feeding the birds

Creative work seems to be a constant up and down. On some days everything seems to fall into place effortlessly and on others I just don’t seem to be able to get anything right. Lately I’ve been constantly struggling with the development of my film, because there is always some sort of flaw with my pictures. Either they are too grainy or unevenly developed, they get surge marks, bromide drag, edge overdevelopment, blotches or water stains. Something is always wrong. Especially Tri-X is giving me a lot of problems, because it’s rather prone to uneven development.

A lot of these problems I mentioned can actually be remedied in post-processing, so you don’t normally see much of these issues, but seriously, one day I’d like to get negatives that don’t give me a headache when I’m post-processing! I’m still waiting for that time when finally I will have figured it all out. At the moment it’s still hit and miss and only occasionally a roll turns out perfectly (and it’s never Tri-X).

I have found at least one new puzzle piece though: Water marks can be avoided with a simple trick: Spinning the spool in a salad spinner gets rid of most of the water so that the film can dry without marks that show up in a scan. Robert gave me this helpful piece of advice quite some time ago, but somehow I kept forgetting to buy a salad spinner. The other day I finally remembered and turns out that it actually helps a lot! For once there were no dried droplets on my last roll of 120 film. I hope this method works equally well with 35mm.

I know, it’s only a minor improvement, but it’s a step into the right direction. I feel like I’m making one babystep after another. I hope I’ll get to the bottom of my issues with uneven development soon as well.

All pictures taken with: Rolleicord V, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75mm f/3.5.
Tri-X stand-developed in Rodinal 1:100, 60min.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Comments

  • Harry

    Well at least you are getting some development, I watched a film about Vivian Maier and they are using Ilford chemicals to develop her 120 Trix films, this is what I used years ago,also I read some guy say he always uses 5 ml of rodinol for his stand development of both his 35 and 120 rolls,do you the temperature constant from start to end ??

    I always rinse/wet my two fingers and use them as a film squeegee and give the spool a good shake though the spinner sounds a better option.

    I like the first picture on the steps and the model poster with people sitting below,I would crop to the left and above her head to make the poster edges look even to the rest of the shot.

    My cameras film lever as jammed my digital scales have broken and developer doesn’t work so I am off to buy a bottle of whisky a Holga 120 and some cheap chinese 120 film and convince my neighborhood that my actions are not weird it’s just me chasing the light.

    Regards Harry.

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