Salvaging fogged sheet film

[Ian Leake]

I have stacks of expired HP5+ sitting on my darkroom shelf (including 7 boxes of 11x14). Sadly the tests I've done show it has fogged. It would be great to salvage this even if it's just for copy negatives or something. I saw a reference to "benzotriazole anti-fog agent" on Facebook. Does this do anything useful? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Maybe you can run some test and shoot with it anyway. I'm assuming that the film is fogged due to heat or age. If the film is low in contrast due to these factors, maybe just print with a higher grade paper? Using a restrainer will only take you so far with fogging. Us photographers are creative people. See this as a chance to create a new look.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

You can send it back to Harman/Ilford for silver recovery.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

It all hinges on how badly the film is fogged. For a small amount of fog you can just print through it as age fog will be uniform across a negative.

Antifoggants such as potassium bromide and benzotriazole can be used to reduce fog but they also have other effects. Use either a 10% solution of potassium bromide or a 1% solution of benotriazole. For test purposes initially try 5 ml per liter of developer of either one. You can increase the amount by 5 ml until either the fog is reduced to usable levels or a total of 30 to 40 ml has been added. If there is no improvement at this point just junk the film. You want to use the least amount possible to get useful film.

 

[cliveh]

I don't think you can salvage it as film that may be exposed, but you could fog it completely and then develop it, skip stop and fix and and just wash it. The black emulsion can then be used to draw on (a biro works well) and then contact or enlarge the drawings on paper (reverse if necessary).

 

[Ian Leake]

Thanks everyone. I'll have a play around and see what I can do with them.