Changing developer ratio???

[stradibarrius]

With all other things being equal what would be the difference if you increase developer dilution and increase development time?

Ex. Acros 100 in D76 1:1 at 68f for 10.5 min
vs Acros 100 in d76 stock at 68f for7.25 min?

Would the higher dilution and longer developmen time give more or less sharpness & contrast?

 

[Barrie B.]

Altering Dev. Time

Greetings ,
Test for yourself , take a few test frames or sheets , note exposure used then do the test yourself, IF YOU KEEP NOTES THEN YOU WILL HAVE YOUR ANSWER > EASY>

 

[Chazzy]

The higher dilution would give you slightly higher sharpness and slightly bigger grain.

 

[Ronald Moravec]

What Chazzy said.

 

[keithwms]

Some developers are more compensating at one dilution than another.

 

[Bruce Watson]

The higher dilution would give you slightly higher sharpness and slightly bigger grain.

Yes. The difference is quite small however; you may have trouble seeing it in even a 10x enlargement. Among other things that happen when you increase dilution is you increase the dilution of solvents. This means they aren't so active at dissolving the sharp edges off the grains which results in a slightly bigger grain (by not rounding off the edges of the grain so much). Leaving the edges on the grain in turn gives you a bit more sharpness.

What dilution is really good for IMHO is giving you a longer development time which is sometimes useful.

 

[dancqu]

Some developers are more compensating at one
dilution than another.

I believe you are alluding to compensation through
developer depletion. The more dilute the developer
the greater is it's potential for compensation and
the greater the potential the less frequent
the agitation.

Have I described stand or semi-stand
or two bath development? Dan

 

[keithwms]

Dan, I suppose that what you said applies for any developing method based on high dilution coupled with with decreased agitation.

But I was alluding to more minor changes in dilution, i.e. comparing 1+1 to 1+3. Quoting from the formulary:

Note that as Johnson uses the 1+3 dilution, this is for very high contrast
scenes, with slight overexposure. The 1+3 dilution produces higher grain but
also higher sharpness than lesser dilutions. Those who wish to use it for more
normal scenes should extend these times by a couple of minutes. Johnson
uses D-76 undiluted for best gradation of normal and low contrast scenes, and
diluted D-76 for better sharpness and the ability to bridge high contrast scenes.

Anyway the studious and diligent photographer might use a step wedge and make up a chart of CIs as a function of dilution and dev time....

As for two bath, I don't know, I haven't tried, I've only done warm water bath. Makes some sense though, if you wnated compensation then spending some portion of the dev time in dilute developer with minimal agitation might do it.

As for me, when I want compensation I usually want a lot of compensation and then I will go all out and use POTA!