How do you time your development?

[Q-dog]

So far I have been deloping my film (tri-x, HP-5 in D76) according to the manufacturers reccomendations. But I am getting ready to experiment a bit with cutting/increasing development time. This got me thinking about how to measure development time correctly. Now I am starting the timer as I pour developer in the tank and pours it out at the given time. But I guess the development process continues until the stop bath has done its work? I don´t have a dark room so just putting the reels into a filled tank and lifting them out at the given time does not work.
So how do you time your development? Have you experienced that you have to cut development time to factor in the time to empty the tank and fill it with stop bath?

/Ola

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

It does not matter! - as long as you stick to the SAME routine each time, you will soon find out - what works for YOU.
Dave.

 

[Lilserenity]

So long as you don't take hours, I find that a short gap between develop and stop won't do any harm. Time from the moment the developer goes in to the moment you pour it out. Pop your stop in for about 10-30 seconds (no need to time, 10s or more will do) and the pop the fixer in, time that for 3-5 minutes and that's it. No real need to be too accurate on the stop and fix, just get the developer in and out within the right time (you have +/- 10 secs of error margin before you start to notice differences e.g. pouring out 30 s quicker will yield a slight difference, but it's proportional to the original development time, 30s off a 5min overall dev time is more noticeable than 30s off a 15min dev time...)

 

[gns]

I start the clock, then fill the tank. When the clock stops, I pour out the developer.

Seems like whatever clock time you lose going in, you gain back at the end. It isn't that critical. As said above, just do it the same way each time and fine tune your time if you need to. Of course, the shorter the dev time, the more critical it might be to you. I usually do shortish times like 7 minutes, but still don't worry about it. I don't use stop bath, just fill and dump with running water a few times before fixing.

Developing film is the worst.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[ZeissFan]

Yes, true. People who say they cut or increased development time by 10 seconds to add to highlights or shadows are being ridiculous.

Like the others have said, just settle into a consistent pattern, and you'll be fine.

By the way, I use a stopwatch to time my development. Is that what you asked originally?

 

[FrankS]

i can remember many years ago when i first started developing b+w film, i was worried if the "pouring time" was included in the recommended time for development. it doesn't matter as long as you follow a procedure consistently and adjust time until you get results that you like.

 

[ianglean]

It does not matter! - as long as you stick to the SAME routine each time, you will soon find out - what works for YOU.
Dave.

I totally agree. Even if there are modifications as long as you stick to the same workflow it will be all goo.

 

[MartinP]

To answer the 'what' part of the OP... I have a kitchen digital-timer as a backup to a Palm pda program (FotoTimer) which is set up to give bleeps for agitation and the endpoint of development and fixing. It saves having to watch the clock for each 30s or 60s agitation action and this makes the processing more reliable, especially when/if attention drifts during longer development times . . .

 

[wgerrard]

I use a little digital timer. I can set three different alarms at once, but can never remember how to do that so I just use it as a stopwatch. I start timing the developer when it goes in and stop when I add the stop.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I have one of those big timers with the huge moving hands dial. Mine looks like a Gra-Lab 300 but it is a Time-O-Light brand. Its accurate and easy to see so i can watch the time while I am doing other things like mixing the next chemical.

I start the timer after i pour in the developer and i begin pouring it out when the time ends.

 

[Disaster_Area]

I go watch three sitcoms and do one inversion at the end of each show... gotta love stand dev 🙂

 

[RayPA]

It does not matter! - as long as you stick to the SAME routine each time, you will soon find out - what works for YOU.
Dave.

bingo! +1 be consistent with the process/mechanics and adjust accordingly.

I use reels and and daylight tank and start the timer after I fill the tank. I pour out "early" depending on the tank size. As far as timers, I just switched to THIS.

/

 

[not_in_good_order]

Ilford recommends starting your timer when you finish pouring:

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200629163442455.pdf

 

[nikon_sam]

1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi...

 

[charjohncarter]

A cooking timer from Radio Shack. The only problem is my wife keeps using it and I can't find it when I want it.

 

[ianglean]

1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi...

Thats a lot of Mississippis for a 10 min developing time 😛

 

[Trius]

Yeah, the Massive Dev on iPhone/Touch is great. Before that I used the ancient but reliable CP Touch Timer. It also is an enlarger timer.

 

[Morca007]

Everyone has nailed it, consistency is all that matters. Personally, I just use my watch, which translates into a lot of holding my wrist up and staring at it.

 

[Q-dog]

Thank you all for your comments! Naturally the exact timing process does not matter as long as you do it consistently. What triggered my question was reading advice like "cut development time X %" and even as someone referred to above "cut X seconds". If, as an example, the common practice was to start the timer once the developer was poured into the tank instead of when you start pouring then it would make sense to adopt that practice. From what I gather at least some of you do as I do, start timing when pouring in and pours out when the time is up.

/Ola

 

[Sparrow]

1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi...

Yaa…. man, and we don’t need no lousy light meter either 😀