Can I reuse my Developer, Stop & Fixer for developing of prints?

silvercloud2323 · Apr 18, 2020

Can I reuse my Developer, Stop & Fixer for developing of my prints? And if yes, how many times i can use it ?

I use:

Ilford multigrade Paper developper
IlfoStop
Ilford Rapid Fix.

I'm not sure. Please help.
Thx

MattKing · Apr 18, 2020

Yes.
The Ilford website has data sheets for each of those chemicals which will give capacity recommendations.

NB23 · Apr 19, 2020

lieven2323 said:
Can I reuse my Developer, Stop & Fixer for developing of my prints? And if yes, how many times i can use it ?

I use:

Ilford multigrade Paper developper

IlfoStop

Ilford Rapid Fix.

I'm not sure. Please help.
Thx

36 8x10 prints per Liter of developer, stop and fix.

If FB prints, for thorough archival, cut the fix capacity in half, therefore 18.

grainyvision · Apr 19, 2020

Note that at least in my experience, the paper developer has good capacity but poor keeping properties. I noticed differences in development when doing a few prints, bottling the developer, and doing another print session with it the next day

NB23 · Apr 19, 2020

earlz said:
Note that at least in my experience, the paper developer has good capacity but poor keeping properties. I noticed differences in development when doing a few prints, bottling the developer, and doing another print session with it the next day

24 hours open tray or 7 days in a bottle.

Don’t forget that to fully develop a print, up to 4 minutes is the norm. Sometimes after 2 minutes you might think it’s already too long, and yet you are only half way through full development.

The way to judge a developer is by the blacks. If no deep blacks, it’s getting exhausted.

grainyvision · Apr 19, 2020

NB23 said:
24 hours open tray or 7 days in a bottle.

Don’t forget that to fully develop a print, up to 4 minutes is the norm. Sometimes after 2 minutes you might think it’s already too long, and yet you are only half way through full development.

The way to judge a developer is by the blacks. If no deep blacks, it’s getting exhausted.

The instructions for Ilford Multigrade is 2m for FB papers. Yea, you can probably stretch it a lot further if you extend development time significantly, but I'd bet that this imparts other effects like fog or inappropriate darkening of highlights. As with all things film, do what makes results you like

NB23 · Apr 19, 2020

Actually, Ilford recommends 1.5 to 3 minutes for 1:9 dilution, and 2-5 minutes if it’s diluted 1:14... but yeah, 90% of the time, 2 minutes is enough unless the developer is starting to get old...

silvercloud2323 · Apr 19, 2020

Thank you all so much!

darkroommike · Apr 19, 2020

I will often deploy a second set of matching trays as floating lids if I am short on time, then continue using my chems the next day. Or I did before I got a set of Nova pods. Now I use those and developer can be used for a week or more.

Can I reuse my Developer, Stop & Fixer for developing of prints?

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency