A stranger at the lab told me my negatives were too thin and I got defensive but he was right

I dropped off a roll of Tri-X at the lab downtown and this older guy saw my negs and said they looked underexposed by about a stop. I told him I shot it at box speed like always but he pointed out my developer was probably cold. I went home, warmed my chemistry up to 68 degrees exactly, and the next roll came out perfect. Has anyone else gotten a reality check from a random person at the counter?

2 comments

2 Comments

umasullivan21d ago

Did you check your developer temp before or was that guy your wakeup call?

xena_williams21d ago

Always interesting how many devs skip checking their baseline temps until something goes wrong. Most don't realize thermal paste degrades over time and needs replacing every couple years. Could be worth checking if your temps were climbing slowly before that guy's code pushed it over the edge.