Strange experience while developing prints

Just to check the obvious . . . You have three trays, in the dev tray is a pair of tongs which doesn't go in any other tray, and then one (or two) pair for stop and fix, which never go near the dev?

In other words be very sure you are not accidentally putting a drip of stop-bath in to the developer by not washing a single pair of tongs, or by using a gloved hand which is not cleaned only wiped on a paper-towel, or a splash of stop-bath is made in to the adjacent dev tray when you drain the print prior to moving it to the fix . . . and so on!

I generally do 2 min developer (might increase now that it's colder in my house) 30 sec stop and 1 min fixer and that seems to work pretty well. I do test strips and the exposure time can vary a bit depending on the specific image. The exposure time is the main thing I very.

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Originally Posted by edcculus

The only other thing that could have happened is me changing the apeture. I intended to start with an f8, but I was focusing and positioning everything fully open. I very well could have printed the first few fully open, the stopped down to f8 later on thinking thats what I had been doing the whole time.

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This seems more likely than attributing it to temperature change. A 5-10 times increase in exposure time is probably from an aperture error.
If you're printing in a cold room, start with your chems at the proper temperature, but place your trays in larger trays, which you can fill with warm/hot water to maintain the proper temperature. The warming water can be changed as it cools, and refilled to keep you at the proper temp.

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Originally Posted by MartinP

Just to check the obvious . . . You have three trays, in the dev tray is a pair of tongs which doesn't go in any other tray, and then one (or two) pair for stop and fix, which never go near the dev?

In other words be very sure you are not accidentally putting a drip of stop-bath in to the developer by not washing a single pair of tongs, or by using a gloved hand which is not cleaned only wiped on a paper-towel, or a splash of stop-bath is made in to the adjacent dev tray when you drain the print prior to moving it to the fix . . . and so on!

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Yes, I have 3 pairs of tongs. I was keeping each one in their own tray. Transferring the print from dev to stop bath, I was careful not to dip the tongs in stop bath. I slid it in from the front end, then let it finish sliding in. They are color coded, not that matters under red light though.

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Originally Posted by eddie

This seems more likely than attributing it to temperature change. A 5-10 times increase in exposure time is probably from an aperture error.
If you're printing in a cold room, start with your chems at the proper temperature, but place your trays in larger trays, which you can fill with warm/hot water to maintain the proper temperature. The warming water can be changed as it cools, and refilled to keep you at the proper temp.

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I'm thinking it may be just that. The problem happened so suddenly. I was getting good results based on a test strip I initially did. I worked on one more neg, and got good results with a slight adjustment in time. On the third neg, the print didn't develop...at all. That probably makes sense, because 2-5 seconds at f8 is probably barely enough to register. I did think it was odd that my exposures were so fast too. I didn't remember them being so fast in my classes years ago.

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Originally Posted by desertratt

It seems to me a print that comes up fully in two seconds is probably overexposed. I spent years and years in a dip-and-dunk darkroom and this has been my experience. You said "after two hours" but did not say how many prints in that time. Have you tried a new batch of developer after a while, or refreshing your developer? Test strips are a great idea. I'm trying to make 11/14 prints on an inkjet printer and I sure wish I could make test prints. It would save me a fortune in ink and paper. By the way, I just bought an enlarger for 35mm and 120 film and hope to be slogging away soon up to ny neck in "soup" and fixer.

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ha, well I pretty much calibrate wide format inkjet printers for press proofing for a living...I get to play with $10,000 RIPS though since I work for a large packaging printer.

Are you, by any chance, started printing with no MG filters (contrast filters) then started using them for later prints? While no filter will produce the same result as grade 2 filter, the exposure time will be like 1/3 of the time.

Using 75 watts light bulbs in the enlarger, at f/8, typical exposure times for 8x10 prints are 10 to 20 seconds for most negatives.

You print developer is going bad. Try "factorial development" it really works.

I don't think it's bad developer, or cross contamination. Neither would account for the drastic change in exposure times.

Nest time, use a thermometer to watch your dev temp. Evaporation in a large tray can cool it off pretty fast in the humidity is low.