Help with Trix @ 1600 Rodinal or D76

[sam_portera]

Ive searched the archives and haven't really found an answer.

 

I shot a wedding last night with some Trix @ 1600. I want grain. I

have on hand D76 or Rodinal. I know the rodinal will give grain but

at what dilution would be best? Or would d76 1+1 be better. I read

a few comments that d76 was unpleasant with trix at 1600.

 

most pushed processed example Ive seen look like prints from

underexposed normally processed negs, I want a grainy look some

shadow detain would be nice but not neccessary. Nice blacks .

 

Any advice

[andrew_hull]

I would go with D-76, personally. I think that amount of grain would be noticable, but not

distracting. It really is personal taste. I think that Rodinal would be too much, but again,

it's my taste.

[titrisol]

D76 is the way to go in this case.

 

Rodinal works great with TriX when rated up to 400, I wouldn't push it in Rodinal unless you want grain and high contrast.

[johnmarkpainter]

"Unpleasant" to whom? It's all relative.

 

D76 gives a softer look than Rodinal. Rodinal is more edgy with more defined grain and

higher contrast.

 

jmp<div></div>

[johnmarkpainter]

D76 is the classic "Press" look.

 

jmp<div></div>

[sam_portera]

Wow john was that straight d76 or diluted. Looks exactly what I'm looking for.

[bruno]

I don't think that Rodinal is good for pushing (I might be wrong, though). I think that TriX + D76 should be the best combo for this kind of work (although you might want to try Microphen or XTol).

[r_hofland]

I love Rodinal for the slower films and larger formats (120 and sheet films) but unless you want really exaggerated grain, I think I'd ponder D76 or XTOL diluted a bit which will give better results. Other alternatives include Crawley's FX formulations for maximizing film speed (FX-11, a PQ-Glycin formula, and FX-15, an MPQ formulation) although they are also fine grain "solvent" developers like D76. If you can find a fresh batch of Paterson's Acutol- S (FX-15) try that on a test roll at a dilution of 1:3 or more which lowers the sodium sulfite concentrations below their optimal solvent concentrations.

 

You probably want to keep the sulfite below 25 grams per liter (final) to minimize the solvent action and still get the speed enhancements needed (D76 and the two FX formulas mentions have 100-125 g/L in stock solutions). At 5 grams of sulfite per liter you'll start to see greater compensation effects, especially if you reduce your agitation to once every few minutes, and this will help to tame contrast issues as well. However, your developing times with D-76 and the two FX formulas would be very long at the 1:20 and 1:25 dilutions needed to get to this point, and the speed benefits may be lost (definitely with D-76 unless you buffer it a bit more). But Rodinal 1:25 or 1:50 with 4-5g/L of Sodium Sulfite will produce better speed (30-50% increase), and Photographer's Formulary's TFX-2 may also be a good choice for the same reasons.

 

READ chapters 5 and 6 of the Film Developing Cookbook to better understand the chemistry of developing agents, sulfite and the buffers that make it all work!

[scott_walton2]

I too like Rodinal, but at 1:200. If you want really sharp edge, grainy stuff... 1:50 or 1:100 but I would vote for the D76 1:1 also. The best grain would be the 1:50.

[r_hofland]

I haven't used the 1:200 dilution of Rodinal much and so I can't really comment, but I do intend to further explore the well diluted Rodinal (200X or more) +/- other modifications such as 4-5 g/L of sulfite and perhaps some more buffering or carbonate to rev up the developer capacity a bit. Of course doing all of this may cancel out the other benefits of Rodinal so I'm not ready to say it is the best way to go.

 

 

Adding the low levels of sulfite (4-5 g/L) to Rodinal and perhaps even a bit of Kodalk or bisulfite WILL improve the effective film speed but at the price of a bit less resolution and sharpness due to the buffering effects. As always compromise is inevitable. However, if you are pushing the film anyways, this may not be such a bad thing. Still, the safe thing is pushing in D76 at 1+1 or more, with XTOL reputedly an even better choice.

[sam_portera]

I processed the negs in D76 1+1 for 13.25 min. The negs look really thin, I may try selenium intensification to get a little more density.

[r_hofland]

That SHOULD have given you good density so long as the original exposure was adequate and everything was fresh and properly tempered. Selenium will boost it a bit, and on 35mm should provide a special effect all its own.

[j_bibiphoque]

Hey,

 

I want to process a "1600 ISO TriX" with D76 1:1.

Does anybody got the processing time required ?

And What about the fixer time ?

 

Jerome

[kaiyen]

I realize you've already processed it but..I actually have had some good experiences with TXT @ 1600 in Rodinal 1+50 with minimal agitation - 10s every 3 minutes. Overall time is 22:00.

 

allan

[j_bibiphoque]

22:00, you're kidding ?

With 1:1, I guess this will be much shorter...