Overdeveloped negatives, ferricyanide bleach + fix?

[jeffreyg]

I agree with the holding off on bleaching and as mentioned at 23% more development you should have negatives that can be used. I think that if the highlights are so blocked it was more of an exposure issue. Leaves that are often rather shiny are highly reflective and although you saw them as being green they can easily come out over exposed. Also are you sure you had the correct and/or ISO set on the meter for both rolls?

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

[jm94]

they were shot at ISO 100, so the box speed of both films. I only have like 10 sheets of vc paper left until Saturday when I get some more, the rest is graded, so I will make a test print tonight at grades 00 and 0 to see what happens.

[jnanian]

i have some 4x5 film that is so dense you can't see through it.
i just contact print the heck out of it, which means regular rc paper,
and a 300watt bulb exposed for anywhere between 8 seconds and 2mins depending on the film
(tmx has a uv layer that adds 10x the time ) ...
if you have 35mm film this might be a bit difficult but it might be fun to try.
35mm tiny prints can look really nice in a 8x10 frame

( a conversation piece at least ! )

[Chris Lange]

I have some negatives on Delta 3200 that I thought was Plus-X when it was in the camera. It's almost too dense to see the image detail, but printed down, they look fabulous.

Lots of photographers enjoy using extremely meaty negatives in the dark room.

I personally find "normally" exposed and developed too thin for my printing technique and aesthetic preferences. I overexpose -drastically- when I have the light to do so.

[johnielvis]

geeze it's simple--just use a very dilute bleach solution---or do one with bromide so that if you go to far you can re-develop it and get it back

but you can do it little by little--say a 2g/litre bleach solution mixed with hypo 50/50...you may have to soak it in that a couple of times before you start to see anything dramatic but I've bleached for 5 or 10' sometimes without seeing anything happening...but do the bleach...then wash and dry (after final fix) to see what it looks like dry---very important--oh..and use hypo with the bleach..pure hypo crystals from the swimming pool store

[jnanian]

SNIP

.......pure hypo crystals from the swimming pool store

i wish i could find a swimming pool store near me that sold pure hypo,
no one sells it near me at all, well, i lie , one place about 45mins away
and i have to buy 100lbs of it ...

[Andrew O'Neill]

The negs looked very dense then when I went to print them the whites on the print were completely white (I.e no veins in the leaves, foliage completely white with no detail, the highlights completely blown.

Are you exposing for the high lights when making the print? Are you using a VC paper? Have you ever tried flashing the paper?

[jm94]

I haven't tried flashing the paper, I did print at grade 0 and 1 and that resulted in a few (the most crucial shots) being reasonably printed. I too like reasonably dense negatives but these were too dense, doesn't flashing paper make it hypersensitive?

Jacob

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I don't think so. It makes some highlights that don't have texture on the print have texture. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[bdial]

I don't think so. It makes some highlights that don't have texture on the print have texture. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct.
This is also the sort of negative that doing split grade printing can help with. In a nutshell, you make an exposure at grade 00 to get the highlights then a second exposure at grade 5 to bring the blacks to where you'd like them to be.