Really weird negatives with Arista EDU Ultra II

I've got really strange negatives from a roll of arista.

There seem to be images of huge needle-like crystals in the negative. They're white. Up to half a millimeter long. I don't have a scanner to show you, but it's weird.

I don't think it's a film problem, because I've shot from this roll before and it worked fine.

This was a roll of film I shot to calibrate to my development. I shot a blank piece of paper with a mix of tungsten and fluorescent lighting and the purpose was to see where the curves level off.

My chemistry is mixed as usual. D76 in powder, I weighed 12 grams, diluted in 200 ml of dH2O and developed for 10 mins at 20C

Then I accidentally rinsed the neg with some really hot water. 70-90C from the tap, stopped the development with diluted vinegar.

And then fixed it with a 2 to 1 dilution of fixer for 5 minutes or so.

Have you seen anything like this?

Do you know what happened?

Thanks

I assume you've used this particular chemistry before without problems? Were there any undissolved bit in the chemistry? Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual with your chemistry, so I doubt that's the problem. I'm guessing, of course, but I think that the hot water rinse is the likely culprit here. If the water were hot enough (70 to 90C is plenty warm), the rapid cooling of the emulsion with the stop bath could have induced reticulation. The emulsion literally wrinkles, but I've never heard it described as "needle like crystals."

You heat shocked the film and got some reticulation. The Foma film you used is an old-school emulsion more prone to reticulation than current Kodak and Ilford emulsions.

Reticulation of the emulsion caused by the big differentials in temp?

Best,
Tom

I'd guess it's something to do with the really hot rinse which you did...maybe some form of reticulation or decomposition of the residual chemicals from the heat? 90C is nearly boiling, so would damage the emulsion very quickly.

Sound like the emulsion swelled, cracked, and dissolved a bit when you hit it with the hot water. When it cooled it may have recrystallized--or the fixer formed some crystals in the emulsion.

It looks like it's the rinse with the hot water. I didn't mean to do it, there was just a bit of hot water in the tap and just enough to shock the film.

I learned a new world today - reticulation.

12g of raw D76 powder? I doubt this was your problem, but you'll get inconsistent results subdividing developer powders like this.

If you want to mix small batches, I recommend you get an accurate scale and raw ingredients. You can mix chemicals from scratch in as large or as small a quantity as you want and not have the problems of inconsistency, because you know you are getting the right amount of each ingredient. Once mixed together as powder, the ingredients don't necessarily disperse evenly (some weigh more than others and settle more to the bottom) so getting consistent results is difficult.

The emulsion on that Foma (aka Arista) film needs to be treated with some care. It's a lot softer than most modern emulsions. I'm very careful with temperature and any kind of physical abrasion. Worth the extra work for the price though--especially in sheet film!

I am trying to repeat the results right now with the processing I used.

I've used two heatshocks.

So when you print the neg does it look cool?

Andrey said:

I am trying to repeat the results right now with the processing I used.

I've used two heatshocks.

Click to expand...

Getting anything interesting? I thought your description sounded like it might be worth trying as a special effect.

-NT

It's not working. I can't repeat it - the neg came out fine, even with the heatshock.

There might be another thing - I didn't mix the fixer. I just diluted it from stock and didn't mix it.

ntenny said:

Getting anything interesting? I thought your description sounded like it might be worth trying as a special effect.

Click to expand...

It might. You'll have brilliant black crystals all over the print