It's time to process

[Dwayneb9584]

Hey all,

So I've accumulated all of the things I need in order to process my film thanks to my girlfriends awesome Christmas gift from B&H. I'm going to process the 10 rolls of film I shot since I just bought my rangefinder about three months ago. Just wanted some quick help.

I have a double reel SS tank with Hewes HD reels developing in Ilford Ilfotec DD-X, Fixing in Ilford Rapid Fixer, and using a Kodak Photo-flo 200 as my wetting agent. Now I wanted to know as for the Stop bath, how long do I do this for since I'm using water? I am developing Ilford HP5 Plus 400 speed 35mm film.

To my knowledge from what I've read and researched.

I will be doing...

Developer 12 min with 4 inversions every minutes until 12minutes is up (correct me if I'm wrong).

Stop bath (Water) How long, how many inversions?

Fixer 3 minutes 3 inversions once every minute.

Wash Cycle:

Cool temperature water, fill up 3 times

1st fill 5 inversions

2nd fill 10 inversions

3rd fill 20 inversions

Final Wash Cycle:

Add wetting agent with a few inversions.

DONE

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong with anything. I am having trouble with the stop bath section. What temperature should my water be for this? or do I skip this section and just add the fix to it. I plan on developing tonight. All help greatly appreciated.

Dwayne

 

[kansas_parker]

I usually do two sets of 20 inversions for the stop bath with water. Everything else seems right on.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

OK. To start with you don't mention the dilution rate or temperature for the developer.
Most charts from the Massive Developer Chart to the Ilford technical data sheets list either 20C or 24C, with 20C being the conventional 'standard' temperature. The developer temp/time is critical but the following steps don't have to be as precise. So as long as there's not a big temperature difference don't worry that your stop, fix or wash are three or four degrees different.

Now - dilution and timing. I don't know where you got your 12 minute times from.
Ilford's recommendation for HP5+ in DDX is a dilution of 1+4 and nine (9) minutes at 20C if exposed at ISO400. They don't give a recommendation for 1+9 dilution. On the other hand, MDC also give longer times for dilutions of 1+9. People do that for economy but clearly Ilford don't favour it!

Stop bath (water). I usually just quickly fill and empty the tank three times under the tap (we have good water quality) and then pour the fixer in. All you're trying to do is quickly dilute and flush the developer clinging to the film surface so that the developer doesn't continue to work past the time you've selected.

Fixer sounds OK, but I usually give five minutes to be 100% sure and agitate the same as for film.

Wash: Here are Ilford's recommendations;
When a non-hardening fixer has been used wash
the films in running water for 5–10 minutes at a
temperature within 5ºC (9ºF) of the process
temperature.
For spiral tank use, when a non-hardening fixer
has been used, the following method of washing is
recommended. This method of washing is faster,
uses less water yet still gives negatives suitable for
long term storage.
After fixing, fill the spiral tank with water at the
same temperature, +/- 5ºC (9ºF), as the
processing solutions and invert it five times. Drain
the water away and refill. Invert the tank ten
times. Once more drain the water away and refill.
Finally, invert the tank twenty times and drain the
water away.

Final Rinse: I use about 2ml per litre of wetting agent but I try to avoid any agitation or foaming, so I take the top off the tank, pour the rinse solution in carefully to cover the film, rotate the film spool gently a couple of times and then lift the spool out of the tank. No inversions which tend to produce foam.

 

[Brian Legge]

Is that 12 minutes with a 1+9 dilution at 24c? If so, that looks about right. The time is so closely tied to dilution, temperature, etc that feedback on it in isolation is challenging.

The fix time seems like it could be a bit low. I usually do 5 minutes in fixer, longer for Tri X as it seems more sensitive. Three minutes is probably fine but you may want to run longer if you start reusing your fixer.

I'd definitely recommend logging what you do (particularly development details), along with what you do and don't like as you go. It takes a little while to figure out exactly what works best to get the negatives you want.

Edit: Leigh is faster than I. Lots of good info there.

 

[robbeiflex]

+1 on longer fixing time. I use Ilford fixer and find that I need four minutes at 20°C, plus one minute if its 18°C (common for me at this time of year) or for Kodak films, plus another half minute for medium format (120) film.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[Dwayneb9584]

Thanks for all the help guys, As for the Developer the dilution is (1+4) so that's my 400ml water and 100ml solution. Same for the Rapid Fixer. For fixer times, according to my Ilford developing chart they recommend 3 minutes. I was going to aim for around 4.

It says on my chart to develop at 27C for 9 minutes in the Ilfotec DD-X. This is correct right?

 

[Brian Legge]

If you have a single roll of 35mm, you don't need 500ml of solution. Check your tank but I'm guessing you only need 250-300mls.

Now I see why the time seemed off. I usually develop at 20C. Massive Dev Chart lists times for 20c and 24c, therefore your time seemed off. 🙂

 

[Dwayneb9584]

I'm using a double reel SS tank. It's 500ml total.

