Jon A CT

[jcdeboever]

@JonA_CT , He was in my mind when I was composing this. Minolta Maxxum 9, 50mm 1.7, HP5+

 

[timor]

How did you process the film ? This picture has a feel of sixties in textures and contrast. Looks like Rodinal.

 

[jcdeboever]

How did you process the film ? This picture has a feel of sixties in textures and contrast. Looks like Rodinal.

Thanks, I think. Water prewash at 72° C for 5 minutes, first 30s slowly roll / invert, every minute after a 3 roll / invert. Re-prewash with fresh batch of 68° and agitate for a 30s. HP5 has no color from prewash. I used Ilfosol 3 at 1:9, 68°, 6:30 development time. Sloooowly roll / invert agitated first 30s, tap tap, tap. Then one slow turn every minute, tap tap, tap. Ilford Rapid Fix 1:4 fresh, 68°, 5 minute, Sloooowly roll / invert agitated first 30s, tap tap, tap, then one slow turn every minute, tap tap, tap. Water rinse for 30 minutes. Final rinse using tap water and a drop of original dawn dish soap (not the new anti bacterial kind). Hang in my modified old ass ceramic tile oven for 10 minutes, perfect height, steps light set to cool setting, filtered intake.

Interesting you commented on this one as it is the latest SOP that I have made. Gary A has helped me a great deal but he probably doesn't know it because I am a professional salesman and my listening skills brings home the bacon We converse sparingly, I meter my time in respect for my annoying calls. He explained to me what I could expect from agitation. Him, being a professional field photog, lit that lamp of a salesman's closing skill. Execute. Is it good?, I doubt it, but most of my images I post here are pretty amateurish. I'm learning, but this community continues to erich my learning experience as well as personal.

I described to you in detail my development method. I did not edit a scanned image, other than crop, and do not in tend to at this time. I have another section of questions I have in my journal. I am trying to answer them myself. Thank you for inquiring in my noob development technique, you are a blessing and I can not wait for your response. I have always admired your vision and knowledge.

To be brutally honest. I used Jona because I truly care about him and my admiration for him as a father inspired me to be better. He is inspirational. The problem with my thinking is that it may not line up with such a good man. I am taking a chance by posting this and subjecting him to less than he truly is.

 

[timor]

Thank you.
So you did use pretty much Ilford recommendations for development. Except for prewash. I think it is too long. and too warm. What you do may swell emulsion pushing grains apart and causing degradation of the image. It may. Prewash is only for the emulsion to get soft for easy developer absorption..And to stabilise temperature. 4 degrees is not much, but still. Agitation in prewash, beside initial tap and turn to loose air bubbles is not needed. Agitation is for equal distribution of working agents, or for speeding the development (Jobo system bases on constant agitation), or for controlling the contrast. Could be friend, could be an enemy.
I never really have had any success with Ilfosol 3. In any dilution ratio. Ilfosol 3 IMO is only good for English weather conditions, where is little sun. It is too contrasty. It is visible even in your picture.
Is this scan from the negative ?

 

[jcdeboever]

Thank you.
So you did use pretty much Ilford recommendations for development. Except for prewash. I think it is too long. and too warm. What you do may swell emulsion pushing grains apart and causing degradation of the image. It may. Prewash is only for the emulsion to get soft for easy developer absorption..And to stabilise temperature. 4 degrees is not much, but still. Agitation in prewash, beside initial tap and turn to loose air bubbles is not needed. Agitation is for equal distribution of working agents, or for speeding the development (Jobo system bases on constant agitation), or for controlling the contrast. Could be friend, could be an enemy.
I never really had have any success with Ilfosol 3. In any dilution ratio. Ilfosol 3 IMO is only good for English weather conditions, where is little sun. It is too contrasty. It is visible even in your picture.
Is this scan from the negative ?

