Avoiding exaggerated edge effects with Tanol

[Bowman]

Hello all,
This is my first post to this site. I've been developing FP4+ (120) in Moersch Tanol for a little while now at the recommended dilution of 1:1:100 with agitation every 30 seconds. I was not satisfied with the sharpness of the results, so I've gone to a dilution of 2:2:500 with continuous agitation for the first 30 secs. and two inversions every 10 minutes thereafter, for a total of 45 minutes, all at 20 degrees celsius in distilled water.
I am thrilled with the sharpness and clarity of the prints I am now getting from the negatives developed this way. The only downside for me are the very pronounced edge effects. I was in fact hoping for edge effects, but these are a little thicker than I wanted, not subtle at all.
So here's my question. Can I get a handle on the edge effects by agitating more frequently, say every 5 minutes? And if so, any recommendations about how much to shorten development time?
Thanks for input!

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

It's a lot about testing. Try it. I use agitation as a tool to control contrast - both shadow and highlight density - and exposure mostly controls my mid-tones. So agitation becomes very important. I use agitation and time as variables in my process and sometimes I need to agitate every 30s and sometimes every 5m. Adjust time as necessary.

If you agitate more often you will likely see less edge effects. When I used pyro staining developer (Pyrocat-MC) I agitated every 3 minutes in my standard routine, and got some very nice negatives without edge effects. I tried standing development, as well as highly reduced agitation, and got edge effects.

Try every 5 minutes and see what happens. Adjust the development time until you're happy with the negatives.

- Thomas

 

[Alan Johnson]

I put up a couple of pics that show with Rodinal that the edge effects decrease with increasing agitation.
www.apug.org/forums/forum37/51037-rodinal-minimal-agitation-stand-development.html
As a start I suggest try agitating every 3 min with a development time 50% longer than that recommended for normal development.
I spent ages trying to figure out how to get exaggerated edge effects but you got there right away.

 

[Bowman]

Thank you, Thomas and Alan, for these helpful replies, and thanks, Alan, for the link to the pictures. I'd post a picture of my own except my scanner is packed up in its box in the closet. The density build-up along the border between shadows and mid-tones/highlights is very striking with the dilution and agitation rhythm mentioned above. It's nice for some subjects, but too artificial for others.

Apart from the bright fringes everything else is fine - tonality, contrast, shadow detail. The negatives are very easy to print.

Since I'm starting from a 10-minute agitation cycle, I think I'll come down to 5 minutes first, reduce the time from 45 to 30 minutes, and see what happens.

Thanks again,
Brady