Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark Rabiner wrote: >These water baths, alkali baths and going back and forth to old developers >are >interesting techniques. >The later i've never heard of or thought of but would seem fun and >satisfying. >Like alchemy. Hey Mark, I've been messing with some of this stuff for most of this year in a quest to tame Delta 400. I've found that D400 will easily gain density that can't be scanned or printed through. For a general purpose film this is a problem. I know others had great success first try, I on the other hand had mixed results. Its really easy to overcook new Delta 400 and even when you get it right the highlights tend to runaway. - I'm speaking of high contrast scenes here such as a bright light source in the frame, etc. It seems like I often include such things in my pictures. Anyway, I've used various dilutions of Xtol, Ilford DDX, Diaxctol, Divided D76, and some of the above with an alkali bath following a much shortened development time. I've meant to report to the LUG about this but it seems to fall behind making a living, etc. Right now I think the best results are using DDX diluted 1 to 9 (not 1 to 4 as Ilford publishes) and then Divided D76. The additional dilution seems to calm the film in DDX. When I use this film under normal conditions this gives the best look IMO. I'm kinda liking this Divided D76 - I'm using a formula from the Darkroom Cookbook which I make by teaspoon measure using metol, sodium sulfite and borax. Its their simplification of David Vestal's Divided D76, really simple to mix, simple to use. 5 minutes in A then 5 minutes in B, fix, wash - done. This really tames the film and it seems great so far for shooting outdoors on a sunny day, etc. Probably too flat for low contrast scenes. Diaxctol does some cool things too but it is too grainy in 35mm (for my tastes). For small prints its very nice and I suspect it would be great with slower films and/or medium format. Sharp as a razor! Xtol works OK when diluted 1 to 2 or 1 to 3 and can be improved (for highlight control) by the alkali bath method. Give it 1/2 to 2/3 the normal time then into a bath of Sodium Metaborate to sit for a few minutes while the developer exhausts giving a subtle compensating effect. Anyone else use these or similar techniques? Henry Ambrose - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html