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Once a year sh** happens

cmo

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35mm RF
Once per year I mess up an important film.

This year temporary inanity led to read the wrong line in a dev chart and I developed 4 films 14 min. instead of 18 min.... you can imagine that the films are a bit 'thin', e.g. underdeveloped... any idea how to save them? They are worth five days of work.
 
Ian Grant said:
as long as the negatives are just under-developed & not under-exposed as well.
Click to expand...

I was going to ask a question but I think you answered it here.

I was wondering if selenium toning just darkened what was already on the film or can it increase shadow detail which may not be apparent in the under developed negative?

I assume from your reply that it will bring out this detail if the film was adequately exposed.


Steve.
 
If it's not apparent it's not there

Intensification can't work miracles, chromium intensifier works well, particularly if a staining developer like Pyrocat HD is used as at greater than usual strength for re-development. (there was a url link here which no longer exists) This works well for very thin negatives.

In cmo's case though Selenium should be sufficient.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
If it's not apparent it's not there
Click to expand...

I think that is what I was questioning. If it's not there then it's still not there after intensification so what benefit does it have other than darkening everything?

Does it just make the negative printable at a more reasonable grade?


Steve.
 
A print from an Intensified negative is far better compared to one using a very high contrast paper, there's more details overall and better tonality.

Ian
 
Selenium will boost contrast by about 1 paper grade. It works in proportion to the silver that is there, so not much help for under exposed film. 14 min. instead of 18 min. would be in the range of a N-1, so I think Ian's advice is good: go with Selenium, although I've never gotten much change beyond 10 minutes in the toner. Selenium is probably the least risky of all intensification methods. Test a few frames. It's important that the film has been fully washed first.
 
I just want to second what Ian has said. I have used Selenium to intensify negatives that were processed in Pyrocat and the process works well. I find that there is a gain of about 1-2 paper grades and the prints are much improved.
 

Just once a year!!

If many of us made only one such error a year we would be very, very pleased. While developing by inspection last week I used the wrong dilution of Pyrocat, i.e., 1:1:100 rather than 2:2:100 and never achieved the desired density in a reasonable period of time. I think I'll go back and see how Ian's suggestions would work.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
redevelop

cmo said:
any idea how to save them? They are worth five days of work.
Click to expand...

you could have tried bleach and redevelop; works with any film including pyro. don't know that you can do this AFTER Selenium. in fact you can take a conventional negative done in, say D76, and bleach/redevelop in pyro and ... voila ... you have a pyro negative!
 
If it's not on the negative, selenium intensification won't miraculously make it appear. If the negative is adequately exposed but lacks contrast, selenium intensification will bring life to a dull party. It will add about a stop of density, especially in underdeveloped highlights.

In The Negative Ansel Adams states that selenium intensification has almost no effect at Zones I and II, but adds almost a stop of density at Zone VIII or IX. "A flat negative with no density above Zone VI will probably benefit from intensification, but the effect will be greater if the exposure and development are increased to produce a Value VII density for the same area."

He recommends a 1:2 or 1:3 dilution of selenium toner in hypo clearing agent for about 5 minutes. followed by plain hypo clearing agent and a wash. "One advantage to this process is that there appears to be no increase in grain size . . ."

Peter Gomena
 
Any advantage to using the unmentioned alternate process? (scanning?)
 
Grif said:
Any advantage to using the unmentioned alternate process? (scanning?)
Click to expand...

Hey, let's not go crazy!

Anyway, the OP has only underdeveloped by a little more than 25%. That shouldn't be a big deal, and a little toning should bring things back into a normal printing state.

BTW, don't try to bleach and redevelop after toning in selenium, it doesn't work! Very ugly result. Speaking from experience.
 
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