Beginner Messed up my development but photos came out fine!

[Tom Pinchenzo]

This was the third time I've developed my own film. The second was with 120 on an 1920s Ensign I found in the attic (from which I learnt you need to use more fluid for developing more than a single reel of 35mm film). So I was fairly confident and wasn't paying as much attention as with my first two attempts. In went the developer.... timer on! agitation etc. pour out the developer 10 secs before the time finished. Then in with the next fluid: agitation for 10-30 seconds and pour it out. And then the last fluid. Hmm, I thought the fixer was supposed to be clear, but this is yellowy, like the stop bath. DOH! I'd used the fixer instead of the stop bath. I thought I'd ruined two reels of film! I then poured the stop in and then the fixer again. washed the film and left to dry - they appeared to be fine! Scanned them in and they were great! Here are some examples...

 

[Harlequin565]

Job's a good 'un as they say.

Well done. And you got something nice out of HP5 which is more than I can do.

o7

 

[StephenM]

The stop bath is there for a couple of reasons:

a. Stop the development more quickly than plain water would do (to ensure consistency of development times) and

b. To ensure that the acidic fixer doesn't become more alkaline due to the developer (normally developers are alkaline and fixers acidic). This helps the life of the fixer.

In terms of the actual result, the developer develops and the fixer removes the undeveloped silver halides which would otherwise develop under the influence of light, and give a fogged negative. Hence, you can (as you found) get away without using a stop bath, although not recommended.

And, of course, having gone developer-fixer, there was no need to add the stop and refix.

Anyway, well done on the result.

 

[Tom Pinchenzo]

The stop bath is there for a couple of reasons:

a. Stop the development more quickly than plain water would do (to ensure consistency of development times) and

b. To ensure that the acidic fixer doesn't become more alkaline due to the developer (normally developers are alkaline and fixers acidic). This helps the life of the fixer.

That makes sense!

 

[john.margetts]

The bit that does really matter is using fixer before the developer. If you have not already done that, you will do eventually.

 

[sirch]

The bit that does really matter is using fixer before the developer. If you have not already done that, you will do eventually.

The first film I ever developed (or more correctly helped to develop) was in scouts for my photography badge and the guy who was running the session mixed up the fixer and dev, I learned that lession very early on ...

 

[shapeshifter]

Use diffrent coloured jugs or paint on the side in 3 different colours. Dev= Green, Stop= Yellow Fixer=Red. then line up in the correct order. Have a set system.

 

[Tom Pinchenzo]

Use diffrent coloured jugs or paint on the side in 3 different colours. Dev= Green, Stop= Yellow Fixer=Red. then line up in the correct order. Have a set system.

What container do you use to store your mixed stop bath and fixer? As I understand it you can reuse these chemicals.

 

[Harlequin565]

I got some nice brown bottles from glassbottles.co.uk. 1l amber brown for £3.50 each I think. I picked up a small blue bottle with a pipette for the soap at the end too. Also 3 fancy cork stopper things for some liqueurs I intend to try in the autumn, but that was by the by...

I have a sticker on the front of each bottle where I name the contents (stop & fix) and also put a check mark on for each time I use the solution. When I get to the limit, I flush and make up another litre and put a new sticker on.

Developer I mix as needed (Rodinal) and it's one shot, so that doesn't need storing.

 

[Tom Pinchenzo]

I got some nice brown bottles from glassbottles.co.uk. 1l amber brown for £3.50 each I think. I picked up a small blue bottle with a pipette for the soap at the end too. Also 3 fancy cork stopper things for some liqueurs I intend to try in the autumn, but that was by the by...

I have a sticker on the front of each bottle where I name the contents (stop & fix) and also put a check mark on for each time I use the solution. When I get to the limit, I flush and make up another litre and put a new sticker on.

Developer I mix as needed (Rodinal) and it's one shot, so that doesn't need storing.

I like the look of those brown litre bottles. Pretty good value too. Also think I’ll try Rodinal next. Not that I can ever tell the difference on the images. I can barely tell he difference between different brands of B&W film!

 

[shapeshifter]

What container do you use to store your mixed stop bath and fixer? As I understand it you can reuse these chemicals.

I reused chemicals in the past but stopped about 30yrs ago in order to insure consistancy (films started to go brown due to week resused fixer).

Stop bath is cheap the slightest amount 1+20 will stop development. So I use it for the film and then for stopping the prints(same film) and then discard it.

Fixer can be reused, so I use it at 1+3 for the film then reused it to fix the same prints by adding 50% water then discard the fixer. I found it to risky to estimate if fixer was still strong enough to fix a film after X amount of times.

I use concertina bottles to store chemicals.

I used to use marbles to fill partially full non concetina bottles. And cut the bottom off a 1 gallon container as development dishes to develope my prints that I had made using a Jumbo Enlarger (google it). That's what you call starting at the bottom!