Yesterday I built a Pinhole camera as a test for a workshop I am planning to teach this coming fall for 5th graders and up to middle school.
The camera works great! I used Ilford MGIV RC paper as the film and created direct negative prints, really cool.
To develop the negatives I used Ilford PQ developer in a 1:9 ratio and water as the stop bath and Ilford Rapid Fixer for the fixer and then the running water in the sink for the wash. The first three negatives seemed to come out ok, but the fouth and fifth negatives seemed to be over exposed - nearly all black.
It seemed to develope much much faster than the previous three negatives.
My question is what can be causing such a fast development. I think I was able to save negative 5 in that I pulled it out of the developer after 45 secs instead of the normal devleopment time of 1 minute and 30 seconds.
How do I know when a bacth of chemistry needs to be changed? This is the first time I ever developed my own photos, very exciting and at the same time I am in the dark on some aspects.
Anyone with some advice and / or answers would be helpful.
It might have been a bit warmer. But I also think I might have had a light leak with the "shutter" / Pin hole cover. I pulled the contact print though from this dark neg that I pulled at 45 secs and I get a low contrast print, its fuzzy but for a pinhole I guess not bad.
Discussion
2 repliesThe camera works great! I used Ilford MGIV RC paper as the film and created direct negative prints, really cool.
To develop the negatives I used Ilford PQ developer in a 1:9 ratio and water as the stop bath and Ilford Rapid Fixer for the fixer and then the running water in the sink for the wash. The first three negatives seemed to come out ok, but the fouth and fifth negatives seemed to be over exposed - nearly all black.
It seemed to develope much much faster than the previous three negatives.
My question is what can be causing such a fast development. I think I was able to save negative 5 in that I pulled it out of the developer after 45 secs instead of the normal devleopment time of 1 minute and 30 seconds.
How do I know when a bacth of chemistry needs to be changed? This is the first time I ever developed my own photos, very exciting and at the same time I am in the dark on some aspects.
Anyone with some advice and / or answers would be helpful.
Guy