Last week I encountered a developing issue that looked to throw my 365 film camera project off course. Below is a strip of negatives that illustrate my cause of concern.
You can see on the left the phenomenon that I am talking about. What is it that is causing these ‘sprocket hole’ like ‘shadows’? What made it even more puzzling, not all the images were affected and those that were had caring degrees of the symptoms.🤔
Flicking through my collection of old darkroom manuals, it seemed that my agitation technique may be in question. If I was agitating too vigerously perhaps the caffenol developer, which requires almost 25 minutes to do its job, was not reaching the film emulsion. Sounded logical and a first step to solving the mystery.
So I soaked a newly exposed piece of film for 5 minutes, something I haven’t done for some time, and proceeded to develop in the usual way. When it came to agitating the film, I did it much less vigorously. Sadly the problem remained🫤 So trying to be positive I have removed one of the potential culprits.
Next, what about my chemicals?
My caffenol developer ingredients, Vitamin C, Soda Crystals and Coffee were all less than a couple of months old. Could they have become less active? No I didn’t think so.
What about my Ilford Rapid fix solution? It has been in regular use for about 5 months no. I did wonder if using caffenol might shorten its effectiveness in some way more quickly than if I used a regular chemical developer??? Any way I decided to make a new solution.
Putting some in a tray I then dropped a piece of affected negative in for about 5 minutes.
Problem solved🥳
So a nice ending to a mystery with the guilty culprit identified and duly dispatched.
It has also provided an opportunity to deepen my experience in my home developing, which has got to be a good thing. Not panicking and taking things logically is an important life skill, which I’m still developing.
arhphotographic 