Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/04/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Martin! Well I only got mottling once in my life. And that was when I tried diluting HC110 more than dilution B as Ansel Adams was reputedly supposed to have done but I say "no way." Even when i was into two both developing i never let my negs just sit there. I agitated very gently once a minute. Worked great. When it comes to mottling just don't dilute to the point where that happens or agitating as un frequently as that point. And you want to pull back to a point where it never happens. Not just happening un frequently or perhaps with certain films or the way your water is certain times of the year. I call it "giving it some leeway." It would be good, Martin if you could see GeeBee's prints in person. For all you know he could just be a mast of Photoshopping the jpeged for the internet imagery. Those could also exist as excellent prints, we just dont have any way on knowing that.. One tip since you seem to think i know what I'm talking about is to do a lot more shooting with the yellow-green Wratten 11 filter. It only eats a stop and gives you gorgeous much more nicely printable tones from sky down to foliage down to peoples faces. People admire the photographers who make gorgeous imagery from larger format negs. Contact printing even. Platinum emulsions possibly. I don't admire them so much. Any idiot can make great images from a 4x5 or larger neg. And medium format is a whole lot easier then 35mm. I've always said you can develop sheet film in pee-pee in your back yard play pool and it will come out a lot better then anything you could ever do with roll film. That's why they say : "F8 and be there." If you're within three stops it's impossible to screw up a 4x5 neg. You can tap dance on it! Just show up and press the shutter release and we have our cover shot. NO think of Salgado's prints and other large prints done by people working in 35mm. Those people have got to be obsessed and obsessive to get that kind of quality from a 35mm neg at those high magnifications.. And they have to have tenaciousness. It doesn't happen the first few months you're in the darkroom on weekends. It does not come from fooling around with this and fooling around with that. It's a focused sustained effort. And sure a 16x20 or 20x24 print can be gorgeous from a 35mm neg but does not do so well side by side with a neg from larger formats, especially sheet film. But it can be impressive as hell. And can involve capturing action and hand held 36 on a roll stuff you don't get from larger formats. >b) High edge acutance (i.e., sharpness) comes from the higher dilutions and DOES NOT COME from two bath developing. Stand developing might be something to play with after you've been pulling excelling silver prints for a decade and your started to get a little bored. I don't think Ansel ever did stand developing. If he did it was not big with him I've read him extensively (he's one of my favorite writers) My opinon is put the stond on the list of things somday you'll do if you have time. At the bottom of that list. People say to me "want this last remaining brick of Agfa 25 or Panatomic X or Verichrome pan?" and I always say no because the work I'm doing now I want to pay off and be doing in the prints and work I'm doing next month and year and decade. So if they're not making it any more than I don't want any part of it. My advice would be to put that stuff in the freezer and buy a brick of something they'll be making next year and beyond. You could then take your Verichrome Pan on you next vacation to Mars I've heard it cuts right through those Martian sandstorms. A replacement for Verichrome Pan? Try Agfa Pan 100. The stuff is only stupendous. A bit grainer than it should be but we're talking tonaliy. I use Fuji Across for both my stuff requiring a medium ASA as well as my "high res" stuff. The stuff i refer to myself as my "Ansel Adams" stuff. For when i want large print landscapes or large print anything. Even though Ansel Adams reputedly used Tri X I assume real Tri x 400 not the 320 pro stuff. I don't do those "funny" European films from the country formally knows as Yugoslavia or other foaming and frothing slavic or otherwise areas because I know as a sit here at this monitor that next year I'm going to walk into the film freezer at Pro Photo and its not going to be there. It's a here today gone tomorrow done deal. Those poor people if they have to dodge sniper bullets on the way to the film and paper making factory I should give them a break and try out their stuff but I just don't. There is no price low enough. Darkroom work requires a concentrated ongoing effort. Not a "I'll try this new staff next week using this new developing process I hear they do in Outer Mongolia." Fuji though will be around longer than Kodak and Ilford. Oh!! try FP4 that has a bit of a cult following and is said to be very strait line which might also translate into being richly toned and hell!, easy to print! But a slightly filtered neg is SO much easier to print! try the yellow-green 060 from B+W. Happier negs! Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabinergroup.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html