Pinholes on negatives

DrPablo · Mar 26, 2007

I've developed a few 8x10 FP4+ negatives that are full of pinholes. The holders are pretty much free of dust, and I'm only using water as a stop bath. Any thoughts on how else I can prevent this?

kevs · Mar 26, 2007

Hi,

If the spots aren't caused by dust on the films pre-exposure, it's possible that air bubbles are sticking to the films during development. You can prevent this by pre-soaking your films before development using water at or slightly below the development temperature with a couple of drops of wetting agent added. This will evenly soak the film and swell the emulsion for development. Leave it in the tank for a couple of minutes, then drain before pouring in your developer.

You can also add wetting agent to the dev, but again only a couple of drops.

I use this technique with 120 and 35mm films, and rarely see a pinhole.

nicolai · Mar 26, 2007

Pinhole can also be caused by over-fixing.

PHOTOTONE · Mar 26, 2007

Another thing, even if your film holders are "clinically clean", the inside of the bellows of your camera may be a dirt wonderland. This can cause dirt to adhere to the film when the dark slide is removed. Vacuuming out the inside of your camera is always a good idea from time to time. With the bellows fully extended.

Lowell Huff · Mar 26, 2007

Hello Nicolai: Pin holes are not caused by "over fixing."

lightranger · Mar 30, 2007

Pinholes are caused by too strong of stop bath mixture, especially with acidic acid, but you say you are only using water for a stop. I would recommend a good presoak of about five minutes. I find this extremely helpful with large format films.

eclarke · Mar 30, 2007

lightranger said:
Pinholes are caused by too strong of stop bath mixture, especially with acidic acid, cut the strength of your stop bath and your problem will probably go away.

He is using water stop..EC

nicolai · Apr 1, 2007

Lowell, I'm preparing to move and my copy is packed at the moment, so I can't cite a page number, but IIRC Adams explicitly said that pinholes in the emulsion can be caused by over-fixing in The Negative. And the only time I've gotten pinholes is when I fixed for longer than usual. YMMV, but it is possible.

nicolai · Apr 1, 2007

I should also note that I used a water stop when that happened, as is recommended for Diafine (my standard developer).

Pinholes on negatives

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