 

[Dwayneb9584]

Hey all,

So I tried out my first two rolls and they look like they've come out great. I don't have a light box and scope to view them yet, nor a scanner but will be getting one by the end of the week or next. Looks like the film clips I got from Adorama don't hook up to the other side of the film. They seem to be a bit short. I don't know why I didn't notice this. I guess I have to return these clips for bigger ones. I have 8 more rolls to go and plan to do that tonight. I stored my fixer and plan to reuse that for the rest of the rolls I have. I can't wait to scan these rolls. I'm going to write a blog post about it since it's a part of my project I am doing. If you'd like to follow and read up with me you can check it out on my blog here. Anyway, here is a quick picture I took of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwayneburgessphotography/5295433382/

Sorry but I don't know how to embed images in post just yet but will find out unless someone would like to help me out here lol.

 

[Brian Legge]

Congratulations! Its an awesome feeling, seeing the results for the first time.

For future reference, you only need to put in enough developer to cover the film. If you are using a 500ml tank with a single 35mm reel in it, you only need to use ~250ml of liquid. You can measure the exact amount you need by putting the empty reel in the tank and filling it with enough water to completely submerge it. Measure how much this is - that is how much liquid you can get away with.

The main advantage here is that you can reduce the amount of developer you use per roll.

Don't be discouraged in the future if you make a mistake - the most typical is failing to get the film on the reel cleanly, resulting in splotches where the film is touching itself. Or using chemistry after it has gone bad. All of this is part of the learning process. And damn near everyone here who processes their own film has made many of these mistakes before themselves.

 

[Dwayneb9584]

Thanks Brian Legge for the tips. I'm using a double reel tank and doing 2 reels at a time. Hewes reels are thick and I think that 400ml or water was wayyyy to much for what I needed, it overflowed and I had to pour the rest out in the cylinder. I think I might go with 350ml or water and 100ml of solution on round two. I'll be starting round 2 in about 10 minutes.

 

[Chris101]

...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwayneburgessphotography/5295433382/

Sorry but I don't know how to embed images in post just yet but will find out unless someone would like to help me out here lol.

Bravo on your first rolls!

To embed an image you need to get the image's address in a way that ends with a '.jpg'. On your flickr page right click (mac: control click) the image and select the size you want from the menu. Then, once the image redisplays in your preferred size right (mac: control) click it again - this will bring up a system menu that will allow you to copy the image's address. Do so, and then here in a post, paste that address between

tags with no spaces between anything. Voila:

 

[ijohnnyz]

Everyone has contributed great advice but the fun is in experimentation. It's a personal vision on how you would like to represent reality on film

As for me, I modify my development depending on the shooting situation (light, contrast, personal vision, etc) and film (t-grain/classic, push/pull, scan/darkroom, etc).

For an easy contrast boost, I divide my inversion between 30-sec intervals.
For example: 6 inversion every 1-minute will equate to 3 inversions at every 30-sec.

 

[ped]

I'm finding it much easier to use my developer at stock concentration and then re-use it. I have also never used wetting agent but use (wait for it) a squeegie. I have never had a scratch on my films but think wetting agent might be safer in the long run so I'll get some ordered.

Mind you, I hang my negs from a mop laid across my bannisters!

Well done on the roll, they look excellent. Will you be scanning them in?

Cheers
ped

 

[Dwayneb9584]

Chris101 thanks for the instructions on embedding an image. ijohnnyz, I think the joy is in the experimentation. Having full control over what you want them to look like is great. I plan to buy the Plustek 7600SE by the end of the week or next week to scan along with a small light box. I developed sex rolls last night and have four more to go. I'll be tackling this today. Pick up some Kodak Photo Flo Ped, It worked great for me. I mixed it in my final bath water and just turned the reels with my fingers for about ten seconds and drained the water. I have smooth negatives with no water spots to be found when I looked.

By the way, I bought these film clips from Adorama and if you look in the picture the hooks don't catch the film holes. Is this normal? After I noticed this I just cut 2 before the frame start and ends to clamp it on there. Are these to small? Are they supposed to hook in the fill holes?

 

[jljohn]

Hey, I did not read all the responses, but I thought I'd at least mention that both Ilford and Kodak have a document (pdf) on their websites called, roughly, 'How to Process B&W Film' that is very helpful. It is not limited to their chemical--rather it lays out the process and approximate time and temp for each step. Hope this helps.

 

[robbeiflex]

By the way, I bought these film clips from Adorama and if you look in the picture the hooks don't catch the film holes. Is this normal? After I noticed this I just cut 2 before the frame start and ends to clamp it on there. Are these to small? Are they supposed to hook in the fill holes?

I haven't used these particular clips, but my clips have spikes nowhere near the film edges, and are meant just to push right into and puncture the film in order to hold it solidly. Needless to say, this requires that you leave a little extra leader so that you're not popping holes into the image area.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[Dwayneb9584]

robbeiflex, that's what I have too then. I guess I just thought they go into the film holes.

 

[Dwayneb9584]

two more rolls to go