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  #1  
Old 17th October 2016, 08:04 PM
Coastman Coastman is offline
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Default Recurring problem

Hi
I have found that Tetenal Ultrafin does quite a nice job on Fomapan 200, nice contrast with not too heavy a grain,.....but, I am having a constant problem with some of my images , not just with this developer but with other developer/ film combinations in the past, although nicely exposed etc, they have faint white spots all over them , particularly noticable in the sky, which is completely ruining them, I have renewed my fixer, kept everything at 20c, and agitated, 30 secs to start with, then 10 secs each minute, I assume I am doing something wrong, has anyone got any idea what may be causing this? as its becoming very disheartning.

Thanks Tim
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Old 17th October 2016, 08:29 PM
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B&W Neil B&W Neil is offline
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This could be a water supply problem especially is there has been some work done recently on the water supply in your area.

Also, if you are not already doing so, filter all solutions as the go into the tank. A disposable coffee filter in a funnel is a cheap and effective way to do this (a seperate one for each soloution).

Neil
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Old 17th October 2016, 08:32 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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In my experiance with Fomapan it does like stop bath, if you do use stop bath keep it to no more than 15 seconds, I would suggest usimg plain water, fill, agitate ten times, repeat twice more, see if that helps, I have never come across this problem with any Fomapan ever, so the only suggestions I can offer ate above, hope it helps,
Richards
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Old 17th October 2016, 08:35 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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Can you scan in a picture or two? Perhaps a print and the corresponding negative. That would help others give you an opinion. I have had some pale white marks like you describe, but not consistently enough to make a diagnosis.
Alex.
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Old 17th October 2016, 08:38 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default White spots

When you say faint white spots, do you mean on the negatives or when they are printed. If they are on the negatives, it could be that during processing, tiny fragments of emulsion are detaching themselves from the film base. It's not unknown but extremely rare in this day and age.

Another alternative is a contamination in the water and those impurities are attaching to the emulsion and stopping the full potential of the developer.

Can I ask what temperature you are developing the film with?

Conversley if the white spots are only on the paper prints, possibly undissolved chemicals in the developer are attaching to the film emulsion so accelerating the development locally.

Personally I'd go for contaminated water. (it isn't unknown for a residue to build up inside water pipes and eventually break away to cause the problem of contamination)
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Old 17th October 2016, 09:44 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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you will have to get some distilled water to mix your chemicals with and when you wash your film you should use a Paterson water filter they are good for the bits that can scratch your film ..what developing time did you give your fomapan 200 with the Ultrafin developer and did they come out over or under developed or about right .


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Old 18th October 2016, 07:44 AM
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B&W Neil B&W Neil is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Gould View Post
In my experiance with Fomapan it does like stop bath, if you do use stop bath keep it to no more than 15 seconds, I would suggest usimg plain water, fill, agitate ten times, repeat twice more, see if that helps, I have never come across this problem with any Fomapan ever, so the only suggestions I can offer ate above, hope it helps,
Richards
Good point Richard.

I packed up using stop bath with films years ago and since only use a plain water rinse at the same temp as the developer - I don't like to give my films a nasty shock

So all the foma films I have developed + the others would be without a stop bath.

I still use stop though but only with some of the alternative processes I use where it is needed,


Neil.
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Old 18th October 2016, 07:56 AM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by B&W Neil View Post
Good point Richard.

I packed up using stop bath with films years ago and since only use a plain water rinse at the same temp as the developer - I don't like to give my films a nasty shock

So all the foma films I have developed + the others would be without a stop bath.

I still use stop though but only with some of the alternative processes I use where it is needed,


Neil.
I use Stop for printing, but I haven't used it for film for years, the time of 15 for film comes from a Foma fact sheet where they themselves suggest a water stop bath or max of 15 seconds in Foma citro stop,
Richard
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Old 18th October 2016, 09:06 AM
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This sounds like wetting agent contamination to me. Most noticeable in the skies when the negative is printed.
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  #10  
Old 18th October 2016, 09:25 AM
Coastman Coastman is offline
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Thanks for all the suggestions, the film was developed in Ultrafin 1+20 for 7.5 minutes@ 20c, the contrast and grain were OK.
I do use a stop bath and wetting agent, I'll stop using the the stop bath, but I use the wetting agent which I pour down the hanging negs, as I live in hard water area.
I now scan all my negs as I no longer have a darkroom, I'm OK with this but will check the negs carefully with a loup to make sure the blotches are actually on the negs, which I'm pretty sure they are , as I have been doing this for years in this house and have only recently encountered this problem, and will look on ebay for some coffee filters, and if all that fails maybe devving in distilled water is an option.
Thanks again, all suggestions are helpful.
Tim
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