My uncle told me to always use a stop bath when developing Tri-X, I ignored him for ages
He said it would stop the developer dead and keep my highlights clean, but I thought it was just extra fuss. After a roll of blown-out skies, I tried his way and the negs were way better. Anyone else skip steps and regret it later?
Uncles always seem to have that one piece of advice you brush off until it's too late... mine warned me about cheap filters for years. I finally learned the hard way after ruining a whole vacation's photos. Solidarity on the blown-out sky struggle.
Maybe it was about three years of shooting with a UV filter that had more fingerprints than glass on it. Took a family reunion where everyone looked like they were standing in front of a bright white wall to finally get me to swap it out. Uncle's been insufferably smug ever since, which is honestly the worst part.