Film Dev trouble shooting

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Tricky69

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just trying to think out loud !

if your negs are thin (clear) do you need more or less dev time ?

I would guess more ???


any other common probs and solutions, feel free to add to this thread (y)
 
Do you mean that the actual negative is clear or the images on the negative are clear?

If parts of the image are clear it means that it is dark, therefore underexposed. Which could be due to developing or when the image was taken.
 
***if your negs are thin**

erm could be under-exposure of the film before you developed?
 
yes yes ,,,, but once you have the exposed film (cant do anything about the exposure), and cut off the 1st few inches for a test dev, if they are thin / under exposed, do you develop longer ?

Ok, just so you know, I am thinking experimental dev chemistry / x-process etc, but the theory should hold for standard chems
 
I assume you would need to develop longer but it would be a guessing game in how long...
 
Liam said:
I assume you would need to develop longer but it would be a guessing game in how long...
Click to expand...

....but how do you get an image which is not on the neg e.g. very bright scene with dark shadows, we have all taken a bad shot where the shadows have come out blank (because we exposed for the highlights), now if you were to take the shot exactly the same again for another development.... I don't know of any chemical means of getting the detail in the shadow for that wrong exposure. :shrug:
 
You're right Brian, shadow detail is all about exposure. Hence the old adage "expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights".

Push processing (processing longer/hotter (or stronger in some cases)) a 'thin' clip test will help the overall density of the neg but wont put much more detail in the shadows. It will increase mid-tone and highlight density though, giving an overall increase in contrast.
 
excalibur2 said:
....but how do you get an image which is not on the neg e.g. very bright scene with dark shadows, we have all taken a bad shot where the shadows have come out blank (because we exposed for the highlights), now if you were to take the shot exactly the same again for another development.... I don't know of any chemical means of getting the detail in the shadow for that wrong exposure. :shrug:
Click to expand...

If I'm thinking of doing anything "experimental" with film processing, I'll shoot a clip test roll... you shoot an entire roll of film that you're testing out with the same scene - usually something reasonably complex, with a good contrast range, and you take care in metering it (i've even taken the identical shot tripod mounted with the digital as a kind of modern polaroid to hopefully avoid blown skies etc.) . Then you bang off an entire 36 exposures of it! That way you can cut 4 inches at a time off the film and experiment with maybe 12 different times / concentrations etc. on the same roll. When you find one or more that you like, you can use that setup on subsequent rolls. It's just a quicker way of getting a handle on a particular film, and avoids losing potential excellent shots you've taken while out and about.
 
excalibur2 said:
....but how do you get an image which is not on the neg e.g. very bright scene with dark shadows, we have all taken a bad shot where the shadows have come out blank (because we exposed for the highlights), now if you were to take the shot exactly the same again for another development.... I don't know of any chemical means of getting the detail in the shadow for that wrong exposure. :shrug:
Click to expand...

Are you saying that the scene has a lot of contrast? If so you should develop for the same time but agitate less when developing. This reduces contrast, I would agitate normally for the first few minutes and then reduce (so that you still get even developing)
 
Liam said:
Are you saying that the scene has a lot of contrast? If so you should develop for the same time but agitate less when developing. This reduces contrast, I would agitate normally for the first few minutes and then reduce (so that you still get even developing)
Click to expand...

I'm just going by the info in #1..i.e. "if your negs are thin (clear)" . So if there is not much detail on the neg, you can't do much about it.........erm well unless you photoshop it in ;)
 
I was more trying to get my head round the right way !

Move dev = darker neg then.

Just like deving prints (y)

I was just checking, as prints start off all white, and negs start off all dark ! :thinking:
 
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