I don’t consider this a complete disaster, but it was an experiment gone wrong so I thought I’d share.
I brought along my Yashica Electro on a long distance doctors appointment as my “emotional support camera” loaded with Kentmere Pan 400 film. I have used and developed this film before with no issues. Here’s a sample:
This time as I was developing the film I was a little bit tired and I thought I was developing a roll of HP5 400 and I thought, well HP5 tends to be a little flat. Maybe I’ll experiment with the agitation and see if that adds any contrast.
It didn’t. What it did add was a ton of noise. It may be hard to see on here.
I developed it with Kodak D-76 for 9:30 minutes and fixed it with rapid fixer for 4 min. I agitated for the length that I usually do, 10 seconds every minute, but instead of twisting the center column gently, I did it aggressively the way I would for Tri-X.
It resulted in a gritty and dirty look. I’m not sure of the technical reasons for this. I don’t know what exactly happens to the film. As I’ve said before, I am only learning to develop my own film.
I don’t consider it a total disaster. I do like the shots I got. Luckily the roll was not anything special. I do like them as everyday snapshots though.
What kinds of disasters have you had in developing? How do you achieve more contrast with black and white films? Let me know in the comments.
Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.
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