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Re: a lot of over-exposed negatives: what to do?


On Tue, 17 Apr 2001, Bob and Carla wrote:
>    I would like to recommend that you consider storing them in the refrigerator
> instead of the freezer, because I know of someone that did this with exposed
> film and unlike raw film that is sealed, when they took the film out of the
> freezer, the temperature change was so dramatic that it provoked excessive
> condensation and many of the negative were ruined by sticking together.  I
> suppose this depends on the climatic conditions where you are at the time...and

Voice of experience says it's unwise to put exposed negs in REFRIGERATOR
either, unless VERY tightly re-sealed.

I'd second Jeffrey's point here, BTW, about trying to make "correct" negs
for a process you haven't done yet... the "curve" and range of the process
are affected by the particular formula (which you may or may not have
selected) in combo with the paper, etc. etc. So you pursue, in effect, a
chimera.

And let me second the suggestion about Farmer's Reducer by noting that
(although the stuff about Farmer's Reducer doing different types of
reduction according to the concentration is ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE -- if you
draw the curves, ALL are the same!), if you want to increase CONTRAST
RANGE, it works very nicely to reduce with Farmer's and then selennium
tone (1:3). This will however probably make the neg red or reddish, which
will probably affect printing times, tho I can't say how much or how.

As for what they say in "the books" ..... oh my, without even lifting a
cover, just from a sitting position, I could cite 20 mistakes in "the
books." People buy them for ritual reasons, like lighting a candle, or
going to Lourdes. Also for the pretty pictures.

Of course I speak of mistakes about processes other than pt-pd, which I
don't know well enough to debunk...  maybe all the really CAREFUL testers
are in platinum (& I don't blame them given the cost of the emulsion).
But I see by some of the new, very beautiful books, that old mistakes
become gospel. (Like "between you and I", sanctified by usage.)

Meanwhile, if I may be forgiven further ramble-- I'm getting the thought
from this morning's list that we have Shannon determined to make a really
EXCELLENT neg to exploit all the PRECISION, clarity and detail of pt-pd,
and in the next breath (literally) we have Don & company studying ways to
mush up and push around the image in Polaroid.

Aphorism deserts me,

best,

Judy