Love the look of Film with PQ Universal

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Hi,

I came to experiment with Ilford's PQ Universal developer for film after reading a thread on RFF about getting the Daido Moriyama's grainy and high contrast look.

After quite a few rolls later, I am happy to report that i have a few keepers using PQ Developer on film.

The look i like best is over-exposure + over-development + pulling back the contrast/brightness curves, it creates a texture that I cannot get enough of.

Some personal observation:
+ Sharp looking images
+ Unique texture / grain
- Contrast can get out of hand
- Not good if you do not like grain


I will just show some of the photos with the accompanied combination.
All except the second picture were taken in the past month (busy month)

Plus-X at iso 250, CZJ 50/1.5. Shoot wide open.

Mall of the Emirates.
TMax 400 in 120 format, iso 1600, RF645

Dhaka, Bangladesh.
TMax 400 in 120 format, iso 400, RF645

Neopan 400 at iso 250

Neopan 400 at iso 250

Neopan 400 iso 250

neopan 400 iso 250 (overexposed!)

cheers!

raytoei

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

This is now a Paper Developer but once upon a time, Ilford sold this as a Universal developer for paper and for film.

page 4 of this pdf shows the development time of some films:
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/20061302049381676.pdf

as well as this 1958 instructions pamphlet
http://www.silverprint.co.uk/pdf/ilford_PQ_1958.pdf

you can check out massive development chart here in the unlisted data section:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php?Film=&Developer=Universal&mdc=Search

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Development is usually 1+29 or 10ml of PQ with 290 ml of water for a 35mm roll of film. For 120 film, it is about 16.67ml of the same dilution.

The development times tend to be shorter than most developers. I agitate gently with PQ to tame the contrast.

 

[retnull]

It's a really nice look: kind of like a refined, subtler version of Moriyama's super-grainy harsh contrasts. Well done!

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

this is Tri-X with PQ Developer,
development time is 8mins 30 sec
at 30C and 7.5ml of syrup per roll.

i post processed for the grainy look.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

interestingly, with Neopan and PQ, at 30c and 7.5ml and 7mins, i got weird grains which someone pointed out was reticulation:

at 100%

 

[Cepoon]

I use Ilford PQ Universal as my main developer for some films, such as Fomapan 100, Ilford pan 100 as my main developer in 35 mm. I tested Agfa APX 400 (new) too with good results. Reason? This developer has a fantastic tonal range, very fine grain and it is absolute perfect alternative to Rodinal. Tonal gradation, grain, midtones, tonal scale are far far better than in Rodinal. I use (mainly) dilution 1+29, but I developed some film with 1+50 too, I didn´t see difference. Sometimes I use it for stand or semi-stand with fantastic results with dilution 1+150, when light conditions are very contrasting. I start always with 18°C, agitate first 30 seconds and than only one slowly agitation in first minute. It is active developer, dont like too much agitation. I developed with this developer more than 50 pieces of films in small 35 mm format, scanned with dedicated film scanner, I enlarged 30x40 without absolute any problem that this is a "paper developer". No - not only. Some examples are here down:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/can-one-use-ilford-pq-universal-with-film.53972/