New Year, New Development Errors

When you do it yourself, you have nobody to blame but yourself!

Yesterday, Kathleen and I braved the cold so that we could at least say we got out of the house. Our last couple of Saturdays being cut short or otherwise too inhospitable to want to linger too long. Inspired by recent re-scanning, we decided to take a medium-sized walk down Somerset, turning at Bronson. It had been a while since we had been and I wanted to make some photos.

I decided to try a film I hadn’t yet: Kosmo Foto’s Agent Shadow. The Big Film Database suspects (but is not entirely certain) that it’s Kentmere, so either way, it’s not one I’ve used. I decided to develop it in Ilfotec DD-X, because I’ve really come to appreciate that developer, and it would be quicker than either Rodinal or Mic-X.

Unfortunately, I committed two development sins!

1. Final wash temperature. I’ve always heard that wild temperature shocks to the film can present problems. The usual example is the risk of reticulation when the temperature is (or swings) too high. I recall reading at some point that too low, and you may increase graininess (update: it’s apparently called “incipient” or “micro” reticulation). Which is the result I found myself with.
   
   In this weather, given time to flow, the water coming out of the taps gets really cold. Much much colder than the 21 Celsius the developer, stop, and fix were. I tried to mix in a little hot water, but is was clearly overpowered down the line. Winter’s fury, right in my kitchen!
   
2. PhotoFlo’s limits (?) It was only at the very end of 2024 that I stopped listening to the naysayers, and added PhotoFlo to my process. After having lightly damaged negatives with the squeegee, and occasionally with paper towel, I figured it would be time to try.
   
   And so far, it was worked a treat! All of the 120 rolls and 24-frame 35mm rolls have been PhotoFlo only and not a spot to be seen. Unfortunately, once I scanned this roll, I found that perhaps a half to two-thirds had the dreaded spots on them. Since the only difference was the length of the film, I wonder if this little gravity assist could have used a little help!

That’s two more things I will be watching out for going forward!

While I can’t do anything about the enhanced grain now, apparently, if I wish to remove the water spots, I can either soak the negatives for a few minutes in distilled water, or purchase PEC-12 and PEC pads.