Things have not been going so well on the film front.
The problems has been with transferring films to the developing tank in order that I can shower them with assorted chemicals and turn them into negatives. This step requires removing the film from its spool to the developing tank spool; a process that has to be carried out in complete darkness. To theoretically facilitate this I have a changing bag, a black bag into which I put all the components and then sit in a darkened room and place my hands through elasticated holes in the bag and do the changeover. Except usually I don’t.
Sitting with a practice film in the open air, I can move it onto the spool with no problems. But once it has to happen inside the bag, I often end up with a sticky mess. I have lost two 35mm films and two 120 films this way and was on the verge of abandoning the analogue enterprise. But then I discovered that the problem was sweat.
To maximise the dark environment, I would carry out this procedure in a small bathroom with no window. It’s rather hot in there so I am a bit sweaty before I even start. Then put my slightly sweaty hands into a thick, small, black bag and the sweat just amplifies. Get sweat on the edges of the film and it will put sweat on the nylon runners of the developing spool, which makes the nylon sticky, and the whole thing quickly disintegrates in to damp pool of frustration as the film refuses to wind on cleanly. Cue anger, more sweat and a ripping open of the black bag and cries of “fuck this for a game of soldiers”.
My latest disaster was only a couple of days ago. Having carefully put a film through my Yahsica to check the accuracy of the built-in meter and the accuracy of the focusing now that I have changed out the lens, with the settings for every shot neatly recorded on a piece of paper, I had then managed to totally destroy the film during a ten minute sweat and rage session in the bathroom. Time for a re-think.
Much googling and I discovered the problem with too much sweat. After that the answer was obvious, I needed to be cooler. So instead of the toilet I chose the smallest bedroom. Turned on the aircon at dusk and by the time it was dark outside the room was chilled. It was of course still lighter in there than in the bathroom; but I reckoned that didn’t matter given I was using a changing bag. I sat on a comfortable chair rather than on the floor, and cool, calm me transferred the film onto the developing spool with only one restart being required and only a small amount of sweat being generated.
Developed the film and it seems like the in-camera metering is OK, and the focus checks seemed to indicate sharp enough images wide open. Having taken my test shot, I finished off the roll with a couple of photos of a cat.
Yashica 12, F3.5, Ilford HP5, 400 ISO.
More work is required. Need to work out the best way to scan negatives, and need to acquire some special glass to hold the negatives as they have a tendency to curl in the holder which impacts sharpness (the negative looks sharper than the scanned image). But at least I think I have beaten the developer spool transfer problem.
So now for those eight rolls of 120 film sitting the fridge.
Comments 🔗
2013-07-06| Pete saysIn my film processing days, I found that one doesn’t need to be in a very dark environment to transfer the film onto the spool in a dark bag, assuming the said dark bag is hefty enough for the job and has no holes in. Just don’t do it in direct sunlight - which you wouldn’t of course because you’d be sweating.
2013-07-06| Clive saysSilly question… During my visits to Thailand I’ve been struck by just how gloriously dark the night sky can be - I’m guessing a relative expanse of a country with relatively little street lighting - and I wondered if your challenge could be helped by making the transfer well after dark?
Second silly question… Given that the two primary objectives of the exercise are 1. complete dark and 2. a cool environment, have you considered [no sniggering at the back] having a chat with your friendly local cinema manager? The space in a single theatre is likely way more than you need, but these are people who work hard to produce “good dark” in a cool environment. Get them to kill the safety exit lights for 30 seconds and you’re laughing…
It might cost you the price of a few cinema tickets, but just imagine the SWMBO credit you could earn by judiciously picking the right movie…
And if not the cinema, are there any other local businesses who may have/need “good dark” space that’s air conditioned? See, that’s doubtless “faff”, right? But looked at the right way, you could turn the faff into a photographic adventure of some sort, I’m sure of it. Viewer warning: the following clip contains some flash photography…
2013-07-07| Andrew saysNot sure what you are using to scan but you may wish to check out: http://www.betterscanning.com/ they seem to make holders and glass for a number of scanners - I have been plugging along with my old Epson 4870 and it holders - ok for slides, not bad for 35mm b&w negs - have not tried the 120 in it yet but that seems big enough to definitely not lay flat…another suggestion/experiment - try scanning your b&w negs as colour negs - you might find a bit more latitude in the post processing ( save as a 16bit tiff ) - you can work the colour channels in photoshop ( or whatever ) for a bit more tinkering…glad to see another film guy giving it a go ! ( I’m old enough to remember when it was the ONLY choice ( yes I missed the glass plate negatives, but only by a few years…)
2013-07-08| Spike saysAn Epson V600, and I ordered a betterscanning holder last week and it is on the way. 35mm is OK with the standard holder; but 120 is just too floppy. I am using Vuescan and still fiddling with all the (many) options to see what works best. I will try the colour scanning trick.
2013-07-08| Spike saysAnswer to first question: street lights. Answer to second question: I agree, silly.
2013-07-08| ChristianPFC saysWhy not wear gloves? I assume sweat, touching and fingerprints is bad for the film anyway, regardless of the problem you encountered. If you wear latex gloves for a longer time, I recommend wearing thin cotton wool gloves first and then latex gloves a size larger over them, the cotton wool sucks up the sweat so you don’t get wet hands in the latex gloves.
2013-07-08| Andrew saysI’ve just tried Vuescan and don’t really care for it - I have gotten along fine with the Epson scan software included with the scanner ( stay away from Silverfast which also usually comes with it) in the professional mode it does quite well - for some reason I can’t get Vuescan to give me a tiff file bigger than 2 MB while the epson is cranking out 70MB tiffs which are fine for Photoshop ( or Lightroom - which I care for less than Photoshop ) - I’m sure the holders will make a huge difference in sharpness for the 120 negs…