D-23 developer vs stand development to tame contrast

[Rlibersky]

D23 was my favorite developer for portraits using Plus-x film. It was slightly softer and almost impossible to block the highlights. God i miss plus-x.

 

[John Wiegerink]

There are two ways of dealing with bromide streaks. First, do not eliminate agitation all together. A couple of gentle agitations every 15 minutes will help control the problem. This is likely what the old timers were doing in their trays but that is my own speculation.

The other way, which is the one I use, is to keep the developer from warming as the process proceeds. I use a small cooler for water and put enough water in it to keep the developing tank cooled. The water is around 18C and when I finish the initial set of agitations I put the tank in the slightly cooler water, cap off the cooler, and leave it alone for the remainder of the stand time. I have not experienced any bromide streaking since I starting doing this.

Wow! I have never heard of preventing bromide drag using the cooler method. I'm using Xtol replenished at the moment (love it by the way) and thought about trying it for stand development just to see how it compared to Rodinal stand. I've used Rodinal 1hr stand several times and only had bromide drag on one roll and that was hard to tell until I digitized it. I would think Xtol should be a very good candidate for stand or semi-stand development.

 

[presspass]

I've been using D-23 for a number of years, going back and forth from diluted 1:1, 1:3, divided, and full strength replenished. For the past year or so, it's been replenished. It gives good highlight separation with full shadow detail at box speed. It is sensitive to agitation. You can give it as little as four inversions to start followed by four inversions a minute. If you want more contrast, invert for the first 30 seconds or even the first minute. I've never seen streaking with this developer except when used as a divided developer and the second bath - borax or metaborate - is used without agitation. That will give you streaks. D-23 is easy to mix, seems to last nearly forever, and manages to give good cloud/sky detail without a filter. BTW, all the above applies to either Tri-X or HP5+ in 35mm. Hope this helps.

 

[pentaxuser]

What is the explanation for the cooling trick and how down in temperature can you go (or is it just about keeping the temperature unchanged for the whole process time)?

A good question and perhaps particularly a propos stand or semi-stand processing in the summer or any climate where it is difficult to keep the 18-20 C temperature steady for more than say 10 minutes which is necessary with stand/semi-stand development Last night in the U.K. at the end of the first week in September my darkroom was 28C and I could only hold my tank temperature at 20C for about 8 mins. Over 45 mins or an hour it would certainly have risen to by say 3-4 degrees

pentaxuser

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

D-23 is a lovely developer. Super easy to mix up, too. I routinely use it with XRAY films (1+1), and Pan F 50 (1+3). D-23 diluted, allows me to expose Pan F at 25, getting excellent shadow detail, and nice high lights.

 

[Pioneer]

What is the explanation for the cooling trick and how down in temperature can you go (or is it just about keeping the temperature unchanged for the whole process time)?

This is useful for me when I cannot keep the solution temp at, or just below, 20 C while the film is standing in the solution. My small darkroom is not air conditioned and in the summer it can easily get pretty hot, exceeding 30C. Starting the water in the cooler at 18C seems to keep the solution temp from rising far enough or fast enough to cause streaking. I've not tried it at lower temps but I suspect this would delay the development process too much.

Temps have been cooling off around here quite a bit this month so I have recently had no problem maintaining solution temperatures at or slightly below 20C while stand developing.

 

[Nokton48]

White Shark Newport Aquarium SRT100 58 1.2 HP5 1600 by Nokton48, on Flickr

White Shark Newport Aquarium SRT100 58mm F1.2 MC Rokkor wide open HP5+ EI 1600 Developed to EI 3200 D23 1:1. Omega DII Omegalite 100 Black Rodagon laser aligned 5x7 Arista #2 RC Dektol 1:2

 

[chuckroast]

I use it routinely at 1:2 or 1:3 with semistand: 2min initial continuous agitation, one 15 sec agitation at 31min, out at 60 min.

Also works well with EMA: 2 min initial continuous agitation, and 10sec agitation at 21min, 41min, out at 60min.

