC110 just before development and use it one shot. I'd also question the plastic bottle, unless you've done this many times before. My experience is that plastic tends to allow oxygen to exchange through the sides and bottom of the bottle. Some plastics are worse at this than others, and the bottles sold in photo stores seem to be made of the worst.

So, I'd say try developing another negative in the developer - in the light, drop an unexposed sheet of film into the developer and see how long it takes to turn black. If it's somewhere near your normal time, the developer is probably not the problem.
juan

noseoil · Nov 1, 2006

Could you have fixed the film first, then developed? tim

eclarke · Nov 1, 2006

You have a second sheet? MAke fresh chemistry and try it, if successful your workflow has saved you!! Photo chemistry is like food poisoning, if you have to wonder about it throw it out and do fresh..EC

Mark_S · Nov 1, 2006

I have fixed, then developed before - the process creates amazingly uniform negatives.

Papa Tango · Nov 1, 2006

The truly awful moment is when you look at the blank neg, and grit your teeth with the realization that this was part of a paying project that is hundreds of miles away...

kb244 · Nov 1, 2006

Could be worse, could be a situation where you KNEW you exposed it, only to find out later that you exposed PlusX 125 @ ISO 12, instead of exposing Kodalith, then to open the sheet holder up under safelight before realizing this thus seeing the notch code.

Luckily for me an image actually came out despite the mistakes.

reellis67 · Nov 1, 2006

I would tend to agree with the comment about not storing mixed developers. I always mix fresh just before development, so I can't say that I've tested the theory, but I am inclined to think that storing diluted developer is not a good idea.

- Randy

jp80874 · Nov 1, 2006

I have been retired and photographing the last three and a half years. The other day I was searching for a common word that had been on the tip of my tongue. My wife who is the oldest teacher in her school of some 80 teachers said, don't worry about it. What you are doing is not new. I watch the 25-30 year old teachers do it all the time. They blink and go on as if nothing has happened. The trick is to shut up, to remember that LF has many, many steps, and we make mistakes. We are only getting old when we fixate on it and turn the slip into a show stopper. Just keep making pictures and reduce the Mess It Up average.

Frequent Flier on the Mess It Up Bus.
John Powers

Digidurst · Nov 1, 2006

Oh, don't feel bad... I once mixed up my HC110 using only .15 ml of the stuff when 15 ml was called for. I compounded my stupidity by posting about the problem here on APUG, swearing up and down that I hadn't made a mistake and that I had been SO careful. I "developed" three sheets before it dawned on me what I was doing wrong.

htmlguru4242 · Nov 1, 2006

Everyone does something like that at one point or another! Hell, I've processed entire blank ROLLS once or twice.

Sounds like you didn't expose it; even after two months, oxidized developer should be able to give you something; I mean, I just found some dilute D-76 that's been around for 8 months, and it doesnt work, per se, but it certainly creates some density ...

Thomas Bertilsson · Nov 1, 2006

If you run a negative through your normal process, and it comes out COMPLETELY clear, odds are you fixed it first, and then used the developer. If you put it in the developer first, and then in the fixer, there would be some tone to the negative, no matter how weak the developer is.

I did the first alternative on my very last roll of 120 APX25. Needless to say I was disappointed...

I too would advice not storing process strength developer, unless it's diafine or D76. I would treat HC110 as a one-shot developer.

Did you have any base + fog density in the neg at all?

- Thom

vet173 · Nov 1, 2006

Don't worry about old age striking you. You'll be there whern you realise that it is a continual beating.

Claire Senft · Nov 1, 2006

The amount of help I can give you is limited by circumstance. I too am old. Can I send you a slightly used Depends..it is 90% unused Exc++-mint minus-?
It is the best I can do at the moment. Might be useful as a source of spotting materials for a sepia toned print.

DeanC · Nov 1, 2006

Nothing wrong with getting old. Beats the hell out of being dead.

Besides, older photographers don't have an exclusive on stupid loading/exposing/unloading/darkroom mistakes. I've pulled the slide out of the wrong side of the film holder, shot a whole role of MF with the slide still in place and even chemically fogged a whole box of 16x20 paper by leaving a rag wet with chemistry and the paper in the same bag for a week. I'm 37.

Gary892 · Nov 1, 2006

Thanks for all the encouragement.

So, as was suggested, I tossed all the chemistry and started over.
Fresh Fixer, Fresh Developer, good nights sleep, etc...

I then processed the remaining negative from the film holder.

"Houston, weve got an image"

Yep, it was the developer. I had mixed a working solution of HC110 and bottled it in a brown plastic bottle. I won't do that again.

I have modified my process to mix only the developer I need for that session.

The freshly precessed negative is currently drying.

I hope others can learn from my mistakes.

Clair, thanks for the offer but, pardon the pun, I already have laid in a supply.

BTW I am 56 and feeling much older these days.

Thanks
Gary

OldBikerPete · Nov 2, 2006

Yes, we're all getting older but I don't think those kinds of lapses are limited to oldies. In fact I think they're more common among the younger folk who haven't realised yet that they're fallible.

BTW. I have had problems with that ambiguity that is in your sequence of film holder use. "Is it exposed or is it empty?" Since I now store each film holder in it's individual zip lock bag ( dust doncha know ) I now leave the slides out of their slots in the holder but all the bits inside the bag when the holder is empty.

mark · Nov 2, 2006

It is called testing for light leaks in the field. And you meant to do it.

Old Age Strikes!!!

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