Can you shed some light

on what you think I might have done wrong here..... I've been shooting MF/LF now for 6 months, and printing for a whopping 3 weeks :)

Anyway, I've been wanting to shoot some gear in a machine shop, with my Graphic View to create prints from. So I go in there yesterday, and only shoot one item, because I was going to only us natural lighting from the ceiling lights.

My film was Arista 100 EDU. My developer is Arista, which should be fresh, because I made up some new over the past weekend, and only developed maybe 2 sheets of film with it.

I did my usual development time of 7 minutes @ 68f with a small pre-wash, and do two inversions every 30 seconds as usual.

My exposure time was 8 seconds at f16sh. When I pulled the film from the tank I got almost a clear piece of film, except for what you see below, and was kind of foggy looking in the middle like it hadn't been developed yet, for the lack of a better term. I'm lost on this one.

Since I was shooting 8 seconds, should I have adjusted my development time? I did a 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, timing in my head. I normally don't shoot that long. 1 to 2 seconds tops for me. Using supplemental lighting isn't a problem per se, I just didn't bring any with me. I did use a reflector down on the floor to help fill in the darker areas. I figure, and just guessing, that if it was an exposure problem, the dial upper left wouldn't have shown up so well.

Any thoughts would greatly be appreciated.

http://www.keepsakephotography.us/Dial.jpg

This looks to me to be that your processing chemicals didn't adequately reach the center of the frame. If you somehow managed to too loosely fit the film on the reel or otherwise make the film nearly touch in one area, this might result. You might be able to re-fix and re-wash the film and remove most of this fog. Your agitation scheme seems adequate for developing, did you give the same agitation while fixing or did it sit longer with less agitation?

Peter Gomena

Hi Peter, thanks. I develope all my 4x5's via Taco Method in a Patterson tank.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I agitated much during the FIX portion... I was pouring chemicals back into their containers, since I only had one piece of film during the FIX.

This might be "less" fixed in the center of the neg, as pgomena said you might be able to re-fix. But your first guess also, that reciprocity failure gave the film less exposure than you wish it had. You should try again and give much more time, thirty seconds, two minutes...

1. reciprocity failure
2. some sort of chemical issue

I've got a reciprocity iPad app, that calls for 20 seconds for an 8 second exposure, using Ilford... Maybe I'll try that, as well as bring some supplemental lighting. I'll also make up some new developer as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pfiltz

I've got a reciprocity iPad app, that calls for 20 seconds for an 8 second exposure, using Ilford... Maybe I'll try that, as well as bring some supplemental lighting. I'll also make up some new developer as well.

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I thought you were shooting Arista 100? it may be close but why not use the data for the correct film?
google the reciprocity for that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wildbill

I thought you were shooting Arista 100? it may be close but why not use the data for the correct film?
google the reciprocity for that.

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I am shooting Arista, I just haven't found one for it... I figure I might get close, to proper exposure even if it's not for Arista per se. Beats what I did yesterday... ;)

Just found this..

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...Arista-edu-100

and

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/pdf/Ar...eciprocity.pdf

The way I read the Freestyle info, is that I should adjust using aperture -vs- time?

I've had similar when um, I well, um, had not cleaned a lens properly and left a fairly large oily spot that came from what I thought was a clean cloth.

If the negative is real thin as you describe underexposure it still could be an issue.

The first thing that I'd try after checking the lens for cleanliness is simply shooting another sheet. Once does not define a trend. If the problem persists then get serious about trouble shooting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pfiltz

I am shooting Arista, I just haven't found one for it... I figure I might get close, to proper exposure even if it's not for Arista per se. Beats what I did yesterday... ;)

Just found this..

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...Arista-edu-100

and

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/pdf/Ar...eciprocity.pdf

The way I read the Freestyle info, is that I should adjust using aperture -vs- time?

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Although we tend to think in terms of longer shutter speeds when we consider reciprocity failure, the actual cause for that type of reciprocity failure is that the light that actually reaches the film is at a very low intensity. If you can increase the intensity of the light reaching the film, by using either more light on the scene or a larger aperture, the reciprocity may not fail.