Developer for Ilford films

[ImagePlayer]

Is there any special developer that makes negatives more contrasty? Ilford HP5,...... FP4... Ilford PANF50 shot on Rolleiflex 3.5 Planar. Or is ti done only by Push and Pull process. Seems like Ilford ID-11 can be the right solution?Cheers.Petr

 

[Torus34]

An interesting question. And yes, some developers will produce a more contrasty image. As will increased agitation with the same developer. Some have used Dektol -- you might find information on this on-line.

How you go about it will depend on just what you wish to achieve.

I find it best to try to get a full range of densities on the negative initially and then control contrast through VC filter selection during printing. This preserves all 'post-processing' options.

 

[CSR Studio]

Good advice Torus. You can always increase contract in printing. Prints are expendable, negatives aren't.

 

[Randall Ellis]

Contrast is controlled through the combination of both exposure and development times. Ideally, as mentioned above, your negatives will be generally "good" enough to be able to get all of the contrast adjustments that you want in the printing stage, but this is not always the case. Various development techniques, such as reduced agitation, stand development, water bathing the negative, etc, can compensate for very contrasty lighting conditions at the time of exposure.

- Randy