Question about film developing: Has anyone ever gone back and compared their first roll to their 20th?

I was digging through old negatives last night and pulled out my first roll of Tri-X from 2022, then compared it to one I developed last month. The difference is crazy - my first roll was all washed out and grainy, probably from bad temperature control in my bathroom sink. Do you think it's more about learning the technique better or just getting lucky with the chemistry batch that day?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan23029d ago

Oh man, ABSOLUTELY. My first roll looked like I dipped the negatives in soup compared to what I'm pulling out now. It's mostly technique - once you get your temperature swings under control and stop rushing the stop bath, everything just clicks. But yeah, I had one batch of developer that was probably expired and it RUINED a whole roll, so chemistry luck is definitely real too.

wyatt51329d ago

Kinda doubt the developer was the real problem @ivan230, probably you just messed up the timing.