THE SAGA OF THE PINK PIG
By Edward Hersom (Area 11).
A long time ago when I just started doing my own colour processing, in the early days of E4, I had been to an agricultural show and taken shots of lots of animals. One of them, a pig, came out decidedly pink. I suspected my processing of course, but could not really pin down what I had done wrong. The trouble, however, kept recurring. About one frame`s length of film, not necessarily lining up with a frame, had this reddish cast. Because of the first frame spoilt this way, they were all subsequently cursed as "pink-pigs".
This went on for months. Nothing I checked revealed anything wrong, nothing I did improved matters and, just to confuse me, some films had no apparent fault. Then I had a stroke of luck. I had loaded a film in the tank for processing when I was interrupted, and I had to put off the job for a day. During that time the tank just at on shelf. When I eventually did the processing I had the best pink ever. The end of the film had been torn of the spool leaving a jagged end and about 9 inches along the film was this pink pig together with a contact print of the jagged end! The film was being fogged on the reel in the tank! I couldn`t see how any fault in the tank`s light trap could produce this effect, so I darkened by simply drawing the curtains (I had no dark room then), put a table lamp into the tank and switched on. I was horrified! On one side of the tank light shone through, and this was was obviously the cause of my problem, but light also came through at various points in the base of the tank. I was surprised that the results had not been more devastating. For those films with no fault I can only assume the tails had been loaded just opposite the spot in the side of the tank and this piece of film, subsequently discarded discarded, had protected the rest.
The tank was a Paterson`s System 4 and at that time they were being marketed by Rollei (UK). When I complained they responded graciously and sent me a perfectly light-proof replacement even though by then, I had had the original tank for 2-3 years.
This experience, however has had a knock-on effect ever since. My confidence in plastic tanks had been shaken and so when the chance came along, I equipped myself with a second hand stainless steel tank and reel. This is not perfect, but since the reel is loaded from the centre outwards, I can load wet film on to the reel, and of course, a slightly damp reel causes no trouble. The upshot of all this is that I do not use a chemical reversal. Having stopped and washed the film after the fist development, I take it off the reel, take it into another room where there is no water, switch on a pair of photofloods and "yo-yo" the film up and down for a minute or two. If the film gets dry I have been doing it too long, but it does not seem to cause any harm! Then I return to my bathroom, put the film back on to the reel and into the tank and finish off the processing. Yes, it takes longer than the other way, but it is cheaper, there is no messing about with nasty chemicals and, a point I am sure our editor will appreciate, it always works!