[Leica] B&W Films/Developers

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

On 6/30/04 10:15 AM, "Feli di Giorgio" <feli@creocollective.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 2004-06-29 at 20:00, Mark Rabiner wrote:
>> On 6/29/04 4:11 PM, "Wade Heninger" <lists@heninger.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>>> I've read that it is a very active developer. Thus developing times can 
>>>> be
>>>> very short, making it easy to overdevelop negatives.
>>> 
>>> Not as short as acufine, and never had issues.  I tried all kinds of
>>> experimenting with dilutions and times.  All too contrasty.
>>> 
>>> So I didn't continue because Xtol, FG7, Acufine all work great.
>>> 
> 
> I just developed my first 3 rolls of TX400 in HC-110 dilution B (1:8)
> for 4.5 minutes with low agitation. My usual developer is D76.
> 
> Here are my initial observation.
> 
> a) High contrast. Highlights are gone. The scans look like a b/w
> newsprint.
> 
> b) Grain is highly dissolved tot he point that the images look soft.
> 
> c) The images "bloom". Everything looks like it was shot with a very
> weak promist filter.
> 
> Dilution B has a very short development time and you really have to
> stick to the clock, because even an extra 10 seconds pouring the
> developer in/out seems to make a difference. I am going to try some of
> the higher dilutions and maybe even Ansel's "H" mixture. Hopefully this
> will help control the contrast and dissolve less of the grain. It would
> be nice to have a developer on hand with a very long shelf life.
> 
> Feli
> 
> 
> 
> 
IMO It can be a low contrast developer if you develop for a lot less time.
There is no such thing as a high contrast developer unless you are using
some x-ray developer with lye for an accelerator instead of carbonate or
borax.
Contrast is mainly a function of degree of development.
People develop their film in paper developer for 2 minutes (Dektol) and get
the right contrast for a quick and dirty prints. (in a hurry)
Yes I'd go for the highest dilution you can. But I'd just start out with
regular dilution B and get your time down. See how they print. If your
contrast paper or filter is lower number than you'd like give your negs less
time. THEN criticize tonality. You've got to print the neg before you can
judge it's tonality.

Don't play with temperature. Or dilution. Or agitation.
Just get your time down first.
Then print.
Then decide.




Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/