Stupid, stupid, stupid b*st*rd

[Mark Pope]

I've just got back in from an afternoon's shooting. Great light, hardly any wind.
Three and a half hours and eight sheets of film. When I got home, as I was making myself a sandwich and a cup of tea I started thinking about my shots and had an awful sinking feeling.
I remember metering off shadows and the placing them on zone III. But, instead of reducing the exposure, I increased it by two stops. Every shot. I've checked my notes and yep, that's exactly what I did.
So they are all four stops over exposed and probably not salvageable. The film was HP5 plus rated at 250.

I'm gutted. I do have tomorrow off so I might be able to reshoot. Problem is the weather forecast is either sunny spells or showers, depending on which website I go to.

At the moment I just feel like giving up and chucking the whole lot away.

I'm going for a lie down in a darkened room now...

[Chong]

Hi Mark,
This is still salvageable. Since you know how much you have overexposed, reduce the developing time if you are doing your own processing. Try a sheet in 4 minutes and see what you get ( a tad longer if you are doing non rotation processing). Adjust your developing time according to how dense the first neg. If you are scanning them, slightly denser neg may be still ok to scan. If you are not then you have to explain to the lab what you have done and they will pull the processing for you. I would ask them to try a sheet first and adjust the sebsequent processing accordingly.

If they were transparencies it would have been a different story. So I think you will be alright with the HP5 if you pull processing.

Regards

Chong

[Mark Pope]

Thanks Chong. I've been mulling this over as I've been watching the telly. My normal development for HP5 plus is 12 minutes at 24 degrees C
(Perceptol 1+2). I reckon 7-8 minutes will be a good starting point.

I still can't believe that I made the same mistake on all of my negs! I blame the clocks changing from Summertime to GMT.

I'm hoping to go back tomorrow (weather permitting) and reshoot.

[dennis]

Mark, take heart. I once walked a couple of miles across a moor to get a sunrise & found when I arrived home that I'd used the wrong back (Hasselblad) with B&W instead of colour! Dennis

[Mark Pope]

Thanks Dennis - at least I think the negatives might be salvageable. I might have a bash at developing them this weekend...

[Paul Sanders]

you aren't the only one, I forgot to stop the lens down, 15 seconds at F5.6 left little to be salvaged!!!!

[masch]

15 seconds at F5.6 left little to be salvaged!!!!

Maybe a nuke in the enlarger might solve this?
Did you catch it in time or did you develop it normal?

Marc

[Paul Sanders]

it is sitting in a box on my desk waiting to be developed and to serve as a reminder not to be so stupid again! Can they compensate for 8 stops over?

[Joanna Carter]

it is sitting in a box on my desk waiting to be developed and to serve as a reminder not to be so stupid again! Can they compensate for 8 stops over?

If I were you, I would pass the film, swiftly, about 17.32 cm above the open bottle of developer and straight into the stop bath

[Mark Pope]

Well, after much mulling over the various options that were available to me, I decided to have a go at developing my negs using Barry Thronton's two bath developer.
The first set were done in a weak (7g/l) Sodium Metaborate bath B. These negs were flat but printable.
The second set were done using a 'normal' bath B - 12g/l and they seem OK - I've made a test pront from one of the negs and it looks allright. Nothing Earth shattering, but it has some potential.

I'm a relieved and happy chap!

[Steve Bell]

Good to hear you have some recoverable images.

The only metering mistake I regularly make is to have my meter set to ISO 100 for Provia or Delta 100, then meter for Velvia 50 without realising. At least it's recoverable with a 1 stop push. I was at Burnham Beeches yesterday and I did the same to a couple of sheets, then on a whole 120 film on the C220. Peak then charge 95p for a speed change and I risk the shadow detail.

[Mark Pope]

Yes, I'm pretty pleased. I think I may need to print at grade 4 to get a satisfactory print.
I'm going to stick with two-bath for the time being and see how I get on with it. I have one 'properly' exposed shot that prints really nicely.

It's a real pain when we make basic exposure errors. DX coding on LF anyone?