What are these spots on my film?

It's Delta 400 processed in XTol in a Jobo. I washed 10 minutes and then used LFN, hang dried. The LFN was mixed with tap water, so I'll try distilled next time. I "squeegee" with 2 fingers.

Do not squeegee because it can scratch or leave streaks. Us the LFN [or PhotoFlo] and after hanging use a paper towel to wick the water off the film bottom corner.

Squeegee is a nono.

I don't use wetting agent, I just wash with distilled water and hang. Don't be afraid of water droplets, they'll dry if you let them.

It looks like you may have damaged the film somehow, possibly by squeegeeing too vigorously or maybe some other way. Do check, however, to see if there is anything adhering to the film; if so, maybe it can be washed off. I might refix in a tray as well, just to be sure it isn't a stripe of under-fixed emulsion (maybe the film was touching something in the fixer?)

As for squeegeeing: I use two clean fingers to strip water from my 4x5 sheet film all the time. I've never damaged a negative by squeegeeing this way, but I am careful.

I disagree with Helios 1984: I've had distilled water droplets leave drying rings on negatives. I conjecture that the emulsion drying at different rates stresses it and causes areas of differential density at the border between wet and dry emulsion, leaving little rings. I prefer to use PhotoFlo as directed and gently squeegee between index and middle finger. If there are any droplets left on my film when hanging, I'll mix new PhotoFlo and bathe them again. Any wetting agent used properly should prevent droplet formation.

Best,

Doremus

Doremus Scudder said:

It looks like you may have damaged the film somehow,

Click to expand...

Damaging the imageforming layer would result in higher density in the positive.

Looks like what is left behind after a small stream of not-so-clean water has been running down the film. Possible scenario is that you contaminated the surface water on the film, when hanging it, from your hands; I really don't mean your hands were filthy; just normal sweat or whatever released onto the surface of the film, from the top hanger, might be the cause. Remedy: wash your hands with soap just before hanging the film.

The white points (on positive) on the hands and throat that follow the direction of a line may be caused by mechanical pressure on the film from:
manufacturing, exposure or development on a continuous film developer.
Pressure on the film was rather low, which is why mechanical fog occurs only at some points.
I "squeegee" with 2 fingers of the film could not produce such defects, especially after the development phase.
I think it would be useful if you mentioned if the defects occurs on a frame or the whole film.

George

Squeegee with fingers is OK if you're careful and doesn't appear to be the problem here (no scratches).

My bet is that something came in contact with the film before exposure.

I used to squeegee film between my fingers, but nowadays don't. I didn't scratch anything, but noticed that it would sometimes result in streaks on film, where there would be an accumulation of water and possibly debris. It seems to me that this is what happened here. This could be scattered more uniformly on the film surface, but squeegeeing your film accumulated this stuff on a smaller surface.

georgegrosu said:

The white points (on positive) on the hands and throat that follow the direction of a line may be caused by mechanical pressure on the film

Click to expand...

Yes, but have you seen yet pressure marks of that structure?

Using unfiltered tap water can introduce specs of corrosion from inside the pipes, I use a Patterson water filter https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=p...v&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOrNmD9evXAhWHF8AKHSfgCBgQs for washing both negs and prints.