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A question about some problems in B&W reversal home processing


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Hi !

First of all, excuse my english, I hope everything will be understandable !

I process B&W S8 and 16mm film at home with Dokumol, permanganate bleach in a lomo tank... And sometime, not often at all, I have a problem in the results: The dark areas in the image are like, solarized. The blacks aren't black and I can see like a solarisation inside. Do you know what could be the problem ? Not enough re-exposure ? (I do 2mm each side of the reel, allways with the same light)...an example here:

https://ibb.co/WcCf0J2

Thank you ! And thank you for this very helpful forum !

Cheers from France,

Gregory

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This definitely looks like solarization. You could try developing in complete darkness until the re-exposure. Maybe your developing tank has some little light leaks? Solarization from my experience only occurs if light hits the film when using the developer. 

You could also try doing some longer re-exposure. I prefer giving the film too much light over too little. 
Good luck! 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi ! I didn't saw there was an answer !!! Thank you for your advices ! But it happens very rarely, so I think it's because my first dev time was to short and problems of underdevelopment...I say that because it happened again yesterday after 10 rolls without problems.. This was a roll from a friend of mine with a different camera... I'll will try with longer times to see if it's the problem...

 

Cheers,

 

Gregory

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Even IF your Development time was too short and/or your Developer worn, the image would just looked reversed but with weak/thin density.  The image example you gave shows even overall effect, thus the problem lies with perhaps no enough bleaching time.  You can't really over bleach, and you can't really over expose for the Positive Image.  The Bleach is supposed to attack all the black metallic silver image created during First Development into a Negative Image breaking it down so that it can then later be removed by the Fixer. If this doesn't happen, then a ghost of the Negative Image remains.   True Solarization [Sabbatier Effect] which your image resembles quite well, is IF the film [or photo paper] is lightly fogged about halfway thru development.  So, if you are having a light leak somewhere around your tank lid, that could be the cause.  With the LOMO tanks, I make sure they fit tight, and even use rubber bands and/or good electrical tape to prevent any leaks. Also, a little known culprit is the drain hole on the agitator rod bowl.....cover it over with black electrical tape, or it will fog film image near the center of the spiral reel.

    It's best to place the loaded film reel into a dark container or film changing bag or similar, fill the tank with your solutions, and add the reel to the solutions thus fully immersing it within seconds.  Also, it's a good idea to Pre-Wash the film, and fully Wash/Rinse the film between all processing steps.  Especially after the Bleach, to avoid wearing down the Clearing Bath, and helping to get rid of the Bleach out of the film's emulsion.  Carefully, eliminate any issues, by going step by step through your processing methods, and you will fix the problem.  It is so frustrating to spend so much time and care and precision and get such results.  Lastly, the results are pretty cool!  It would be nice to know exactly how it happened to be able to repeat this for some special effect in a film.

Best of luck in your next processing work!

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