weird organic pattern on tri-x film

[patrick parker]

Dear friends at Apug,

I recently developed a batch of tri-x 35mm with the jobo photolab 1500.
Out of the 5 rolls two of them came out fine but the rest have this cracking wormlike pattern on them.I'm attaching a fullframe image and a detail.
I used tmax developer and ilford rapid fixer. I can't figure out what the cause might be. Your help would be much appreciated.

Patrick

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Reticulation - google for discussion.

Due to rapid and large changes in temperature. I've caused it by setting up the washer so a pure stream of hot water hits the film.

You have a beautiful case of it. It is often rather ugly.

 

[patrick parker]

Thank you Nicholas. It must have happened at the final wash.

 

[bobwysiwyg]

Interesting. Here is a good description of it done deliberately.

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Create-reticulation

 

[eng1er]

Never an effect I was particularly interested in, but I've tried it a few times just for the sake of experimentation and never got it to work as well as you got by accident. Interesting that only some of the rolls were affected.

 

[srs5694]

What sort of temperatures were you using, both for photochemistry and wash water? From what I've heard, reticulation is pretty hard to achieve accidentally, but I suppose if you accidentally turned on the hot-water tap for washing, that might conceivably do it.

I've also heard of reticulation as a result of extreme pH changes, so you might have gotten it if you accidentally used too strong a stop bath. I don't know just how much of a pH change you'd need to get pH-induced reticulation, though.

 

[patrick parker]

Strange isn't it. I think the hot water outlet was turned on and off for a small period. It was taken out of the developing machine for a brief final wash,
i'm guessing that's when it happened. I don't use stop bath, just water, so it can't be the sudden change in ph level. It is the top two rolls and and half (horizontally) of the third roll. Just to make sure i'll try to imitate what might have happened and keep you guys posted. Thank you everyone.

Patrick

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Strange isn't it ... Just to make sure I'll try to imitate what might have happened and keep you guys posted.

It is the nature of this beast that it has, so far, avoided all attempts at replication on demand. Do not be surprised if you can't make it happen again for love or money. If however you do succeeded - and can publish a repeatable recipe - then a footnote in an obscure journal, attributing your results to someone else, will be yours. In the meantime love and money will have passed you by.

 

[Photo Engineer]

The presence of pH induced reticulation is so rare that I have never seen it except as a lab curiosity. OTOH, the addition of some swelling agents to processing solutions can induce it at normal temperatures.

PE

 

[raucousimages]

I do it all the time with sodium carbonate. The efect can be good for the right image. Plus-X and Tri-X work the best for me.

 

[gainer]

Look closely at the pattern. I have seen lots of reticulation, but never any that has threads that wrap around the subject of the photograph. Where these threads wrap around a crease in the object, there are highlights. Explain this in terms of reticulation. Or maybe I'm looking at the wrong weird organic pattern.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Reticulation delicious yummy reticulation!!!

 

[patrick parker]

Hello Gainer,

What do you think it might be then?

 

[Photo Engineer]

It is reticulation. I've seen too much of it to mistake this case.

PE

 

[patrick parker]

Thank you guys. It's a relief.