Please recommend book

[Little Prince]

As a starting point to darkroom experimentation I need recommendations for a good book. While printing is fun and also intuitive because you see what you are getting, developing is like a shot in the dark (and irreversible). I have done it before but only used D76 at 1:1 with Tri-X, HP5+, Delta 100 and Pan F 50.

I know people have different favorite combos and part of the problem is that there are dozens of chemicals and dozens of films that can be rated at all sorts of speeds and this makes for too many permutations. I'd love to get my hands on a comprehensive book that deals with developing only in detail. Like using different kinds of developers (accelerating and so on) and suggested combinations. Of course I can go on using Delta 100 and D76 but life is short. I want to try other possibilities and know what I'm doing, otherwise I'll never reach any firm conclusions about what I like.

 

[RayPA]

... I'd love to get my hands on a comprehensive book that deals with developing only in detail. Like using different kinds of developers (accelerating and so on) and suggested combinations. Of course I can go on using Delta 100 and D76 but life is short. I want to try other possibilities and know what I'm doing, otherwise I'll never reach any firm conclusions about what I like.

Steven Anchell has two books, one is called "The Darkroom Cookbook," and the other is called "The Film Developing Cookbook". Both are very thorough, and each offers something the other doesn't. I recommend both.

The only issue I have is that both books, particularly the film cookbook have really bad indexes (indices?), and I'm an index guy. Finding information can be difficult, also because the layout is kind of odd too. But the books have tons of the kind of information you'd probably be interested in. I mix my own developers from scratch and have kept myself entertained with recipes from both books. Good stuff once you get used to the format. 🙂

 

[Honu-Hugger]

David Vestal's book "The Art of Black and White ENLARGING" has a great section covering basic film development along with good advice on doing simple controlled ltests to determine the EI and development for any film, based upon what you want to get from your film. Vestal will walk you through the procedures for doing controlled tests and analysis of your negatives and has overviews on most of the populart developers and related chemicals. It's a book I recommend highly to both the beginner and the accomplished pro.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Anand,

It's not just the lack of indices in the Anchell/Troop books that puts me off: there are some flat errors too. For example, their modification to the Ilford rapid-washing sequence won't do any harm, but it is nonsense to assert that the rest between washes is essential and that the books that do not recommend it are wrong. I know the guys who did the original research at Ilford...

There's also a great deal of opinion masquerading as fact. Sure, we all do this -- check www.rogerandfrances.com for my books (especially Darkroom Basics) and look at the Photo School -- but we're not all quite so pompous and know-it-all in our assertions.

Basically there are four groups of developers: 'do-it-all' such as D76 and Xtol; speed increasing such as Ilford Microphen, DD-X and Paterson FX-50; fine grain such as Ilford Perceptol; and acutance such as Paterson FX-39.

'Do-it-all' developers provide what many regard as the optimum balance of speed, grain and sharpness.

Speed increasing developers give a genuine ISO speed increase up to 1 stop -- look at the free ISO Speed module in the Photo School on www.rogerandfrances.com for the meaning of 'true ISO speed increase' -- but bigger grain.

Fine grain developers give finer grain but there is no limit to how much speed they can lose. As a general guide, reckon on up to 1 stop.

Acutance developers give higher sharpness but there may be grain and/or speed penalties.

Most developers do pretty much what they say on the packet, so it's a question of choosing the KIND of developer that you want, and rating the film accordingly.

Then there are development techniques: more agitation for maximum speed at a given contrast, less agitation for higher sharpness and a compensating effect, though both the latter also rely on dilute developers.

As for recommendations, don't listen to anyone, including me. Everyone has favourite film-dev combos, but the inexplicable thing is that what works for one person won't necessarily work for another. By the same token, even combos that are widely regarded as disasters -- HP5 in Rodinal, for example -- work for some people. There's at least as much alchemy as science in it.

Often, manufacturers' own combinations work well -- HP5 in DDX, Paterson Acupan (alas recently discontinued but still available as Fomapan 200) in FX-39, and so forth -- because obviously they were extensively tested together.

I really don't think there's enough material for an entire book on film developing, unless you put in lots and lots of formulae as Anchell and Troop do. If you really want to understand what's going on, buy one of the classic books of photographic theory such as Glafkides, Haist or even (ancient though it be) Neblette. A less-known book is John and Field, A Textbook of Photographic Chemistry, Chapman & Hall, London, 1963. All these have the advantage of a lot more fact, a lot less opinion, and plenty of humility.

Cheers,

Roger