Turning point in developing film. What made you re-think your technique ?

[John Bragg]

I am sure of one article that I read years ago by Greg Mironchuk about how to use HC-110. It was a real epiphany for me and has influenced how my photos look to this day. What has happened in your photographic learning that you consider a turning point ?

http://www.mironchuk.com/hc-110.html

A photo by Greg Mironchuk.

 

[sazerac]

Fantastic article!

 

[Snapper_uk]

No turning point, just a gradual evolution, finally settling on D76 1+1 - I'm a low volume user and mix up a 1L bag when needed.

A couple of things in this article did surprise me though;
1) "I, personally, only agitate one or twice during development, because I want to be gentle to my precious film"

I thought conventional wisdom was to agitate once every 30 seconds?

2) "use Rodinal and FG-7... both wonderful developers... but they are UNSTABLE. Once you open them (particularly Rodinal), they start to decompose in air at an alarmingly fast rate".

I thought conventional wisdom was that Rodinal lasts forever?

 

[John Bragg]

No turning point, just a gradual evolution, finally settling on D76 1+1 - I'm a low volume user and mix up a 1L bag when needed.

A couple of things in this article did surprise me though;
1) "I, personally, only agitate one or twice during development, because I want to be gentle to my precious film"

I thought conventional wisdom was to agitate once every 30 seconds?

2) "use Rodinal and FG-7... both wonderful developers... but they are UNSTABLE. Once you open them (particularly Rodinal), they start to decompose in air at an alarmingly fast rate".

I thought conventional wisdom was that Rodinal lasts forever?

I get the being gentle to negatives bit, and that has also worked for me, particularly with highlights, but I also think he is mistaken about Rodinal. Still, the main bit of the article about dilute development and minimal agitation holds a lot of wisdom.

 

[Keith]

Yep ... I also don't get the Rodinal thing. Marty (freakscene) who is a member here has explained that a lot of people mistake the crystal formation in Rodinal as it ages as a sign that the developer has deteriorated ... which is actually incorrect apparently. Can't remember what the cause is but Marty did explain it in detail at the time.

 

[OurManInTangier]

My turning point was going back to film for personal use after shooting digitally for some time. I decided if I was going to go back I should admit all my faults (impatience being one of the greatest and most destructive) and re-learn from the beginning to give myself a chance of consistent results.

Over agitation and a lack of formulaic process caused both huge grain and a lack of both control and understanding (of what went right or wrong.) I'm asking quite a few questions here at RFF, some of which may seem plain daft to more seasoned film users, reading articles such as the one you attached to this thread and generally the result is that I'm hugely enjoying the learning process and the improvements these seem to be bringing.

Long, long way to go yet though 🙂

 

[OurManInTangier]

Yep ... I also don't get the Rodinal thing. Marty (freakscene) who is a member here has explained that a lot of people mistake the crystal formation in Rodinal as it ages a sign that the developer has deteriorated ... which is actually incorrect apparently. Can't remember what the cause is but Marty did explain it in detail at the time.

Interesting. I'd thought Rodinal had excellent lasting powers, from what I'd read and heard here mostly. I've got a half full bottle, last used around 4 years back, that sounds like a Slush Puppy when you shake it - perhaps it's worth me putting a test roll through it. It's been well sealed and stored but I had thought four years must be too much?!

 

[Charlie Lemay]

After years of trying to figure out the Zone System, with little success, I bought something called the Densikit, I think, and a whole new world opened up. It was just a simple slide-mounted frame of film of a known desity that you sandwiched with your film to arrive a the correct time for a contact sheet. Later in metering the shadow side of my navy blue camera bag and placing the reading in Zone III on my Lumapro F, it was not long before I realized that I kept getting the same reading every time on a sunny day. This led me to consider the Sunny Sixteen rule which led to a simple way of teaching this all to beginners. I called it ZoneSimple and you can see how it works on my web site. You can read the explanation behind it all, which I do not have my students do, or you can just download (Free) the "recipes," in a practice that is more like cooking than physics, and start getting great results with extended scale. There is aslo a gallery of student work to check out so you can see the results.

 

[John Bragg]

My turning point was going back to film for personal use after shooting digitally for some time. I decided if I was going to go back I should admit all my faults (impatience being one of the greatest and most destructive) and re-learn from the beginning to give myself a chance of consistent results.

Over agitation and a lack of formulaic process caused both huge grain and a lack of both control and understanding (of what went right or wrong.) I'm asking quite a few questions here at RFF, some of which may seem plain daft to more seasoned film users, reading articles such as the one you attached to this thread and generally the result is that I'm hugely enjoying the learning process and the improvements these seem to be bringing.

Long, long way to go yet though 🙂

Welcome back to film Simon. For what its worth, old addage of one film and one developer is a good one. Really learn what one film can do then that knowledge will reap huge benefits. I have spent a long time trying to get Rodinal to work but for me HC-110 is the "one" for my needs.

 

[Ronald M]

No turning point, just a gradual evolution, finally settling on D76 1+1 - I'm a low volume user and mix up a 1L bag when needed.

