I've just finished developing an 11 x 14 sheet of HP5+ in PMK Pyro, and one edge of the sheet has numerous pinholes that print out with a pepper like appearance. I used the following procedure: 3 min. pre-soak; 15 min. development in tray with continuous agitation, lifting each side and end of the tray consecutively(one sheet only in tray); 2 min. rinse in water; fix for 4 min in TF-4; wash for 20 min. The extended development time is due to the fact that I print pt/pd. Would like to know what could cause this.

-- Jeanne Flowers (jflowers2@mindspring.com), August 23, 2001

Answers

The only times I have seen this happens is when you use too strong an acid or more than one sheet on the developing tray. Without being able to see the negative and since you indicate it is only on one side, methinks you migh have come across one bad batch of film. Although unusual, it is not imposible! As I wrote this I just reviewd your procedure and asked myself, did you check for burrs or grit on your tray that might have scratched your film? since you only lifted the tray and not the sheet itself this might be a reason. Do not worry about the developer this is not the reason, alkalinity tends to swell the gelatine, and since this is a hardening developer it also helps to prevent the negative from getting scratched. It is actually the action of going from an alkaline medium to an acid medium where the gelating contracts that usually causes minute pinholes in the negative, since this is absent in your procedure we can rule this out. I would say, expose another negative, if it happens again then check the tray and send the negatives to the manufacturer, Ilford is pretty good and they will most likely send you a new box of film. Good luck.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm@worldnet.att.net), August 23, 2001.

Thanks for putting me on the right track! After reading your reply I started to think about what could be wrong besides the processing and looked first to the printing paper on which I'd made the proof for the problem. Lo and behold when I printed the neg on MGFB there was nary a blemish. I had looked the neg over for pinholes but couldn't see any and thought that the stain was preventing me from seeing them. Dummies 101! The neg is great, and though I'm not a born again pyro user, I'll definitely use it again.

-- Jeanne Flowers (jflowers2@mindspring.com), August 23, 2001.

Great! glad to hear you solved it, but next time you respond I want to see some of those pt/pd prints too..:-))

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm@worldnet.att.net), August 23, 2001.