I am asking this question on behalf of my friend who has had a frustrating evening processing an important roll of Tri-X neg. From our discussion, I understand that she had pushed Tri-X to 1600 and used an aperature range between 3.5 and 5.6 with shutter speed of 1/4 sec. She was documenting a surgical procedure under standard Operating room lighting. Since her meter was misbehaving, I suggested clip testing. So far, she's tried TMax developer at 1+4 at 20 degrees Celsus for the durations of 6 min. and 10 min (for EI800 and EI1600, respectively). In either case, the clip was extremely dense, as if the shots were at least 3 stops overexposed. Assuming that her metering was unlikely to be off by 4 stops, can anyone explain the result and perhaps suggest a remedy? Personally, I am not a big fan of TMax developers. I have offered other developers to her to try (Xtol, Rodinol, D-76, Microdol-X). Am I right to assume that TMax developer is not great for push processing? Thank you in advance for any contributing answer.

-- David (dna2367@hotmail.com), September 30, 1999

Answers

Apply the "If it quacks like a duck..." method. The negatives sound overexposed, and, yes, the meter could be off 4 stops for whatever reason. I assume an operating room is *bright*, especially the "business" area where all the lights are pointed. 1/4 second at f/4 would probably be way overexposed on Tri-X, IMHO. An adjustment in development can probably save this, but go by what the negatives tell you, not by any suppositions about the prior history! Good Luck.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), September 30, 1999.

Yup, pull, don't push.

That's about the same exposure as I use in dim pub lighting (at EI 800). I would hope the surgeons use a good deal more light. If I had to totally guess at exposure, I doubt that it would be far from ordinary daylight, i.e. sunny-16.

But as Conrad says, if the negatives so far are overexposed, then that is what you have to work with. You might try diluting the developer and aiming for compensating development, something like T- Max 1+9 for 5 minutes. Underdeveloping won't totally compensate for massive overexposure, the contrast will be really low, but it may make them slightly more printable.

The best option is a re-shoot, is the patient doesn't object...

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), September 30, 1999.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I will pass on the message to my friend.

-- David (dna2367@hotmail.com), September 30, 1999.