A couple of things in this article did surprise me though;
1) "I, personally, only agitate one or twice during development, because I want to be gentle to my precious film"

I thought conventional wisdom was to agitate once every 30 seconds?

2) "use Rodinal and FG-7... both wonderful developers... but they are UNSTABLE. Once you open them (particularly Rodinal), they start to decompose in air at an alarmingly fast rate".

I thought conventional wisdom was that Rodinal lasts forever?

I agree on one thing, D76 1:1.

Rodinal does last "forever." I recently finished a test bottle bought new in 1998. They were into plastic bottles at that point , an EPA mandate from the glass ones with the rubber stopper you could puncture with a hypodermic just like the doctor does. I decanted to a glass one left from Agfa toner which has a tight plastic cap.

Once a year I drew out enough to do a roll. There were standardized test targets so I could tell if things were changing. I got the same results right up to the end where I lost around 10% contrast. 10+ years is good enough for me.

D76 is my normal. I mix from scratch. It is cheap ( if home mixed) and effective and I can use undiluted to 1:3 to get any effect I want.

I have no idea were people get being gentle means do not agitate. You get streaks and "surge marks" from insufficient agitation. No film manufacturer has this in their instructions and that should tell you something. Look at the leader and see the various densities. That is on the neg too and sooner or later will be on your film where it shows.

You control contrast with a clock, not by with holding agitation. The least you can do 10 sec once per minute maybe skipping two or three non adjacent cycles at THE END, emphasize non adjacent .

I never had an ah ha moment. I did it correctly from the beginning realizing it is a mechanical process an you follow the procedure as if you were a machine. The closest thing was when I built the last darkroom and I put in 3 micron water filters and hepa air filters. Clean film with no retouching. Marvelous.

FG7. Got good results but did not continue with it. I dislike premixed developers.

I went to a science and engineering school so the training carries over .

 

[ChrisN]

For me, the turning point was in learning how to read negatives to determine if they had received correct exposure and correct development.


Another eye-opener was Gem Singer's simple explanation of the zone system, in a post on the Large Format Photography forum.

 

[Photo_Smith]

Fairly good article, mystified by the Rodinal bit, almost the exact opposite of the reality of the situation.
I myself have used Rodinal from a glass bottle with a blue and orange label I think from the 1970's and it wasn't much less active than a brand new bottle.
This guy has a bottle from the late 1920's
http://kwerfeldein.de/2012/11/15/so-jung-kommen-wir-nie-wieder-zusammen/
It's in German, but I think we can see the truth...

 

[OurManInTangier]

I'm kind of doing the one film one developer route, except I'm trying to go with two film speeds. A 400 and a 100, at the moment I'm impressed with Agfa APX which seems relatively grainy for a 100 speed film but appears very sharp, shame the negs curl. But also Fomapan 200 rated EI 100 seems like an excellent all rounder (with nice flat negs.)

Ronald has best described how I'm trying to be with my developing process - machine like, so I know exactly what should be happening time after time.

I'm enjoying the links guys, if you keep them coming I'll keep reading

 

[OurManInTangier]

This guy has a bottle from the late 1920's
http://kwerfeldein.de/2012/11/15/so-jung-kommen-wir-nie-wieder-zusammen/

My four year old bottle is clearly a mere bubba, better not throw it away

 

[Photo_Smith]

Yes, just a baby 🙂 Rodinal lasts longer than most photographers...
I have the paper the print those old negs with...

 

[John Bragg]

I think my Rodinal is 18 years old. My HC-110 is a mere 12. Both show no signs of stopping. Ronald I agree with the machine like precision, however I agree to disagree on the agitation. My negs are beautifully even with no surge marks or drag. I do however use a 2 film tank and put film in the top spiral only.🙂

 

[Bill Clark]

I'm still thinking/formulating my technique.

I use different films & developers.

I use D-76 a lot. I mix it up in 10 gallon lots of stock. I use a print washer to mix it up then transfer to mt 2 liter soda bottles. Using the mt soda bottles I find the stock lasts for at least 2 yrs.

However, I also use Mic-X , and some Formulary products. Also have some Foma R09 and Adox APH09.

Recently started to develop some film with "stand" development.

The biggest enlargement I can currently make is 16x20. Put one tray on the counter the rest on the floor. Going to make my first darkroom this summer!

It's all good!

 

[ibcrewin]

My a-ha moment came after looking at some expired tri-x souped in rodinal. Cheaping out and doing things for economy was fine, but I wasn't excited about the results. I was much happier with the results using fresh film and d-76 (1+1)

 

[anjoca76]

For me it was when I stopped experimenting with different developers and stuck with D76 1+1. Once I learned to stay consistent it allowed me to narrow down what I was doing wrong and correct it. When I first started I used to dread developing because I never knew what my results would be. That's no longer the case.

 

[L Collins]

Once I became consistent. Same developer for same film e.g hp5 rated at 800 in Microphen 1:3, develop for 24 minutes at 68*, final rinse with distilled water, hang to dry two hours, cut and sleeve immediately.