My film developing times

Many, many thanks, Chris. This is exceptionally generous. I think all of us would understand if you had kept this info a trade secret.

charjohncarter, that is one slick setup. I like the alpaca (?) figurine watching over it all.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Interesting system! Do negs that print nicely in the darkroom look good shot with your system straight from the camera (after inverting) or do they need a lot of contrast added, like my film scans always do?
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I adjust the shutter speed and F stop by looking at the histogram, and then it is usually just a convert and some levels. I hardly ever use curves. This old negative was a great print in 1971, and I recently did it over from the negative. This is the negative done with the digital copier:

531898025_b17fc244b4.jpg
 
charjohncarter said:
I adjust the shutter speed and F stop by looking at the histogram, and then it is usually just a convert and some levels. I hardly ever use curves. This old negative was a great print in 1971, and I recently did it over from the negative. This is the negative done with the digital copier:

531898025_b17fc244b4.jpg
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That looks very nice. The scanner I have produces very low-contrast results that need heavy curves adjustments to make them look good.
 
Chris, great spread sheet! I'm wondering if you have any jpgs of Tmax done in Tmax Developer and Tmax in Rodinal for comparisons

Slightly OT... what are your thoughts on HC110 if you have used it
 
jan normandale said:
Chris, great spread sheet! I'm wondering if you have any jpgs of Tmax done in Tmax Developer and Tmax in Rodinal for comparisons

Slightly OT... what are your thoughts on HC110 if you have used it
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I don't really because I have used Tmax 100 in Rodinal a lot, and in D-76, but not in Tmax Developer. I have used Tmax 400-2 in Tmax Developer and D76. I did try one roll of Tmax 400-2 in Rodinal 1+50 but it was a little too contrasty. I guessed on the dev. time since AGFA's Rodinal datasheet times are for the old Tmax 400, not the new one. I developed a little long but never got around to trying again, as the results from D-76 and Tmax are so good with this film. I should try it again though

HC-110 is made for large labs to operate cheaply. Its only virtue is long life and low price. There are other developers that give better results. Tonality is similar to D-76 but with more grain.
 
Chris thanks for the comments. I'm looking at your page now and at the bottom it shows Kodak Tmax Developer and Tmax

You wrote that you don't / haven't used Tmax Developer with Tmax 100. So you only use Tmax 400 with Tmax Developer and Tmax 100 only with Rodinal and D-76.

D-76 for Tmax 100 or Tmax 400
Rodinal for Tmax 100 only
Tmax Dev for Tmax 400 only

How about some jpgs from Tmax Developer and D-76 using the Tmax 400?
 
Last edited:
Jan,

Here you go:

leica2.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in Tmax Developer 1+7

leica7.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in Tmax Developer 1+7

leica15.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in Tmax Developer 1+7

dolls40.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in Tmax Developer 1+7

lebanon-park.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in D-76 1+1

elwoods-sign.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in D-76 1+1

insert-politicians.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in D-76 1+1

mack-june08-1.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in D-76 1+1

sara-dukes1.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in D-76 1+1

cathie-rowand1.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in D-76 1+1

sarah-turner1.jpg

Tmax 400-2 in D-76 1+1
 
thanks Chris. It's always tough looking at a screen but it looks like the D76 yields deeper darks than the Tmax Developer in the 400. Is that what you find?

BWT, fun shot of your son.. IIRC I saw your portrait a couple of years ago, I think he looks a lot like you
 
jan normandale said:
thanks Chris. It's always tough looking at a screen but it looks like the D76 yields deeper darks than the Tmax Developer in the 400. Is that what you find?

BWT, fun shot of your son.. IIRC I saw your portrait a couple of years ago, I think he looks a lot like you
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Developer doesn't affect how deep blacks are, you can always get deeper blacks by printing darker or using higher contrast paper, or using curves to darken the blacks in photoshop.

