Agitating Prints

If you are wondering how important agitation of prints is, try an experiment where you immerse half of the print in the developer for 20 seconds, and then observe how long it takes for continued development of the entire print to equalize the tones across the entire print.
Eventually, it will usually equalize.
In my mind, agitation is intended to help prevent unequal development. You are more likely to encounter the issue if you have larger prints developing in smaller amounts of developer.

BobUK said:

It's aways best to ask if unsure

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Unless it's faster (and safe) to try it.

P

albada said:

Coincidentally, I tested this idea last week. I wanted to compress shadows, and figured if I did not agitate, shadow-development would lag the rest, yielding compressed shadows, similar to a compensating developer for film. I made two 4x5 prints of the same neg, both exposed identically. I developed one normally, and developed the other with *no* agitation for twice as long (both face-up). Both prints look identical. So maybe the slow drifting of fluid on its own is enough. Maybe there's no point in getting agitated about agitation because it makes no difference. Seriously, I'll keep agitating, but I won't be concerned about it.

Mark Overton

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Thanks for putting these old assumptions to the test. I’ll also keep agitating out of habit- and it gives me something to do for the 2 or so minutes while I wait for the print to develop.

Uneven development is much less of a problem with prints than with film due to the fact that prints are developed to maximum density in order to get good blacks. What this means is that, with usual development times, development has gone just about as far as it can go everywhere in the print. Areas that were submerged later tend to "catch up" when development slows to a crawl in the last stages.

That said, I agitate well. I'm in the "belly-flop-the-print-face-down-into-the-developer" school. This ensures even and speed submersion of the print; the entire emulsion surface hits the developer at the same time. It also minimizes safelight exposure. Every now and then I'll develop a print in complete darkness and then one face up with all the safelights on and compare whites in the two prints just to check for safelight fog (this, after doing initial safelight tests à la Kodak when installing the safelights). I don't really have problems with spills, but if so, my trays are in a sink that gets rinsed down at the end of the session anyway.

After the initial submersion, I then flip the print several times during development, pushing it down with fingers or gently with tongs. I use tongs to flip the prints as well; one set of tongs with smaller prints, two sets with larger ones (16x20 and up). I love my old rubber-tipped bamboo tongs. I've got lots of them, including the very first pair I ever bought; they're the best quality; I simply replace the worn rubber tips every so often.

I tray rock from time to time as well as jiggle the print in the solution, holding it by the edges with tongs. Randomness in agitation is the key to evenness.

Best,

Doremus

MattKing said:

In my mind, agitation is intended to help prevent unequal development. You are more likely to encounter the issue if you have larger prints developing in smaller amounts of developer.

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Exactly.

I tend to do only 5 or 6 prints per session, but I like to mix fresh chemicals each session. For economy I therefore use 1 litre of each solution in a 16"x12" tray, which is barely enough to cover the print, and I rock slowly but continuously through dev, stop and two fix baths.

I find it quite therapeutic. It gives me time to contemplate how to improve the print. I use tongs to poke in the odd bulge or corner, and to transfer prints from tray to tray. The latter is easier by hand, but I never put my fingers in any solution, partly to avoid contamination on the next print; partly so the whole darkroom stays cleaner; and partly because I don't want dermatitis. Yes, I could use gloves which I remove before handling fresh paper, but that seems unnecessarily complicated.

Doremus Scudder said:

Every now and then I'll develop a print in complete darkness and then one face up with all the safelights on and compare whites in the two prints just to check for safelight fog (this, after doing initial safelight tests à la Kodak when installing the safelights).

Best,

Doremus

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When you do the above, do you see any difference? If not then if it were me, I might be tempted to conclude that instant contact with the emulsion side confers no advantage. That's not to say that it might be just as easy to do it this way, especially if that's the way you have always done it

It's just that I imagine a beginner would find it easier to slide the paper emulsion side up into paper.

Thanks

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

When you do the above, do you see any difference? If not then if it were me, I might be tempted to conclude that instant contact with the emulsion side confers no advantage. That's not to say that it might be just as easy to do it this way, especially if that's the way you have always done it

It's just that I imagine a beginner would find it easier to slide the paper emulsion side up into paper.

Thanks

pentaxuser

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Your reasoning is sound. Still, I like to make sure that the print gets quick and even contact with the developer, even though I realize that there's a bit of leeway there. Flopping it in emulsion-side-down does the job well and has the added advantage of reducing safelight exposure a bit. You can also quickly slide the print into the developer face-up and get speedy and complete contact with the developer. If that's easier for you, and you've tested your safelights for fog exposure time, then you're good to go. I find flopping the print into the solutions easy to do (plus I like the slap of the print on the surface of the liquid ).

Best,

Doremus

I agitate constantly. I talked to a Kodak guru many years ago and he said that at Rochester they would pull the print out of the developer half way through development and drain it for 10 seconds and then submerge it again.I've always done this but have no idea if it makes a difference. Even though I test my safelights regularly I'm always scared of safelight fog so I keep the print facing down. My safelight is too dark to see the print appearing so I'm not missing anything by having it face down.

markbau said:

I agitate constantly. I talked to a Kodak guru many years ago and he said that at Rochester they would pull the print out of the developer half way through development and drain it for 10 seconds and then submerge it again.I've always done this but have no idea if it makes a difference. Even though I test my safelights regularly I'm always scared of safelight fog so I keep the print facing down. My safelight is too dark to see the print appearing so I'm not missing anything by having it face down.

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In the Agfa days, for a little while I used Neutol-WA at the strongest recommended dilution rate at 25degC in my Nova vertical slot print processor. I did this to make development faster, which it did. However, I found that lifting the print from the slot tended to cause some brown staining which I attributed to oxidation. I now agitate in that processor by a small rapid movement without lifting the print above the level of the developer (until I want to look at it). Some agitation is necessary otherwise there can be faint pattern (of the texture pattern of the plastic slot) of differential development in the print that can appear only after toning.

Agfa Neutol_WA was a conventional slightly warm tone developer which lasted well in the vertical slot. Now I use ID-78 which is at least as good.

lecarp said:

I prefer they remain calm, trying my best not to agitate them. They sometime become quite nasty when agitated!

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Not me, I try to get them riled up. Mostly by telling them I wish I had never bought them, they'll never deliver a decent print, etc. Threatening them w/ the fridge often yields good results, that might be seasonal where you are, I don't know.

I do the same with the digital POS television, I frequently remind it that tomorrow is trash pick-up and it weighs nothing and will fit in the bin! Once bent in half!