Hi-grain D76 development

[.ken]

I've been chatting with someone that produces very hi-grain images and his current formula is this:

40C (straight D76) for about 5 minutes no agitation and he achieves a similar look as Moriyama's hi grain negs. Since I haven't tried developing under hi-temps or using D76 I wanted to find out if anyone has had any experience with this.

Any opinions on this? I'm about to give it a try in my next dev. Thanks

 

[Tom A]

If you try it - be sure that the intermediate wash and the fix is up to temperature too! TriX will reticulate if it is shocked. The wash can be more tempered, start with 40C water and then run the hose into it at maybe 35 and gradually decreasing the temperature.
40C is also going to soften the emulsion considerably and you have to be careful with the emulsion - it will be really soft until it is down to more normal temps.
You can also do extreme grain with Dektol! I used to do Royal X pan at 2000asa and run it in Dektol 1:1/10min. Golfball sized grain! With Tri X I rated it at 12-1600 asa and the same dilution/time. It is not fool proof so do some experiments before committing to important shots!

 

[titrisol]

D76 1+3 or 1+7 with agitation will produce also lots of grain.
Dektol is also quite awesome (Salgado style)

But use them at ~room temp

 

[Fred Burton]

Dektol will definately do what you want. We used to use straight Dektol back in the day when we needed to get a print, any print, fast. Slosh the film a minute or two in warm Dektol, dunk still dripping Dektol into a vat of fixer only until it cleared, no wash and straight into the enlarger wet.

While I wouldn't suggest the latter part of that, Dektol will give you huge grain.

 

[Tom A]

I remember doing stuff like that too. Problem was getting the emulsion off the glass carrier afterwards. I think it was less than archival too!! So, the tonal scale was less than perfect - missing about 7 of Ansel's zones - but it was printed 80dpi on newsprint, so who cared!

 

[.ken]

thanks everyone. Good stuff. I think im going to try Dektol as well!

 

[Pherdinand]

haha, sounds like funny times! would have loved to see the press photogs working in those times!

by the way, 40 degrees in straight d76? for 5 minutes?
I never used d76 but this really sounds like serious overdevelopment with ANY developer

 

[Cale Arthur]

I've been chatting with someone that produces very hi-grain images..

By any chance are you referring to Yamasaki ko-ji? I'm a big fan of his work..

--c--

 

[.ken]

yes, it's mr Yamasaki Ko-ji... that was his soup combo...

 

[Al Kaplan]

The fixer soaked negatives would eat away at the aluminum of the Omega negative carriers and drip down inside the bellows, sometimes getting on the back of the lensboard, even the lens itself, but you could get a dripping wet print on the editor's desk in under 15 minutes. That was back in the days before RC paper. Usually you'd finish fixing and washing the negatives after the print was done.

Tom, you could get a decent 3200 speed out of Royal-X Pan Recording by souping in Acufine and still get that nice golf ball size grain! Then Kodak introduced 2475 Recording and it's been down hill ever since. Everybody wants fine grain these days.

 

[Graham Line]

Tri-X has been 'tamed' over the years. Maybe you could start with a rougher, more traditional stock to get the effect you're after. The linked photo got standard development in Sprint and is Acupan 200, which I think was relabeled Forte. Someone here will know.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/74312783@N00/254960029/sizes/o/in/set-821318/

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/420436-Foma-Fomapan-400-iso-35mm-x-36-exp.?cat_id=402

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/55200...-x-36-exp.-1-09-Short-date-Special?cat_id=402

 

[santino]

my method was (probably still is) to expose HP5+ @ ISO 1000 and develop at 20C for 5 minutes in ilford multigrade (paper developer!) at standard dillution 1+9. I call it mega grain, give it a try if you wan to, it works and it's only at 20C (I havent experienced any problems with my negatives). Good luck!

 

[TheHub]

I use HC-110 for grain. Maybe it's just me, but I've found that vigorous agitation increases grain.

 

[Fred Burton]

Yeah, 2475 Recording film was a real kick. Grainy as heck, but when you needed that extra speed, it was there. I still have a few rolls of 2475, 20 exposure rolls in the old metal cans around here somewhere.

 

[santino]

I've been chatting with someone that produces very hi-grain images and his current formula is this:

40C (straight D76) for about 5 minutes no agitation and he achieves a similar look as Moriyama's hi grain negs. Since I haven't tried developing under hi-temps or using D76 I wanted to find out if anyone has had any experience with this.

Any opinions on this? I'm about to give it a try in my next dev. Thanks

btw what film ?

 

[Cale Arthur]

btw what film ?

According to his contact sheets, the fella .Ken's talking about uses mostly Fuji Presto 400.

--c--

 

[.ken]

He uses Presto 400, Presto 1600 and Tri-X... I tried doing it at 30C with Arista Premium with Tmax Developer and really didn't get much grain... this is while i'm waiting for my D76, Rodinal and Dektol to arrive. My last dev with Tmax I was able to get this grain which looked nice but I can't seem to reproduce it again... I think it might have something to do with shooting with XA's... I seem to get more of that grain effect with the XA (under normal developing times) than with the Nokton 35mm f1.4...

This is the most grain i've got other than shooting Neopan SS100 and pushing it to 400 (but it didn't look like a nice grain).

 

[Keith]

My first forays into developing HP5 with cafenol gave me some pretty extreme grain ... but I've never quite managed to repeat it for some reason!

 

[Graham Line]

Yeah, 2475 Recording film was a real kick. Grainy as heck, but when you needed that extra speed, it was there. I still have a few rolls of 2475, 20 exposure rolls in the old metal cans around here somewhere.

Cops loved 2475: Made everybody look guilty. 😉

 

[titrisol]

It is not just you.... agitate more for more grain
D76 @1+3 or 1+7 with more than normal agitation increases grain dramatically.
Also the choice of film and finish helps
TriX and HP5 are more grainy than Neopan 400 IMHO
Fomapan 400 is grainier and for extreme grain try Delta3200

I use HC-110 for grain.
Maybe it's just me, but I've found that vigorous agitation increases grain.