White blotches on my developed negatives

Tkraz · Nov 25, 2017

So a long time back I dabbled shooting in digital and when I recently considered picking the camera back up again, I thought - no that would be too easy so bought a Hasselblad 503CX and began my first roll in B&W.

Today I developed them, and there are some basic errors in the shots and some things I know I caused in a clumsy first attempt at developing. I used a dark bag and a patterson dev tank.

I can give more specifics on the fixer, developer, photo-flo etc but I feel like this is something I did wrong in terms of timing or technique but upon searching the internet I wasn't able to find any simple explanation for why this happened.

Is anyone able to diagnose this?

Appreciate the support!

dxqcanada · Nov 25, 2017

How many frames show this artifact ?

limr · Nov 26, 2017

Odd. Seems more like a light leak than a developing error.

Edit: Same question as dxq - what do the other frames look like?

john.margetts · Nov 26, 2017

In order for the white blotch to be a developing error, the developer would have to have massively over-develop that area. Not going to happen. It could be contamination with fixer before development - fixer on fingers while winding the film onto the spiral but I would have thought very unlikely. (Edit: no it couldn't. Fixer contamination would give a dark blotch.)

It really looks like a light leak. That can happen if you use a defective changing bag to load the developing tank and can also happen if the tank lid is not on right. Other than those two, it is down to the camera.

john.margetts · Nov 26, 2017

To be pedantic, the marks on the negative are dark, contrary to the thread title.

Gary A. · Nov 26, 2017

If it is a gray-ish white ... it could be a bad job of rolling the film onto the reel and the film touched. Where the film touched there would be little to no development or fix. Usually those are big blotches.

john.margetts · Nov 26, 2017

Gary A. said:
If it is a gray-ish white ... it could be a bad job of rolling the film onto the reel and the film touched. Where the film touched there would be little to no development or fix. Usually those are big blotches.

That would be apparent on the negative as it would be opaque rather than dark. The op needs to look at the negatives rather than a positive scan of the negatives. A photograph of the negatives might help us help him.