Was the dark stripe at the top part of the original scene, or is it only on the film?
A similar pattern (reticulation) used to be caused by extreme and sudden temperature changes but I understood that modern film resisted this. I've only seen it once, and a very long time ago.
Are they cracks or some sort of deposit on the film? Being lighter suggests something opaque. There are also some dust spots. Are you re-using Rodinal? My apologies for only asking questions.
Despite the glitches, it's a lovely picture.
Some modern films are still prone to reticulation, Fuji Acros is one particularly in Rodinal. when Agfa merged with Gevaert in 1964 they re-formulated Rodinal it now contains free Hydroxide, this can soften emulsions making the potential for reticulation high.
The old Tmax 400 was another prone to it. A few years ago a friend did some photos of me working in the landscape for a magazine he processed the 120 Tmax 400 in my darkroom, using my replenished Xtol, stop & fix. the results were appalling, excessive grain, I realised he hadn't checked the temperature of the stop bath, fixer or wash water. My 35mm Tmax 400 negatives processed just after were perfect. The 120 film was part of my own sock and other rolls from the same batch were perfect so it was just a temperature issue.
While most modern films are well hardened and won't reticulate there's a phenomenon called "micro reticulation" Kodak preferred to call it surface artefacts, essentially it's a mild form of reticulation that affects the gelatin super coat of a film, it affects glossy papers as well causing dull spots. It was a big problem with Kodak colour films and the early digital minilabs causing excessive graininess in prints, it could be overcome by wet mounting for scanning. Kodak did a lot of research to improve emulsion hardening, they state that improvements make their films better for scanning.
It's not affecting the actual grain structure of the film, but printing or scanning through the surface artefacts gives more apparent graininess. In the case of the 120 film I mentioned there's an anti-curl gelatin coating on the rear and you get micro reticulation both sides.
If you want high quality results you need to keep temperatures under tight control.
Does this also apply to staining developers Ian
Applies to all developers, B&W and Colour and every processing step including washing.
Ian
