b\w two bath film developing

Information required on two bath developers and the process involved

Thanks Tim

First you soak the film for a certain time in the first bath which

contains the actual developing agent. The emulsion is then saturated

with the developer. The second bath, in which the film is then soaked

for a certain time *w/o washing* (or you will have removed the

developer again) contains the activator without which the developer

will not do anything at all.

<p>

Two-bath developers are usually compensating developers, because there

is only a limited amount of developing agent in the emulsion, and this

is consumed faster in the highlights and slower in the shadows. They

are also often very tolerant w/ respect to processing times for the

same reason: If the film has been soaked for a sufficient time in the

developer, leaving it in the activator a little longer is not so

likely to do much harm as there is no developer in the highlights any

more. One nice aspect of two-bath developers is also that films of

different makes and types can usually be processed at very similar, or

even identical times. The catch, however, is that (at least to my

knowledge) use them for contrast control in the way you can use other

developers, i.e. developing the film somewhat longer for enhanced

contrast.

<p>

So far, I have only tested Emofin by Tetenal.

You can vary contrast by changing the time in bath A with most two-

bath developers.

so, in layman's terms, what is the advantage to using a 2 bath

process? does it give you better shadow detail without

overdeveloping the highlights, or am i totally going down the wrong

track? (probably the case).