Removing base coating after develop and fix--HELP, please

Hey everybody,

I searched the archives because I can't believe I'd be the only person this ever happened to, but I must be using the wrong terminology because nothing came up. So bear with me while I pick the collective brains here...

I just got back from Yosemite, vacation with the family, and for the heck of it I dragged my 4x5 Crown Graphic and some old pack film along (TXP 523, expired in 1968 and 1983). I don't have a darkroom, so I have to load it into tanks-- have both a Nikor and a Yankee, both of which have their crotchets to be sure, but the Nikor is the least bad, so that's what I'm using. Despite my best efforts to combat it, during agitation some of the sheets came out of the cage and stuck to the wall emulsion side facing in. So the images developed fine, but the base coating never came off where the negs were sticking to the wall. Is there any way to remove that irregularly shaped blob of antihalation coating, without destroying the image on the other side? They've been developed and fixed, you can see the image but the sheet is opaque in spots where the base coat failed to dissolve in the developer or whatever is supposed to dissolve it. I hope there is a solution (literally!); this was my first time ever at Yosemite in my nearly 3 decades in California, and the weather was perfect, the rivers and falls running hard, and the exposures look good except for the @^%#&$%& base.

If it matters, I used Caffenol Delta STD as developer, Eco-Pro Neutral Fixer, and Photo-Flo rinse. The expired film and the Caffenol are not the problem here.

I have not had the problem you describe, but refixing and rewashing should do the trick.

Actually just washing already should remove the antihalation layer, but the way you describe it the film maybe has not cleared completely.

Thanks much ROK, you were right! Another dip in the fixer and all is well. I knew very well that the solution was simple, and also knew very well that I didn't know what it was! Saved me some trial and error, always a good thing.

Re-fixing is not needed.

The AH coating is water soluble.
All you need to do is wash the film again to remove it.

Of course, fixing will also remove it since fixer is water-based.

- Leigh

I had tried water and that didn't seem to do much, but the fix bath got rid of it right away. Maybe if I'd given the water more time...

Greg Davis said:

If the negatives were milky in appearance it means they were not completely fixed.

Click to expand...

That's true, but the Op's description of the displacement doesn't jibe.

Fixer failure would not result from the film backing sticking to the tank wall.

- Leigh

Oh yeah, film pack, the lab I worked at did a lot of film pack in standard hangers, we just trimmed a bit off one end, we cut off the bit that was glued to the paper used to pull the film to the back of the pack after exposure. The film is slightly longer than standard 4x5 which may be why the film came off the rack in the first place. I've also tray processed it and it's much less grief. Kodak used to make a special curved hanger for tank processing to tension the film and keep it in the hanger. I have a couple, never used, that I picked up at a camera show. (Ran out of 4x5 film pack before I got a chance to use 'em, hanging on to the hangers "just in case"--my darkroom and the rest of my basement is full of "just in case".) Somebody, maybe new 55 should make NEW 4x5 filmpack, and 3.25x4.25 (hey I can dream can't I!).

Leigh B said:

That's true, but the Op's description of the displacement doesn't jibe.

Fixer failure would not result from the film backing sticking to the tank wall.

- Leigh

Click to expand...

As a final result, the back of the film stuck to the tank wall, but we don´t know what happened while the tank was moving. My best guess is that the sheet did move inside the holder before floating and sticking to the wall and that for some time during fixing, the emulsion side got stuck to the back side of another sheet.

Anyway, a refix doesn´t do any harm and in this case, it did solve the problem.