Tmax 400 and D76, what happened?!

[sean_fitzgerald1]

I shot some of the new Kodak Tmax 400 last night. I had it in the

fridge for about... 4 weeks. I let it warm up for about 10-20

minutes. I shot some photos inside with a tripod, most of the

exposures were around f/8 and f/11 and the shutter was from a half a

second to around 1.5 seconds. I used a 50mm 1.8 EF lens. I took about

21 pictures inside with this. The next day I took two photos of my

dog outside with a different lens. (28-80 EF) I forget the shutter

but it was quite fast and it was at f/8. ANYWAY...

 

I developed the film with d76 1:1. I'm not 100% sure I diluted the

developer correctly... I'm using powder to make 1 gallon. I followed

the directions which said to pour all of the powder into 800ml of hot

water and stir until it is dissolved and then add more water until it

reaches one gallon. Then when I used the developer, I diluted the

stock gallon 1:1 with water. I heated this to 20 C and developed the

tmax 400 in this for 12:30. I agitated for 5 seconds every 30 seconds

the first 5 minutes and after this I agitated for 5 seconds every

minute. Everything else was done normally.

 

The negatives look very low contrast. I had to print most of these on

a grade 4 paper , except for the super high contrast photo of my dog

in the snow which was on a 2.5 paper. They're all very grainy as

well. I don't know what the heck is going wrong. Any ideas??? I was

using a rebel 2k, by the way. I know the meter is correct, I tested

it against all my other meters.<div></div>

[crackers_.]

Interior light can be flat and TMY is pleasent like that. A dark dog in a snowstorm is supposed to be a test of skill. The times and dilution are ok, but I'd skip the final 1:1 for stock - at this point just another variable.

 

The meter. What was it pointing at when it went off? Take the reading off a mid to mid/dark area. Caucasion skin is too light and fools the meter into thinking a scene is too bright - causing under exposure.

 

Diluted developer can increase grain but I'd go easier on temperature change. A refrigerator won't prolong film's life but is a consistent well controlled environment. A couple of hours of sealed warm-up time would be the preference to eliminate condensation.

 

Along that line: if a camera is outside long enough to get cold, have it sealed in plastic before going back in and let it warm up like that.

[ramiro_aceves]

Hello Sean

 

I can not understand why you get that low contrast negatives. I have atached for you a picture of the first time I used ID-11 at 1:1 dilution for TMAX 400 for 12.5 minutes(it is suposed that ID11 and D76 are almost the same developer). I used the time published by kodak. The pictures I got where a bit high in contrast, I had to use grade 1.5 paper to print them correctly. I use a difusion enlarger, so the negatives must be really contrasty. We do not know what type of enlarger you use. It will be usefull that you send a scan of your negatives, but, If you controlled temperature well, as you said in your post, I am almost sure your problem is underexposure. Your pictures have the typical apearance when you have an underexposed negative and you expose more time in the enlarger to higher the tones. The shadows lacks of detail. The snow scene is a typical scene in wich you have to over expose one ore 2 stops to avoid underexposure. The snow fools your meter and it exposes for middle gray, so that you have to increase exposure up to 2 stops to elevate the snow tones to white.

 

Also I think you should let your film warming up for longer time.

 

I agitate 5 times the first minute and 5 times/minute the remaining time

The contrast index for the development times I have tested the film is:

 

10 minutes: CI= 0.53

11.5 minutes CI= 0.61

 

Are you sure that your temperature is 20C = 68F ?

 

I hope this helped.

 

Sorry for my bad english.<div></div>

[lex_jenkins]

I've had no problems with TMY and ID-11 (pretty much the same as D-76) using standard dilutions and times, other than grain and tonal characteristics that I don't like as well as Tri-X. The attached image was scanned from the negative, taken last summer - it printed pretty much the same way. This particular roll was exposed and developed as 400.<div></div>

[stevierose]

Very nice shot, Lex! It really grabbed my attention and made me wonder what was going on between the two people. thanks!

[conrad_hoffman]

I haven't mixed D-76 in a long time, but that 800ml sounds low, more like a quart package. Usually a gallon pack starts out with about 3 quarts of water, not less than a quart. See if you started out with a smaller pack of developer than you thought- that would account for low dilution, low contrast, and darkroom misery.

[lex_jenkins]

Thanks, Steve. I should have included some information to place that photo in context. Those are actors Jonathan Horan and Lorca Simons in rehearsal for the Shepard play "Savage Love." It was a sweltering summer afternoon and the sheen of sweat on their skin made for some skin tones that puzzled me in the darkroom 'til I realized the cause.

[stephen hazelton]

Conrad, good observation. Normally, the water amount that you mix the powder in is 3/4 or more of the total amount; just enough left out so that adding the powder doesn't cause it to run over the amount. They do sell D76 in quart and half-gallon envelopes.

 

One of life's little irritations: Kodak says mix the powder into water at 125 degrees F, but the Kodak darkroom thermometer only goes up to 120 degrees F.

[erik_l.]

Sean,

Your problem is this:

You mix the contents of the package into 800ML of water. Once dissolved, you add water to make the total 1000ML (1 liter), not 1 gallon. You way over diluted you stock solution.

 

Then to make matters worse, when you again diluted the stock solution to make your 1:1 developing strength solution, you diluted it even more.

 

You were using your D76 at sometihng like 1:5 (I'm guessing here).

 

If you are indeed talking about the small packages of D76 powder, these make 1 liter of stock solution, not 1 gallon.

 

Erik.

[aardvarko]

It should also be noted that the powdered developers tend to behave a little more consistently after they've sat for a day or so.