Reticulated negatives

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I got those low down, good for nothing reticulation blues. Shot some good Tri-x 8x10 of frosted irises. Developed them in PMK at 78 degrees but didn't consider that with the fixer at room temp, about 68 degrees, I was setting myself up for reticulation when I went back to the PMK for the staining step. The negatives are kind of frosty and the emulsion was slimy and delicate, so I didn't bother doing more than a slight wash and I dipped them in some hardener, and they're drying now, along with 2 good negatives developed separately that turned out OK. Can I salvage these negs somehow?

-- Bruce Schultz (schultzredfish@aol.com), January 10, 2002

Answers

Not unless you want to use the reticulation pattern as a part of any print you might do. Pat

-- pat krentz (patwandakrentz@aol.com), January 10, 2002.

Bruce: One done, reticulated negs cannot be undone. However, as Pat says, you can get some great effects using the pattern as part of the images. The idea of the pattern on frosted irisis sounds pretty good. Incidentally, you used to be able to buy a screen to print with the neg that gives that effect.

Regards,

-- Doug Paramore (Dougmary@alaweb.com), January 10, 2002.


An update: I printed the negatives and one of them turned out to be one of my best ever. Beautiful tones and gradation like I've never had before. Could be because I switched back to Tri-x from HP5. Anyway, I made 8 prints and the reticulation wasn't noticeable at all. I've washed the negative and it's now drying.

-- Bruce Schultz (schultzredfish@aol.com), January 12, 2002.

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