Freaking Fixer

[Nikon Fan]

Just got back from the darkroom at my college, and turns out that the fixer was bad. My photo is now all purple, and I'm ticked b/c I did this yesterday and didnt' realize it until today. It was a double exposure done in the darkroom, which was also a pain in the butt b/c our teacher didn't really explain to well, so it was just me guessing at how to go about it. And to top it off, it's his (teachers) fault really b/c he won't allow us to mix the chemicals :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :cry: :cry: :cry: :evil: :evil:

Okay thanks for letting me vent...I'll go back tommorow and try again I guess.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Ah well. There are teachers and then there are teachers. But it's all a learning curve. If we never made mistakes we would never learn a thing. Worse things can happen ;-)

 

[aggiezach]

Ah well. There are teachers and then there are teachers. But it's all a learning curve. If we never made mistakes we would never learn a thing. Worse things can happen ;-)

True dat! I had the same thing happen to me with my first role of medium format film. I thought I had done everything wrong (being that the camera was an all manual model) But it just turns out that my chems had gone bad! But it was my fault not the teachers If we all learn from our mistakes, then I must be learning all the time


Zach

 

[Nikon Fan]

Well said guys. The only thing is I wish we were able to mix the chemicals ourselves. Since we can't we have to wait for him...but I should have been paying more attention in the first place. The weird thing though is that I did a few photos before this one and they're fine....but other people had the same problem and they did there's before mine. Strange, but I am thankful that I at least got something out of it Thanks again for allowing me to vent

 

[aggiezach]

Hey that is what we are here for! Dark Roomies UNITE!


Zach

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Teachers are rarely happy about students mixing their own chemicals. Students tend to be a little cavalier in attitude and waste an awful lot - not good on a limited budget. Then there is the Health & Safety aspect.
I speak from experience and this is not meant as a criticism of students.
Make sure that your paper gets fully covered by the fix and rock the tray to agitate for the first 30 secs. Rock the tray a bit now and again (not really critical) and leave the print in for at least 2 mins - 5 is better ;-)

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Oh - and if there are other prints in the fix with yours, move them around. Like shuffling a deck of cards - move the bottom one onto the top every 15 - 30 secs for the first 2 mins.

 

[ksmattfish]

In my Photog 101 class the lab assistant accidentally labeled the bottles of Dektol as D-76.

Later in my color printing class I was making photograms with dried squid and nori seaweed sheets. In the extra darkness of the color lab I didn't notice I was feeding a lot of seaweed into the processor with my prints. Who knew nori seaweed killed color developer?