Low Contrast Film Developers?

[rover]

Learning a lot, thanks for the discussion.

 

[Fotohuis]

Low contrast film developers:

Caffenol
Rodinal 1+100
Rollei Low Contrast (RLC)

The last one can really bend a developping curve and is therefore also suitable for films like ATP1.1 (advanced technical pan) and ortho 25 films.

 

[ed1k]

For Tri-x 400 I would suggest two bath Stoeckler developer, for slightly higher contrast - divided D-23; and all variations in between that works for you. If you don't mix powders yourself you may consider poor man divided developer, D-23 or D-76 for 50% of recomended developing time and after that 5-10 minutes in a solution of borax (10g per litre, Twenty Mule borax from Zellers/Walmart etc should be fine). That's starting point, the longer you develop in the first bath the higher is contrast. Too short time in the first bath gives you flat negatives with significant pull (i.e. if you really want flat negatives shoot tri-x at EI 100 for example).
Also Xtol at 1+3 seems to give low contrast, especially if you slightly pull your film. So, I often use Xtol when I want to push film, I get what I want with aceptable contrast. At normal EI I always use two bath developer.
Just my $0.02.
Cheers,
Eduard

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Chris: The tonality of that scan is friggin' awesome. My high school chemistry is a little rusty. Na2CO3 is what, sodium carbonate (counting on his fingers)? What film?

Ben Marks

 

[sepiareverb]

For extreme contrast control I use HP5+ @ ISO 50 in Microdol-X 1:1

Hard to tell in the jpg, but there is detail in the tree bark and one can differentiate clouds from sky.