B&W developing technical details

Hello Everyone!

I am a newbie to analogue photography and am looking for some advice.

I should like to know if there is a book or books I could obtain on the technical process of B&W developing as I am going to mix my own formulas.

Already have several "cookbooks" with recipes.

I have collected all the chemicals required and the darkroom equipment.

Specifically I would like to learn:

1. What each of the ingredients do the chemical reactions involved.

2. The effects of developing time and agitation on the finished negative.

3. The effect of temperature.

4. Pushing the film.

I realize that experimentation is essential in the learning process and am not asking for advice on the above as such.

Book recommendations would give me a place to start my own learning and a basis for my experiments.

Thanks for you time.

Welcome to APUG. When you say you are going to mix your own formulas, do you mean that you will try to create new formulas? The best place to start is with some tried and proven recipes such as D76. You can then start playing around with the ingredients.

"The Film Developing Cookbook" by Anchell and Troop is a great place to start.

A developer contains a developing agent, accelerators, restrainers, buffers in various combinations. You will eventually develop an understanding of how these all work together.

Developing time, agitation and temperature all increase the amount of development as they increase.

The best place to start is with a simple formula and start making variations from there.

Kevin's recommendation of The Film Developing Cookbook is spot on. Its the best book I have seen about developers and how they work.

I would not try designing developers; you're just beginning with film, and already wanting to do something that even the most technically advanced photographers are rarely qualified to do.

Hmm....

Seems like "The Film Developing Cookbook" second edition is very different from the first edition, as it seem to place more focus on the development process these days and not too much on the chemistry behind developers and fixers.
http://www.amazon.com/Film-Developing-Cookbook-Darkroom-Vol/dp/0240802772

To the OP: You should try and get hold of the first edition of this book, if Amazon doesn't have it, try finding it as an ebook or trough eBay.

On a personal level, I feel that the second edition is more to my liking, so I put that one on my wish-list ^^

Hello,

Thanks for the replies and good advice.

I am not intending to design my own developers just use the recipes in the book, which I have.

What I was getting at was my developing an in depth knowledge to clear some of the information overload.

I guess that it all comes down to trying things out and good record keeping.

Thanks,

Welcome, and I can't recommend good note taking highly enough.

Cookbook is fun to read, but I am afraid you may not get anything better compare to existing and well proven forumlas(product) available in the market.

D76 1+1: Nothing can go wrong with this formula and it is cheap.

On the chemistry of photography, I started with "The Fundamentals of Photography" by CEK Mees. My edition is from 1935 but the essentials are still accurate.
Also "Photographic Processing Chemistry" by LFA Mason.
And the one the real gurus recommend is Grant Haist's 2-volume "Modern Photographic Processing".

You can usually pick up either of the first two for a small sum from 2nd hand booksellers, but the Haist costs an arm and leg.

Mason is clear but technical and unless you have an excellent grasp of chemistry 70% of it will be pretty opaque. I don't, but I found it very helpful all the same.

I suspect Haist will be similarly technical.

Don't worry about developers on a 16x20 print blind test you won't be able to tell much difference. The film choice is the significant one.

We have wars about Hp5+ versus Trix...

D76 was the cheapest developer.

ID68 (Microphen) is marginally less toxic and better cause a more modern chemical substituted

Wear rubber or nitrile gloves at least.

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/aboutus/page.asp?n=26

gory details

http://www.lostlabours.co.uk/photography/formulae/developers/devD76_variants.htm

http://www.udmercy.edu/crna/agm/phenvitc.htm

...about the storage life of photographic developers.

Read through the FAQ link in my signature for some absolute basics, then get a copy of Way Beyond Monochrome. The techniques it teaches you are far more important than chemistry choices and making your own soup. I would also recommend Beyond The Zone System by Phil Davis; it overlaps with some of WBM but covers in more detail the effect that varying development has on your negative and how you use development controls to get the result you want.

australis said:

Specifically I would like to learn:

1. What each of the ingredients do the chemical reactions involved.

2. The effects of developing time and agitation on the finished negative.

3. The effect of temperature.

4. Pushing the film.

Click to expand...

1. I'm not qualified to answer the question, and it may be hard to find a blanket statement for all chemicals in all recipes. But you have developing agent, restrainers, and preservatives.

2. Time affects total contrast of your negative. Longer time = more total contrast (more difference between maximum and minimum negative density). Agitation affects total contrast AND local contrast, because when you change agitation you change the mid-tones in relation to highlights and shadows.

3. Temperature has similar effect to developing time. Higher temperature, with all other things being equal, results in higher overall contrast. Be careful with temperature, because all developers are not made to work at an extended temperature range, and when you deviate from your normal temperature by more than, say, half a degree Fahrenheit or so, you should compensate by changing your developing time. I think Ilford has published a chart that says how much you should compensate. I recommend buying a calibrated thermometer, as most darkroom thermometers are not very precise, but they are tremendously important to the end results.

4. Push processing film increases total contrast, because in effect you're developing the film longer than is recommended. If you combine push processing with the popular practice of giving the film less exposure than it was designed for, if may be necessary to push process in order to get as many of the tones in the resulting negatives as normal as possible. Usually when you underexpose your film you lose shadow detail (which are largely determined by exposure), and the more you underexpose the more shadows you lose. Also, the more you underexpose the more you have to over-develop.

Hope that helps.

The Film Developing Cookbook and Darkroom Cookbook are excellent starting places, and they will still serve you well as you advance. They will also answer most of your technical questions. While you are starting, pay some attention to your equipment needs. Get a good scale and good mixing vessels and stirring utensils. Also get a good, easy to use tank.

Most responders have skipped over the functions of the components of a developer. The cookbooks will explain them, but here is a capsule view. Developers contain one or more developing agents, usually metol and hydroquinone, but there are many others. These chemicals reduce the silver halide in the film emulsion to metallic silver. They do it in a controlled way so that the reduction is proportional to the exposure of the film. The developer also contains a preservative, almost always sodium sulfite. This chemical keeps the developing agents from being oxidized by the air. It also plays a complex role in the development process. The developer also contains an accelerator, which is an alkali like sodium carbonate or borax. Developing agents only work in an alkaline environment, and this chemical provides that environment. A solution of sodium sulfite is very slightly alkaline, and some developers, like D-23, rely on that. Some developers also contain a restrainer, usually potassium bromide. This chemical limits the development process and influences the gradation of the image. All the components interact in complex ways, and different films may respond to the same developer in slightly different ways. Experimenting can be fun and very interesting.

pdeeh said:

On the chemistry of photography, I started with "The Fundamentals of Photography" by CEK Mees. My edition is from 1935 but the essentials are still accurate.
Also "Photographic Processing Chemistry" by LFA Mason.
And the one the real gurus recommend is Grant Haist's 2-volume "Modern Photographic Processing".

You can usually pick up either of the first two for a small sum from 2nd hand booksellers, but the Haist costs an arm and leg.

Mason is clear but technical and unless you have an excellent grasp of chemistry 70% of it will be pretty opaque. I don't, but I found it very helpful all the same.

I suspect Haist will be similarly technical.

Click to expand...

I second these choices. They are each excellent. The Mees book has been an important part of my library since shortly after it was published. Darkroom Cookbook contains too many errors so I never recommend it.

Jim Noel said:

The Mees book has been an important part of my library since shortly after it was published.

Click to expand...

Wow Jim, the 1st ed. was published in 1920, so (assuming you were very precocious with your interest in photography and chemistry) that makes you about 110 years old.

You must the oldest APUG member by a long way

I am reading Mees now. Writing style compare to present day is far different from the past.