Large Format Photography Australia

Waiting for negatives to dry.

I can see them in all their negative glory but until I get them on my scanner I can't fully realise their magnificence!

Well, they're almost dry and it seems one of the sheets has some effin' great scratches on it. It was my first go developing two sheets in a tray at once so I guess it was an experiment but grr. The other is clean at least.

Must work on my technique.

Scratched negatives? I know what that feels like.

Years ago I determined to master the shuffle method for doing stacks of sheet film. After a lot of diligent effort I could not get guaranteed scratch free results so I gave up.
8x10 is now one sheet face up in a tray but developed hot to save time. Standard recipe for Fomapan 400 is 3min 20sec at 32 Celcius with constant agitation. 4x5 goes much the same except I use a 4 place slosher in the tray. The key thing is that the film emulsion touches only liquids and air so no scratches.

Negative drying time is a leisure reward for all those wet hours in the dark. I find a Scotch or two mellows the delay.

Turns out the great bit scratches were actually dark cables in the image that I didn't remember seeing when I took the shot, so no scratched negatives! I didn't think I'd scratched them, I thought I had been quite conscientious in my developing.

The slosher is a great idea. I've got a couple of spare trays, I might try and knock something up.

The bit I scared of is picking up the negative and missing the stop bath tray. How do you use trays in the dark.. I use a unicolour tank in day light

smbooth wrote:The bit I scared of is picking up the negative and missing the stop bath tray. How do you use trays in the dark.. I use a unicolour tank in day light

A lot of fumbling about, mainly. Last night was a bit more chaotic than normal but if I lay out my trays, timer and everything else exactly where I usually do then I'm getting used to it by touch.

smbooth wrote:The bit I scared of is picking up the negative and missing the stop bath tray. How do you use trays in the dark.. I use a unicolour tank in day light

Don't you simply place the trays next to each other and go from one to the next?

I second the tank idea, I use unicolor, cibachrome and jobo tanks on motorised bases and get perfectly even developement every time, and have done for 30 years, never going to change now!

Lachlan717 wrote:

smbooth wrote:The bit I scared of is picking up the negative and missing the stop bath tray. How do you use trays in the dark.. I use a unicolour tank in day light

Don't you simply place the trays next to each other and go from one to the next?

Yes, that's the best way to do it. If it's the same trays at the same spacing in the same order every time practice and muscle memory will get the film through the sequence perfectly. It's amazing how accurate darkroom movements get even if the blackness is absolute.

I use the right hand to lift the film from one tray to the next. The left hand stays dry for handling film holders, light switches, etc. Tray agitation is by lifting and lowering the four sides in sequence so a wave of solution passes over the film from all directions. My sink also includes a 1 litre finger bowl for hand rinsing and an old towel hung at the front in case I need two dry hands.

Darkness is nothing to fear. Years ago Kodak in Melbourne employed blind people in the film handling and packaging area. There was no danger of crashes or accidents unless a clumsy sighted person was given a pitch-black tour of the facility!

I would still mess it up...