ok so i finally did it. processed my first roll of bw film. The film had been sitting around for months just waiting to be processed while I was slowly gathering the tools and ingredients.

Film: Expired Colpan, shot at ISO 400
Developer: D76, 1+3, 20mins @ 28C
Scanned by fuji frontier, 300dpi ata but looks like at 4x6 only

First Question: what are those randomly scattered things at the bottom half (mostly at the legs and the bed cover) of this frame? It comes out in a few frames only. I'm guessing it came from the processing. Any ideas guys?

The Photo:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1250/974070171_12577dd895.jpg



Other photos from the roll:

2.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1322/974926460_25ee3f4961.jpg


3.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1169/974063221_915637c7ed.jpg

4.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1377/974928344_2b63113789.jpg

comments appreciated... especially if you notice anything with regards to the processing.

shooting and processing film feels so much different from digital. Especially for this first roll which took half a year to see any kind of feedback vs the instantaneous feedback of digital hehehe. Seeing images shot on film also feels so much more different than digital... with film I'm trying to look deeper into each and every frame shot, im appreciating even those so-so images that would have gotten only a split second glance at the LCD followed by and instant delete if it were done in digital.

Anyway it looks like the film camera is going to get a little more playtime from now on. hehe.

Are they on the negative or just from the scan? My guess is that your film being stored that long has had reticulation. This can be caused by heat or humidity or erratic temp during development/fixing process. Was the roll refrigerated during storage? Being so hot and humid in our country, heat and humidity is the number one enemy of film.

My guess.

Dan T

COOL!!! Big congrats Carlo.

Are they on the negative or just from the scan? My guess is that your film being stored that long has had reticulation. This can be caused by heat or humidity or erratic temp during development/fixing process. Was the roll refrigerated during storage? Being so hot and humid in our country, heat and humidity is the number one enemy of film.

My guess.

Dan T

i was thinking that too (reticulation) but they should be on the entire roll no? i remember when we were intentionally causing reticulation in your darkroom by using vastly different temps between baths. could it be breakdown on aged film like you say? also i was thinking not enough agitation during process- but it causes bubble marks not distinct linear ones-paging the experts!!!

thanks guys....

maybe it was the age of the film. its over 2 years expired, but i kept it in the fridge while it was waiting to be processed.

maybe it was the agitation... i agitated only every 5mins, for 30sec, over the 20min dev time.

maybe the temp? my temps were on the high side... 28-29, but I do remember that they were more or less consistent.

Anyway, it just made me wonder. It wont stop me from processing more bw film though :Grin:.

"Anyway, it just made me wonder. It wont stop me from processing more bw film though ."


Please, do not stop. We need more young good photographers like you. Like you said, with film, you tend to think more of what your shot will be, before pushing the shutter. Visualization is one of the skills practiced in the old film days. You are on your way there. You can apply this on digital format as well.

Keep up the good work!

Dan T

thanks delfin. Your words of encouragement are much appreciated.

I only got into film by accident, when I purchased a lens that came with a camera :D. The choice to go BW was easy, its because its one thing that digital cameras just can't seem to totally do yet. Now that I have started processing my own film, its going to be fun to learn how they used to do it in the old days.