The "How I Develop Film" thread

[timor]

HC-110
Something to read and consider regarding film development.
Yes, method of exposing for sbhadows and developing for highlights good, however limited. In practical terms it is moving all the zones up as each is getting over exposed, highlights to. It is a tourist system of getting all the faces visible in the print with disregard to the most of the rest and specially sky. Without spot meter no one can determinate the amount of needed exposure. Without extensive practice in development it will be not easy to say what's the value of that "minus development".
However systematic pull as Derrek said in conjunction with delicate development (read the article) should give you more often than not a printable neg.

 

[Rollei12]

s E.I. of 250 on a 400 ISO film, making SURE that the exposure will create actual detail in the shadowed areas


my experience is that any developer that is that strong, and that works in that short a time frame, is a BAD developer choice.

First one, why 250? Isn't half of a 400 iso 200? I would have guessed to put it at 200. I'm curious why 250?

Second one, I currently have a bottle of Ilford's Ilfosol 3 (I'm almost out) and a near full bottle of DD-X. I'm guessing DD-X is pretty potent, but I'd rather use that up first than get another developer. I don't want to get ahead of myself. Have you tried DD-X? Any tips?

 

[Rollei12]

HC-110
Something to read and consider regarding film development.
Yes, method of exposing for sbhadows and developing for highlights good, however limited. In practical terms it is moving all the zones up as each is getting over exposed, highlights to. It is a tourist system of getting all the faces visible in the print with disregard to the most of the rest and specially sky. Without spot meter no one can determinate the amount of needed exposure. Without extensive practice in development it will be not easy to say what's the value of that "minus development".
However systematic pull as Derrek said in conjunction with delicate development (read the article) should give you more often than not a printable neg.

Thanks I just read it! Really interesting. I'm going to try out some of those ideas with my DD-X (dilutions, less agitiation, etc).

Oh, btw for both of you. Why my negs probably looked bad or high contrast, I was agitating the film 10 seconds every min, including the first min. Maybe over doing it completely considering what he said about less agitation lol!

 

[gsgary]

s E.I. of 250 on a 400 ISO film, making SURE that the exposure will create actual detail in the shadowed areas


my experience is that any developer that is that strong, and that works in that short a time frame, is a BAD developer choice.

First one, why 250? Isn't half of a 400 iso 200? I would have guessed to put it at 200. I'm curious why 250?

Second one, I currently have a bottle of Ilford's Ilfosol 3 (I'm almost out) and a near full bottle of DD-X. I'm guessing DD-X is pretty potent, but I'd rather use that up first than get another developer. I don't want to get ahead of myself. Have you tried DD-X? Any tips?

DDX is better for hp5 @ 400 and over

 

[Derrel]

ISO 400, 320,250,200,160,125,100, in third-stop increments. Why ISO 250? It's just a 2/3 stop reassignment. You could got to 200 E.I. if desired. My suggestion stands: try and do things repeatedly, systematically, for several months in a row, while keeping good notes on your development times, temps, and agitation methods, until you can predict what your negatives will look like. Film work demands rigor.

RE-agitation: The "old way" was 5 seconds agitation every 30 seconds; 10 seconds at 1-minute intervals is 'gentle' agitation in a traditional basis, but now we're in the era of stand development and people might not understand that 10 sec agitation every minute is NOT a lot of agitation. RE the HC-110 article: in college, I used to develop university newspaper film, often three tanks per night, 12 rolls per night, occasionally 16 rolls per night. I have processed THOUSANDS of rolls of 35mm film in HC-110, mixed as he suggests: Mix dilution "B" (a generally better choice than "A") by putting one part HC-110 "juice" into thirty-one parts water, at your favorite temperature... e.g., one half ounce of HC-110 to fifteen and one half ounces of water, to make one pint of developer.
****
Whatever developer you use, try and get a systematic, perfected development routine for your film. If you use DDX, then get it figured out so the negatives are "good". Don't search for a Holy Grail, but instead get really proficient with one film and one developer.

 

[gsgary]

HP5 @ iso800 developed in DDX 30 seconds agitation at start and 3 inversions every minute

HP5 @ iso400 same agitation developed in Ilfosol3

 

[timor]

Gary, it is not only how you develop film, it is also how you expose film in the first place. You said HP5 rated at ISO 800, but this is misleading. Maybe your light meter went bonkers and in reality you shoot at different ISO. This picture with dog looks soft, but there might be different reasons for that.

 

[gsgary]

Gary, it is not only how you develop film, it is also how you expose film in the first place. You said HP5 rated at ISO 800, but this is misleading. Maybe your light meter went bonkers and in reality you shoot at different ISO. This picture with dog looks soft, but there might be different reasons for that.

Dog was shot wide open at F1.5 the eye and teeth are sharp, nothing wrong with the lightmeter one of the best made Minolta ivf

 

[timor]

What Minolta ? Spot ? Averaging reflected ? Or incident ? How old ?

 

[gsgary]

What Minolta ? Spot ? Averaging reflected ? Or incident ? How old ?

It does all 3 and mixed ambient and flash and flash and cine

 

[gsgary]

I have the Vf Minolta announce a new Digital Exposure Meter and IV

 

[timor]

Very good.

 

[gsgary]

Very good.

This is the spot meter attachment
minolta 5 degree spot meter attachment - Google Search

 

[timor]

Basic read for all really interested in developing own b&w filmhttp://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Developers/developers.html
This paper will help to understand this old, he he, technology.

 

[starkkarim]

Hey guys, I develop my own C-41 in my kitchen/bathtub using standard develop times and temperature. I just use a regular pot to keep my temperature consistent though sometimes I get funky results which I don't mind! Here's an example of a shot from a roll I developed and scanned, I can post more if anyone is interested:

Berries on Flickr