Negative Issues - Underdeveloped?

[Daevrojn]

I recently came across an old roll of negatives, four years old at this point, that, to me, looked very underdeveloped. The film is thick and still appears to have a layer of emulsion on the back, much more than normal. Under a very bright light I can see the pictures and tried scanning them into the computer only to get a horribly grainy image.
Is there anything I can do, either in the darkroom or on the computer (I'm not very savvy with photoshop) to fix this?
Here's a general idea of what I have to deal with:

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Or just go here for the picture: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ln4rdytdJ3I/SlIpKOH_zhI/AAAAAAAAAck/hZ4iflnbBjE/s1600-h/PartyBottles1.jpg

 

[randerson07]

That looks almost like it was color neg film developed in Black and white chemicals.

Here is an example of some that I did that way
Dance Party on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
And here is what the negs actually looks like
Bad Negs 2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Could this be what happened?

 

[Daevrojn]

That first image does looks similar but I'm sure that my film is black and white. Also, light can pass through both sides of the film.
The film in question was Kodak 400TX.

 

[randerson07]

Hmm, Im having trouble picturing what your describing, are you saying the negs are very very thin? like the film is almost clear? Or that they are very thick and it takes a powerful light source to shine through it?

If they are thick, maybe they were not fixed properfly and you could try refixing. If they are thin, than its going to be tough. Ive got some negs that are very thin from underexposing by 3 or 4 stops on purpose. When scanning, you need to tweak the settings. On my epson software, after you do your preview scan there is this histogram type deal you can adjust, I move the two sliders to the front most and rearmost of the graph and you can typically get a useable image.

If you were trying to print them in a dark room, you would need to stop the lens as far down as you can. Ive tried to print thin negs and they usually come out with very little contrast and very gray.

 

[Daevrojn]

The negatives are thick and unlike my other negatives, have a different colour on the reverse thick with emulsion.
I've seen some people talk about using selenium?

 

[randerson07]

Selenium I thought was used for the opposite of what your speaking of, but I could be wrong.

I would try to refix them, not sure if after 4 years if thats the correct step, but its easy and shouldnt hurt anything.

You might want to ask this question on apug.org a forum dedicated to film and darkroom use.

 

[ann]

if by thick you mean dense, then they are either overexposed or over developed or both.

if printing them you will need lots of time and a low contrast paper grade, and the images can look very grainy from the density build up.

google farmer's reducer , which could be used to help remove some of exposed silver. selenium would add density, no information,but density which would help with printing.

with under exposed negatives you would need to use a high contrast paper grade, less time and/or high aperture to control the amount of light.