(re)noob developing questions.

[orionid]

Okay, so first, here’s my background in developing. When I cam home from my first semester of college with a 1.7 gpa, my parents basically said “no more.” My High School English teacher convinced me to be a substitute. After a few weeks of doing that, the photography teacher (who had never had me in class, in VA Engineering classes count as fine arts credits) asked the chemistry teacher how I was with chemistry. Then I got a crash course in developing and became a long-term sub for photography while the regular teacher dealt with her son’s medical problems that required several long trips to out-of-state hospitals. We used 35mm Tri-X and I have no idea which developer. That was nine years ago.

Yesterday, I developed my first rolls since then, and had some interesting, albeit unexpected side effects.

Film: Kodak TMax 400 (2 rolls, 120) Efke 100 (1 roll, 127)
Developer: Kodak D-76, 1+1 (I have very soft tap water)
Stopper: Ilford Ilfostop
Fixer: Kodak Fixer.

Temperatures were spot-on, the TMax was developed at 20C for 12.5 minutes (per the chart on the package of D-76). It came out with decent contrast, but the film was purple instead of clear, and when scanned at my usual 3200 dpi for film, had an appearance more like an oil painting. It wasn’t exactly grain, more like large smears of greytones. I have gotten TMax 400 back from my local(ish) prolab that was clear and had a grain so fine it was still sharp at max resolution with 3200 dpi.

The Efke was developed at 20c for 10 min (per the chart at digitaltruth.com). It came out with good contrast and clear film, but had the same oil-painting feel to it during scanning.

Being, for all intents and purposes, a noob in developing, there’s alot of potential variables here (and I do plan on experimenting a bit), but I was curious if someone could point me in the right direction for eliminating the purple haze and getting finer detail out of the film.

[olavf]

You probably had Jimi on in the background.

/sorry, my brief foray into developing was 20 years ago, and I never did it enough to actually learn the art.

[orionid]

Entirely possible. The MP3 player was on shuffle.

[sleeping]

The purple probably means the anti-halation layer wasn’t fully removed. I believe it’s the fixer that removes that (?) so maybe you’re not fixing long enough, or it’s used up?

[nobigdeal]

What sleeping said.
I believe a purple haze on 120 film means ya need more fix time. 120 usually has a bit of a purple trint anyway, but it I think it fades after a bit.

I would think your scan issues have more to do with your scanner settings than anything else. did you try different settings?

[orionid]

I might have to try the longer fix times on the next roll. The fixer package recommended 5-10 minutes, and I used six minutes for each with five seconds agitation every 30 seconds.

As far as the scanning, I’m using the same settings as with other medium formats (except after the first two, I switched to 1200 dpi). I also checked the film on a lightboard with a loupe, and it appears to be on the film itself like that. since my initial post, I have read mixed reviews about the D-76 so when it runs out, I may spring a few extra dollars for microdol or ilford or rollei developer.

[Elsinore]

IIRC, my Evil Photography Twin does an initial rinse with regular water before adding developer in an effort to get the anti-halation later rinsed off first.

[aprillove20]

Interesting thread and I agree with NoBigDeal ideas.

[Author]

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