Holy contrast, Batman!

S

Stephanie Brim

Mental Experimental.
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Yes...I really have to share this.

I decided that I wanted to develop my roll of HP5 that I had sitting in my tank waiting for another (that's in the camera right now), so I went to work and got part A in the tank and let it sit. Came back here and ended up finding that auction for Reala, starting a blog entry, and scanning some other photos. 15 minutes pass and I remember that I've left negatives in the soup. Whoops. Get Part B in, Fix, and wash as usual. I then take the negatives out of the tank expecting to see...well, I don't know what I expected to see...and all I get is high contrast. Very high contrast. I'm kind of finding it interesting.

I'll have more examples (and better ones), but these two are what I have for now.

http://www.pleasewipeyourfeet.com/photowhore/?p=image/film/
http://www.pleasewipeyourfeet.com/photowhore/?p=image/aftermath/

Kind of grainy, too...but that isn't so much of a problem.

Just thought I'd share. Thank God it was Diafine...otherwise I *would* have nothing to show for this story. :p
 
It may just be my laptop screen but I don't perceive them as extremely contrasty.
If anything the gray's are somewhat muddy and no clear white anywhere.
Try checking the levels in your scans - that may help.
 
I get clear white. My monitor is color managed, though. I think that if these were actually printed instead of scanned you'd see.
 
Make yourself a cassette tape or CD with your own voice. Say 'Developer in now', then time yourself and after the correct interval say 'Agitate now', and then later 'Developer out in 30 seconds'. And so on.

Then you can get on with other stuff and just respond to the spoken promts.
 
I actually like the results.

I think that I just finally realized what speeds were necessary with the film I prefer finally. I'm happy with the scans. I have some more photos to share shortly...almost done scanning.
 
More.

http://www.pleasewipeyourfeet.com/photowhore/?p=image/collection/
http://www.pleasewipeyourfeet.com/photowhore/?p=image/collection2/
http://www.pleasewipeyourfeet.com/photowhore/?p=image/filmandrefresh/
http://www.pleasewipeyourfeet.com/photowhore/?p=image/meoof/
http://www.pleasewipeyourfeet.com/photowhore/?p=image/workspace/

Okay, I don't think they're as contrasty as I did before. More that they're more contrasty than any of my other shots have turned out. These look about like they should. They're also right out of the scanner...no touchups.
 
With Diafine leaving the film in bath A should not be that harmful. The intent is that after 2 or 3 minutes the film will be saturated and not absorb any more developing agent. I would be more concerned with bath B, but event then, since Diafine develops locally, the only developing agent (bath A) is that absorbed into the film, when it is spent, development stops. I think of it as the film is accepting only the correct amount of development agent so I can't screw it up.

In a one bath solution the development agent and activator are all mixed together. You need to time the process carefully because there is more development agent present in the bath than what is needed for the job.

I have contrast problems with my scanner. Actually, if my exposure is off a bit, then I have problems with my scanner. You may want to keep an eye out for how your's behaves as the negs may be acceptable, but the scanner may need a little tweaking, or, everything can be fixed in PS.
 
Well, perhaps you have managed to finally get results out of Diafine that don't look flat to me.

I agree that they look fine. I also concur that you should not get excess contrast with soaking in A too long. Perhaps you did not get enough A out at the end of that step?

allan
 
I like 'em. I think it's possible that a longer A bath could produce extra contrast, about as much as I think it possible that stand development could produce edge effects or that using distilled water makes a difference. You gotta believe :)
 
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