Speckled Film

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Ben
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What would cause this? I develop my own film using all ilford, was using ilfosol 3 and pan f. Ive developed that film using that dev before and never got this before.
 

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When you develop the film do you give the film container several hefty bangs on something solid to knock of any bubbles also do you regularly invert the tank and keep the chemicals moving ?
 
Is it properly fixed?
 
First thing I noticed on the display image were dust-mots in scanning..... so what is actually on the neg, not the digi-file?
What else I see is in the lighter areas, and the speckling is lighter than the light back-ground... so invert the Digi-File.. that's what the neg looked like to the scanner.
Inverted the Speckling would be darker than the neg, not lighter, so 'something' added to the image, not taken away... and first instinct is simple drying marks, though they are a bit small... how did you dry?
 
When you develop the film do you give the film container several hefty bangs on something solid to knock of any bubbles also do you regularly invert the tank and keep the chemicals moving ?
I invert for first 10sec of every minute then bang the container
 
As far as I know, I didn’t do anything differently than I have before, maybe the fixer is exhausted?
 
First thing I noticed on the display image were dust-mots in scanning..... so what is actually on the neg, not the digi-file?
What else I see is in the lighter areas, and the speckling is lighter than the light back-ground... so invert the Digi-File.. that's what the neg looked like to the scanner.
Inverted the Speckling would be darker than the neg, not lighter, so 'something' added to the image, not taken away... and first instinct is simple drying marks, though they are a bit small... how did you dry?
It’s not dust, I scanned an older negative straight after and it was clean apart from the odd spec. Those white marks pepper the entire roll on every image, I would think it’s somethinf to do with the development but I’ve no idea what.
 
Could be drying I suppose, be again I’ve never seen it on 35mm or 120 film I’ve done.
I just get rid of the excess water then hang it in the bathroom for a few hours
 
As far as I know, I didn’t do anything differently than I have before, maybe the fixer is exhausted?

I'd expect the negs to look cloudy if it was exhausted. That said, fixer that's well gone has a powdery or granular white precipitate - pour some into a container and have a look at it. If there are bits floating about, it's knackered. Whether those bits would stick to the film, I'm not so sure.

I think I'd want to have a look at the negs through a loupe with light reflecting off the surface - I agree with Mike that it looks like something that's added (like very fine particles of something that the film has maybe been exposed to while it was still damp).
 
I've had this a few times on a few different films from different batches and with different developers, I'll be dammed if I know what it is mind...

It's always been on ilford films though and tbh it's kind of put me off them and I have shot a lot of fp4 over the years.

Edit, I never did speak to illford
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/speckling-in-negatives.655534/#post-7846534

It’s strange, maybe just a dodgy roll. Got a roll of fp4 to develop today and it’s made me a bit apprehensive until I’ve replaced all the chemicals. I think I have either some stopper or fixer left
 
Is it old 120 film? Looks like it to me... if so it's the backing paper degrading causing the mottled effect. Have a look at the paper. My guess is it'll be mouldy.
 
When trying to ascertain faults on the neg, look at the neg! Not a reproduction.

In repro, whether widgetal or on paper, you have layered potential repro faults to back-track through or mislead.

19634-1518916377-6dd30421a9837b9b0dcd240cb41f6cd7.jpg

Quick grab of your sectional; inverted to show what the scanner saw of the negative.

In Red-Circle, is classic dust-mot; completely black 'blocking' light through the film.

In yellow circle... not quite completely white, passing all light through the transparency, something has removed almost all the emulsion. If it was a streak it would more likely be a scratch, small dot like that? not quite completely white, if more common, could be a process error, but its probably not very relevant to the bigger issue. but, on neg, black is added, white taken away, remember. There are other white speckles, that in widgetal could just be the software trying to decide on the colour between it's thresholds! They may not be on the actual negative.


The dark 'speckling' is darker than back-ground, in negative; so is added to, not taken away from; either during dev, as in over dev, or after, as contamination.

Look at Langford's Dark-Room Hand-Book; he provides illustration of lots of common process errors. And the actual neg.
 
I keep wondering if the film has been exposed to a cloud of talcum powder.

Assuming it's a 645 neg, the larger particles are about 60-70um, and the smallest that are being resolved reasonably clearly are about 25um.This is at the large end for talcum powder particles (about 18% by mass are 25um or larger, smallest going down to 4-5um, and about 50% of mass 12um or smaller). Its translucency can vary as well, which would be consistent with the particles not being as opaque as the bits of dust. Could be something else, of course - I just thought of talc because it's quite common in bathrooms.

Reference for talcum powder particle size...

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Particle-size-distribution-of-the-talcum-powder_fig5_241471282
 
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