Chosing A Developer: To Shawn Kearney

>>>>>>> Yeah, it was always 1:1 in a controlled setting, with regulating

thermostats and thermometers. I did everything by the book. Pre soaked the

film, developed with the canisters sitting in a bath of water at 72 (or whatever it

is, been a while) degrees, checked the thermometer each time after agitation,

nobody commented on my agitation, except around finals :) and timed

everything carefully.

Hopefully, you will soon learn that people who develop their own films can

still afford to have a life of their own. First off, pre-soaking is circa 1970, a

method still valid for a very few films but useless for most of them. Secondly,

baths are a pain in the ass. The MOST care you can afford to try and yet

remain within the parameters of a psychologically sane photo enthousiast is

to mix your solution about 2 degrees higher than recommended, because you

take in account the fact that it cools down a bit as you pour it. I guess you don't

invert but agitate instead if the tank is sitting in a water bath. Unless you're

trying to maintain temperature while in Sahara or the north pole, inversin

beats temperature... I'd give up the bath to be able to do inversion.

Consider this: if your room T is (I'd say) within 3-4 degrees of your targeted

devt temperature, you don't have to care about measuring it with a

thermometer. The solution will cool down / heat up by the time your devt is

pretty much solidly complete. After all it's under 10 min in most cases, it

doesn't have the time to shift so much that it'll screw your film.

And a note to your teacher :-) He/she's a stupido. Go see the pros, nobody

develops with a tank in bath. Maniacs do... Plus, most tanks aren't made of a

material which easily conveys heat, in ten minutes or so, I doubt there are any

energy transfers whatsoever.

My 2¢: do it to pass your tests and screw that method when you'll be on your

own.

>>>>>> Still resulted in images slightly too grainy, lacking detail and a hair

too contrasty. I wasn't really happy with the results, I mean, i made good

images... But the way i feel about it is i am going to be learning the zone

system and putting that much effort into pre-exposure don't I want a developer

with the highest latitude I can get (and afford)?

Start with deviations, it's the best way to learn. Keep your method while

adding and substracting one minute to devt time. Other recipes to consider:

FP4+ in Tmax (one minute more than recommended). Not too grainy for sure

and you shouldn't have big contrast problems, it may even be a little blaaah

but at least it's a place to start. Another one which I love (thank you Lex) FP4+

shot at 64 in ID-11 1:1, 9min.