Tri-x on Redinal beginer question

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pedro.m.reis

Newbie but eager to learn
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Hi.
New to developing my films, and i have beginners questions :)
What is the relation between agitation and grain?
What happens if i develop for less time or for more time than recomended?
Last, can anyone recomend a good book for developing technics, covering tri-x and Rodinal?

Thanks,

Pedro Reis
 
Pedro: I do not have a suggestion at hand for a book, but I have used Tri-X in Rodinal in the past and liked it. (My standard developer was HC-110 at the time, but now I will be trying Ilford DD-X as well.)

The standard wisdom is that grain is increased with agitation and wet time. According to this theory, one should increase temperature a bit to reduce wet time, use minimal agitation and make sure all soutions are at the same temperature.

My last foray with Rodinal I used 23deg C, 5 seconds of agitation at the beginning, and one inversion per minute thereafter.

The best online source of information on developing techniques in general and Rodinal in particular is the APUG forum, but there is a log of knowledge here, too.

Trius
 
Rodinal is the magic developing soup :) ... everything is possible. Ask 10 persons and get min. 11 answers.

In my opinion no book is necessary. Rodinal is normaly used at 20° Celcius, for this temerature you get all those nice times at the web (for example: Massdevchart ). Just to start you can use it at 1+25 7 minutes (agitation every minute). Just try an look how it fits to you.

/rudi
 
Welcome/Bienvenido/Bem Vindo to the world of Rodinal ;)

- Rodinal can be used in several dilutions, being 1+25 and 1+50 the most common ones.
- By diluting Rodinal, and opposed to D76 and other developers, grain is smaller and tonality seems to be longer (IMHO)
- Agitation and grain do not relate as much as contrast and agitation. Agitation helps fresh developer to reach the film, thus developing the "blacks" (highlights) more.
- With rodinal it seems to be a good technique to agitate less than with other developers. Depending on the length of your development time a once a minute agitation works better to keep the contrast in check.
- With TriX, expect to see some "interesting" grain, shooting TriX at 200 is a common practice, and develop in Rodinal 1+50 or even 1+100.
- There is a lot of Rodinal-holics here, in APUG, photo-net and such places gthat can be of great help with techniques and such.

- IMHO the best trick I have used with rodinal yet is adding Vitamin C!

pedro.m.reis said:
Hi.
New to developing my films, and i have beginners questions :)
What is the relation between agitation and grain?
What happens if i develop for less time or for more time than recomended?
Last, can anyone recomend a good book for developing technics, covering tri-x and Rodinal?

Thanks,

Pedro Reis
Click to expand...
 
Well my own personal Tri-X and rodinal times

1+50 iso 400 11mins
 
The midtones look realy good, but IMHO the shadows nees some improvement.
Specially in the Charrete picture
 
Shadows are defined by exposure. So increase your exposure OR decrease your EI. Are you rating TXT @ 400? Try 320, or 250 (your shadows are pretty black, so perhaps 250 rather than 320).

Of course, you also have to consider how you are metering. If you're just using averaging or center-weighted metering, you'll have less control over shadows from shot to shot than if you spot-metered the shadows specifically.

allan
 
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