It is, I don't care for the developer either but I got way better results this time. I was told by an ilfolsol expert or fanwoman to prewash this way since im using well water. I like HC the best so far. I order rodinal but I am holding off at this time. Still to much agitation in my opinion. However, I'm good with the results. I'm a noob and journaling for a method. I trust this soup is not going to be my go to. I just wanted to give it an honest chance

 

[timor]

By well water do you mean untreated ? Do you have problem with spots after drying the film ?

 

[jcdeboever]

By well water do you mean untreated ? Do you have problem with spots after drying the film ?

Right. No, I use dish soap or photo flow in final wash to break the hardmess

 

[timor]

By well water do you mean untreated ? Do you have problem with spots after drying the film ?

Right. No, I use dish soap or photo flow in final wash to break the hardmess

If photo flow helps you don"t have problem with hard water !
And than if you are using well water dump the Ilfosol, use HC110. It was made for this kind of situations, it has much more stable pH buffers.

 

[jcdeboever]

By well water do you mean untreated ? Do you have problem with spots after drying the film ?

Right. No, I use dish soap or photo flow in final wash to break the hardmess

If photo flow helps you don"t have problem with hard water !
And than if you are using well water dump the Ilfosol, use HC110. It was made for this kind of situations, it has much more stable pH buffers.

Ok. If I don't use it, I get spots. I am not a water expert, all I know is the water tastes like iron. So your saying you don't like the look of this development?

I actually kind of liked the look in this picture maybe because of the dark bottles. Not sure if it's just the bottles or the combination of it being behind glass. Still trying stuff but I am encouraged by it with HP5+ as apposed to other film. I'm out of HC110 and the store I buy it from was out of it, all they had was the Ilford.

I was in Columbus last week and I picked up a litre of some Clayton F76 developer and Clayton fixer (powder), it seems just like the Kodak D76, I've used it before and got good results, the guy sells it to the OSU students. Now that I have some development experience, I was looking forward to using it again and compare against my notes, or doing it better this time. As far as scanner, I bought silver fast SE plus software and that's made a HUGE difference in my scans with the Canon Canoscan 8800f. Takes a little longer but the results are better.

At the end of the day, I'm trying to find a method, a developer system, a film, etc. I likeTriX, this I know but wanted to give HP5+ another go around because I did so many things wrong when I used it before. I know I like HC110 but wanted to give the F76 another try for the same reasons as the HP5+. I'm the kind of guy that eventually have to use one or two films. For B &W it will probably be TriX and Acros. Acros looks weird in Ilfosol but cool in HC110, not sure what I'll get with the F76 or D76. Color, is another study I'm working on but so far, Portra is wonderful and I'm impressed with Kodak Color + 200. Unicolor kit seems to work fine and I'm sticking to it unless you got any suggestions.

 

[timor]

If I don't use something, I have spots to. Actually I use very mild degreaser. (No bacteria killing powers .)
Look of the photograph, and I am talking only about b&w photography, colour is not my thing, is very subjective and basically unique to every photographer, who process own material personally. Black and white material is extremely flexible letting anyone to aquire own look. Be it by specific action or by luck, experimentition with development methods is always interesting. However harder and harder to exercise nowadays. Photographers Formulary in Montana still have impressive range of base chemicals and some good, ready made to. Check them out. TX is always good, but getting really expensive. If you have enugh guts, you may aquire roll of Eastman Double X Negative. The smallest is only 400 ft and you would have to deal with manual respooling, bulk loaders and reusable cassettes, but there are upsides. It is best currently available b&w film. Better made than any other Kodak film not to mention Ilford. Thicker base, way better scratch resistance and great, low contrast emulsion which responds very well to processing. . It may look like TriX from sixties, it may look like TMY. And basically it is 1/3 of the price of TX. That is my point of view.
Clyton F76 is a version of D76 and should be good. But honestly, if you want to limit yourself to few things, stick with HC110, it is much more flexible in terms of dilution and temperatures what may let you to aquire different looks of the pictures easy. Plus it has almost unlimited shelf life.