Diluted Developers

[systemchalk]

This is a fairly straightforward question, but I haven't been able to find something that specifically answers

this question.

 

I intend to develop Fuji Neopan Acros with TMax developer in a Patterson tank (which advises 290ml per roll of

35mm film). The Kodak guide advises 1:4 for the standard dilution (which works out to 58ml concentrate into 232ml

of water correct).

 

Now, I was advised that the longer I let the film develop, I could achieve a larger range of tones. If nothing

else, I'd like to see what the difference is, and so consulted the 'Massive Dev Chart' and digitaltruth.com and

saw TMax at 1:9 would suit the purposes of the experiment. This brings me to my question though. To further

dilute the solution do I:

 

a) Keep the Patterson standard (290ml), making it 29ml of Tmax into 261ml of Water?

 

or

 

b) Keep the base amount of Tmax (58ml, as reached at the top of the post) and simply add more water (which works

out to 522ml, the total solution being about the capacity of my tank, only using one roll of film instead of two).

 

To put it a simpler way, if I've done it right should I have the same, or more liquid in my tank when diluting

outside the guidelines?

 

I signed out Ansel Adams' The Negative and option b) (58ml Tmax + 522ml Water = 580ml developer for 1 roll of

Acros) seemed the most consistent with his suggestion, but again, it did not seem explicitly stated. My only

question of this is that nothing seems changed (that is, the same amount of concentrate is in there), but it now

occurs to me that the extra water keeps less of the concentrate working on the film at any given time. This

brings me to the last question raised by reading Adams' guidelines.

 

The book suggests the benefits from dilution (in his terms 'compensation') are achieved with less agitation, and

that I should expect an increase in grain. Grain isn't too much of a worry (this is, after all, an experiment)

but it would be good to know if I should also watch my agitation to get the full effect. And, of course, I'd love

to make sure I have the right quantities in the tank.

 

Many thanks for your help.

[chris_waller]

Your (a) is correct - 29 ml TMax developer plus 261 ml water - so that the total volume comes to the same 290 ml required to cover the 35mm reel. (Personally, I mix up 300 ml - the arithmetic is easier and it gives a little extra to allow for leakage.)

 

I use Rodinal, which can be diluted anywhere between 1:25 and 1:100. And here's a case in point; Agfa give dilutions of 1+25 (i.e. 26 parts in total) and 1+50 (i.e. 51 parts in total), both of which make the arithmetic more difficult, so I use 1+24 and 1+49 which makes the arithmetic much simpler.

 

As regards agitation, I aim for the minimum. I give six inversions in the first 30 seconds then one inversion every 30 seconds after that. It's very personal; some people give two inversions every minute. What is most important is that you are consistent in your agitation. But resist the urge to over-agitate; all that does is over-develop and give excessive density in the highlights. Keep development to the minimum necessary to give a negative which will print to a full range of tones on a grade 2 paper ( or 2.5 if you are using Multigrade). This will also minimise grain.

 

I think that Adams' point is that reduce agitation may increase the edge effect with some developers, increasing acutance and thus grain, but my general experience is that keeping development to the minimum keeps grain to a minimum.

[marek_fogiel]

Unless you want to develop to exhaustion ( e.g. through a lengthy stand development) it is advisable non to go below the

amount of stock developer recommended by the manufacturer as sufficient to fully develop a given surface of film, so if

you dilute beyond the recommended level, you should be better off with using a bigger tank. For developers like D76 or

Xtol, Kodak recommends at least 100ml of stock solution per film, check the minimum for the Tmax developer.

[thomas_taylor2]

I hace also read of the 100ml of stock solution per 8x10 sheet (ot its equivalent) requirement and verified this with a darkroom printing instructor.

 

Kodak does not recomend dilutions beyond 1:1 for its Xtol developer. However I routinely develope 6 sheets of 4x5 Acros in a Jobo 2500 series tank (1500 ml capacity) with Xtol at 1:3 using hand inversion. I follow Fuji's advise and continuously agitate for the first minute and 5 seconds every minute thereafter. To keep the math and measurement simple, I mix 1600 ml of solution.

[oistrakh]

Steve Anchell in his Film Developing Cookbook also recommends keeping the same amount of developer and increasing the size of the tank when using higher dilutions. The bottom line is you should look at Kodak's tech sheet for TMax developer and look at the minimum amount of developer needed for the surface area you are trying to develop, and make sure that you include at least that much developer no matter what dilution and total volume you end up using, if you want consistent and reproducible results.