D76 fixers and stop bath

[pluton]

RE-wet the film, and then fix it in fixer, and then wash/dry normally.

[Les Olson]

hello, beautiful people. I am surprised that this is still alive

yesterday, i made a big boo boo!!!

i mistook AG guard for a fixer so my film didnt fix! blame it on my poor Japanese skills.

is there a way to undo this? i have never made this mistake so i dont know what to do. waterdrops, sstreaks, drag, etc. i had them before and know how to avoid it but this mistake is so stupid that i doubt anybody wuold do this!!!

Every possible mistake has already been made.  I know because I have made them. 

If you have exposed the unfixed film to light, that is irretrievable.   Unfixed prints will just darken slowly over a couple of weeks (a few photographers have exhibited unfixed prints where the slow decay of the image was part of the show) but unfixed film is dead.  If you have not exposed the film to light you can just proceed as if nothing has happened, although the film will probably be darker than normal (if you are using 35mm the writing on the edges is exposed correctly by the manufacturers, so you can distinguish wrong exposure from wrong developing).

[David H. Hartman]

hello, beautiful people. I am surprised that this is still alive

yesterday, i made a big boo boo!!!

i mistook AG guard for a fixer so my film didnt fix! blame it on my poor Japanese skills.

is there a way to undo this? i have never made this mistake so i dont know what to do. waterdrops, sstreaks, drag, etc. i had them before and know how to avoid it but this mistake is so stupid that i doubt anybody wuold do this!!!

I made extremely few mistakes in the darkroom after a learning period. I had to it became a business. For years I never lost or damaged anyone's film. Then one night I was washing bottles and got a phone call. When finished with the call I caped the bottle marked "D-76 Stock" meaning full strength, not diluted. The next three rolls I developed came out totally blank. Not even frame numbers. The film was rinsed a long time in water diluted 1:2 with water and fixed. There is no going back after this mistake.

If the film has frame numbers but no image then the film wasn't exposed in the camera. This isn't the lab's fault. I've seen this. I've picked up color film like this shot by a cousin with senior portraits. The lab was really relieved when I said, "It's got frame number so it was developed." I think it was shot in a Mamiya RB67 with the dark slide in the film back. If the film is totally blank with no film numbers it wasn't developed.

Fortunate there were only three rolls: two were mine and one a customer's. The customer was a PR customer and had more film from the same event so they were covered. The customer wasn't too upset because of a about 10 years of no failures.

My solution to this was I would never take a phone call while mixing chemicals. I also never took a phone call once I started a developing run. To ensure I was developing my film with developer not water I took a drop of the temp controlled developer on a glass rod set a drop on a small strip of exposed printing paper. If the strip didn't change color, growing dark in an appropriate time, I tossed the developer and mixed fresh.

I had other safeguards. I had dual, inline light switches for inspection lights as they were on the front edge of the wet side where they could be brushed with my leg. they were about 1.2m (4 feet) apart so I could not accidentally throw both switches on at the same time by accident. I used a dead bolt on the door to the darkroom so no one would accidentally open the door while film was out.

I once used stop bath before developing. This might have been because of accepting a phone call. I fortunately realized what I had done and washed the film thoroughly then developed it about 10% extra. It came out fine. 

My first roll of film in a collage class I forgot the tap the tank to dislodge air bubbles.    I probably made most of the usual mistakes early on. I remember I was obsessed with fine grain until I bought a 4x5 view camera. After that I shot almost exclusively Tri-X (TX not TXP) in 35mm and later in 6x6 and 6x7. I got fine enough grain from 35mm Tri-X from D-76 1:2.

Accidents happen. One should try to think out all the possible mistakes one could make and find a way to prevent them. Once a mistake is made find a way to prevent it in the future.

Dave Hartman

Sorry about all the corrections: typos R us. 

[David H. Hartman]

If you have exposed the unfixed film to light, that is irretrievable.

This depends on how much light and for how long. Also how long the the film waits for proper fixing. If the film is discovered to be unfixed or not completely fix under darkroom inspection lights or even briefly under room lights there should be no problems with rinsing and fixing it immediately. Even if the film has been hung and dried I'd give it a shot. I'd try even if the film was unfixed for 24 hours. There is nothing to lose at that point.

It bears noting that incompletely fixed film and paper can't be properly washed. Also Kodak's estimated capacity for fixers is based on using stop bath and a dual fixing system.

Dave

[richardHaw]

Thanks for trying to help, guys. I am afraid that it is irretrievable now.
it has been sitting for too long. this sucks because the instructions weren't clear even for native Japanese speakers. the good news is i have learned from this and I got a proper fixer now. Never made this kind of mistake before. my negs are perfect now and I wished I could have saved it

[richardHaw]

OK, fixed it again last night and somehow saved the negatives

[Jacques Pochoy]

All is well that ends well... :-)
In my film developing days I did go through dark lab errors but always managed to keep the negatives "usable". After a while it seems easy and regular till you get overconfident, and then you have to think fast... :-)

[richardHaw]

what i cannot save is her ass she has none