I think the difference you see if the difference in the tone curves you get with the two developers. Tmax Developer gives a very straight line with an abrupt short toe and no shoulder until its overexposed several stops (so the whites in a normally exposed neg will still be on the straight line section of the curve.

D-76 1+1 gives a more traditional tone curve to the Tmax 400 film, with a gentle longer toe and a shouldering off of the highlights that shows in the whites on a normally exposed and developed negative. This makes the D76 image look like it has more shadow detail and softer highlights than you get with Tmax Developer even if both films are exposed to give a zone I tone of .1 above base+fog, which is how film speeds are determined, and even if both are developed to identical contrast index.
 
jan normandale said:
heh Chris, I can see I'm going to have to do some studying if I want to continue this discussion with you.

;D
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hehe I have studied the chemistry behind how silver-based photography works. I'm one of those people who has to know absolutely everything and it frustrates me that no one can! Here's a cool factoid: grab a box of women's hair dye next time you go to Walmart or the drugstore. Look at the ingredients. Most contain 3 or 4 of the following chemicals:

p-phenylenediamine

1, 4 dihydroxy Benzene

1, 4 diaminobenzene hydrochloride (AKA p-aminophenol HCL)

m-methyl p-aminophenol sulfate

4-hydroxymethyl 4-methyl 1-phenyl 3-pyrozolidone

All of the aforementioned chemicals are organic chemicals used in photography as developing agents. The first one is used in color developers. The second is Hydroquinone. The third if the main ingredient in Rodinal. The fourth is Metol and the last one is Dimezone, a more stable form of phenidone used in most modern liquid developers. They're all used in hair dyes!
 
Chris I agree with your approach, I think the more you understand the better chance you have of getting the results you are looking for.

Thanks for the info!
 
Good work ! I am interested to know, why you use Tmax in 1 :7 and not standard 1 : 4.


Chriscrawfordphoto said:
hehe I have studied the chemistry behind how silver-based photography works. I'm one of those people who has to know absolutely everything and it frustrates me that no one can! Here's a cool factoid: grab a box of women's hair dye next time you go to Walmart or the drugstore. Look at the ingredients. Most contain 3 or 4 of the following chemicals:

p-phenylenediamine

1, 4 dihydroxy Benzene

1, 4 diaminobenzene hydrochloride (AKA p-aminophenol HCL)

m-methyl p-aminophenol sulfate

4-hydroxymethyl 4-methyl 1-phenyl 3-pyrozolidone

All of the aforementioned chemicals are organic chemicals used in photography as developing agents. The first one is used in color developers. The second is Hydroquinone. The third if the main ingredient in Rodinal. The fourth is Metol and the last one is Dimezone, a more stable form of phenidone used in most modern liquid developers. They're all used in hair dyes!
Click to expand...
 
maddoc said:
Good work ! I am interested to know, why you use Tmax in 1 :7 and not standard 1 : 4.
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Developing times for most films are just too short with the 1+4 dilution. Kodak's recommended time for TMY-2 in Tmax Developer 1+4 is only 6.75 minutes. I like to keep times closer to ten minutes because I have had uniformity problem with shorter times on occasion. That's pretty much it. I have not seen a difference in image quality between the 1+4 and 1+7 dilutions, it gives longer dev. times that I like, and it makes a bottle of developer last longer since you use less of the concentrate...although thats of minimal importance. If you have a choice between quality and money, quality is ALWAYS more important. These chemicals are not horridly expensive anyway. In this case, I save money and get good quality.
 
maddoc said:
Chris, thank you ! So I presume, that you use 1 :7 as one-shot developer then ?
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Yeah. I forgot that you can use the 1+4 more than once, but I never do that with any developer. One shot gives more consistent results, even with developers that can be reused. The 1+7 can't be reused though, not strong enough.
 
I agree, using it as one-shot (1 : 7) should give more consistent results. At the moment, I am trying the Tmax 1:4 / re-using route. It looks like as results are quite consistent, even with the slightly exhausted developer (and compensating according to Kodak's recommendations).
 
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