First attempt at stand development

[wakarimasen]

Hello Folks,

Decided to give stand developing a go. Legacy Pro 100, developed in Rodinal (Adox Adonal) at 1:100 for 60 minutes.

Anyone else use stand developing instead of following the 'recommended method?' If so, why?

 

[FrankS]

How did it go?

 

[wakarimasen]

How did it go?

Those are the best three from the roll. Some were very grainy, and others not at all. I'm guessing the grainier ones were underexposed - is that correct?

All in all I liked the process - I guess because it's easier/ 'lazier!'

At least I finally worked-out a problem that I have had loading the reels on the last four films I developed. An excessive curl (against the path of the reel) meant that the film was popping out of the channel after the first rotation. Armed with this knowledge, I will hopefully ruin less film :bang:

 

[FrankS]

Sorry, I posted my question before your post had pictures. Nice!

I do stand development, same dilution and time, but with HC-110. Less grain.

 

[Colin Corneau]

Hoping someone can either correct my misinformation or assure me I'm correct --

Is stand development a way to reconcile very disparate exposure values in a scene? For example, if you have an image of a bright window and the interior of a room, will you have more shadow detail and less highlights blown out by developing the film via stand development than you would with regular developing methods?

Thanks in advance...

 

[johannielscom]

Nice ones.

I'm using Rodinal too, and use cold tap water (approx 10ºC I guess). It keeps the grain down and all in all it's the easiest foolproof recipe I can imagine: 1:100 from tap water for a full hour with vigorous agitation in the first minute and nothing else.

A friend of mine put his Rodinal 1:100 in the fridge on a hot day and it worked out fine, that's how I got the idea. Works for me.

I'll post some shots later, first it's time to smell my pillow here 😉

 

[wakarimasen]

No problem Frank - I had a delay posting the pictures from Flickr.

I did one inversion at 30 minutes, so I guess it was 'semi-stand.' Just wondered if there's any real downside to developing in this way. The article I read (from a link in another thread' suggested that stand development allows multiple ISO settings to be possible within one roll. It almost sounds too good to be true....

 

[nhchen]

I tried stand developing at first, but I had a problem where one edge of the film was always getting overdeveloped. I could never figure out how to solve it so I'm just doing normal developing for now.
If anyone has a solution to this, I'd would be interested to know.
regards,
nathan

 

[charjohncarter]

Of the three you posted the only frame that would benefit from stand was the first one. The other two are low contrast scenes and would be even flatter with stand development.

http://johnsexton.com/images/Compensating_Development.pdf

 

[wakarimasen]

So stand development is really intended to benefit high contrast scenes?

 

[charjohncarter]

So stand development is really intended to benefit high contrast scenes?

Yes, that is the way it is supposed to be used, but that was in the darkroom days. Now with PS, etc. you know turn a cow's ear into a silk purse. So, it is a moot point to some extent. Still, I don't like trying to salvage a flat negative even using PS to make it look like an Ansel Adams.

 

[awbphotog]

I've recently bought some Rodinal and have yet to try the stand developing..but I must say the examples you've provided make me excited to start. The tones look great, as well as the grain and the smoothness. The first photo is actually, in my opinion, a great photo...totally tricked me with the scale. Only after I noticed the humans did I realize what I was looking at.

As far as your solution to loading very curly film on the reels, what did you discover? I have the same issue, as lots of the film I'm processing has been sitting, exposed, for years. Makes for some super curly, frustrating loading experiences.

 

[nongfuspring]

Those are some beautiful dogs.

I mostly stand develop with rodinal 1:100 for about 1.25 hours, mainly because I'm lazy and cheap but also because I'm often travelling and can't always guarantee my variables will stay the same. So far I've yet to screw anything up, in spite of often not getting the temperature right and so on and I'm pretty happy with the results. Much less fuss for me than d76 which is what I used to use for transporting on planes and taking a little goes a long way.

 

[wakarimasen]

Yes, that is the way it is supposed to be used, but that was in the darkroom days. Now with PS, etc. you know turn a cow's ear into a silk purse. So, it is a moot point to some extent. Still, I don't like trying to salvage a flat negative even using PS to make it look like an Ansel Adams.

Same for me regarding PS - I don't like using it much, although it's very good for dust spotting!

I've recently bought some Rodinal and have yet to try the stand developing..but I must say the examples you've provided make me excited to start. The tones look great, as well as the grain and the smoothness. The first photo is actually, in my opinion, a great photo...totally tricked me with the scale. Only after I noticed the humans did I realize what I was looking at.

As far as your solution to loading very curly film on the reels, what did you discover? I have the same issue, as lots of the film I'm processing has been sitting, exposed, for years. Makes for some super curly, frustrating loading experiences.

They weren't all that smooth! Some were very grainy, but I'm guessing that was my problem in under exposing. With regard to the 'curly film,' my main problem was trying to load the film 'against the curl.' In doing this, it seemed to fight to get out of the reel channels, and ended up re-entering the 'start point' and jamming agains the ball-bearings. If you have an exposed roll of film (I sacrificed one some years ago to practice loading the reel) try loading it on a reel - against the natural curl of the film - and see what happens. This is how I spotted my problem.