I have also done semistand as above with D-23 1:9 with 0.5g/l lye added to it. This will give very sharp negs which will also express more grain in smaller formats like 35mm but works great for large format.

I process in open 2 liter tanks. For rollfilms, I get the reel off the bottom of the tank by inverting a small funnel and putting the reel over the nozzle (wearing nitrile gloves). For sheet films, I use pinch style hangers with the film hanging horizontally to keep it away from the bottom of the tank. This will avoid bromide drag.

When I go into the darkroom, I turn off the lights in the adjoining room. When I want to leave the darkroom, I put a cover over the tank in the dark - I just use a black plastic food delivery tray as a tank cover. That way I can open the darkroom door and slip out into the adjoining room without any light hitting the film in the tank,

 

[pentaxuser]

White Shark Newport Aquarium SRT100 58 1.2 HP5 1600 by Nokton48, on Flickr

White Shark Newport Aquarium SRT100 58mm F1.2 MC Rokkor wide open HP5+ EI 1600 Developed to EI 3200 D23 1:1. Omega DII Omegalite 100 Black Rodagon laser aligned 5x7 Arista #2 RC Dektol 1:2

Nice to know this developer can handle the likes of HP5+ at 1600. What I had more difficulty working out here is how well the shadows are dealt with at this speed as the pic is either light or shade i.e. largely either black or white. Of course it may have been that way in reality i.e. there are no gradations of shadows no matter what speed was used

Can I ask how much of a loss of shadows do you find at 1600?

Can I also ask what do you base the 3200 time on that you use?

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[Nokton48]

Nice to know this developer can handle the likes of HP5+ at 1600. What I had more difficulty working out here is how well the shadows are dealt with at this speed as the pic is either light or shade i.e. largely either black or white. Of course it may have been that way in reality i.e. there are no gradations of shadows no matter what speed was used. Can I ask how much of a loss of shadows do you find at 1600? Can I also ask what do you base the 3200 time on that you use? Thanks
pentaxuser

Well so much depends on YOUR variables, I can only say that it WORKS very well for me. I am very satisfied with the shadow densities I'm getting with HP5+ exposed 1600 EI, developed PER ILFORD'S Recommendations for 3200 in D23 1:1. When the light is low level and kinda harsh, this technique really works for me. Try a roll and see if it fits your personal technique. You could increase the stated 1600 time quite a bit and prolly not ruin this roll.

My darkroom is cool most of the year, 66F. I remember I used 28 minutes D23 1:1 with constant agitation, a Patterson Tank on a Unicolor Uniroller for constant agitation. I think it was an eight reel tank of the older variety.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks Nokton I have always thought that there was sense in developing D3200 at the time for one speed higher in the likes of DDX than what it was exposed at and your experience certainly suggests this works for D23 and HP5+

Can you give me the source for Ilford's recommendations for times for D23?

I had no idea that it gave such times as it is not a developer produced by Ilford or anyone any longer as far as I know. The only times I can find for D23 are those listed in the MDC but there is nothing there for D23 at more than 800

John Finch in his video on making it seemed to suggest suggest that the development times were close to those for D76 and while he didn't mention ID11, I think it safe to assume that ID11 will have similar times. So I checked Ilford's times for HP5+ at a speed of 3200 in ID11 but it doesn't give one. It stops at 1600

So I have run out of avenues to explore

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[Nokton48]

I remember that I used 28 minutes at my darkroom's ambient temperature. I do use rotary processors (Unicolor Uniroller) with 8 reel Patterson tanks. Really it's pretty hard to overdevelop when going for EI 3200. I doubt you will be overcooking it even at thirty minutes, I've gone as long as thirty five minutes at times.

From Digital Truth:

Ilford HP5+

D-76

1+1

3200

25

25

25

20C

D76 1:1 and D23 1:1 should be very close, You can go to thirty or thirty five without ruining it I have found

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks for #38 I thought it must have been the Digital Truth(MDC) that you had got the Ilford times from but hadn't looked at D76 as it is ID11 that is the Ilford developer.

pentaxuser