DBI ~ What To Look For?

Jim Moore · Dec 30, 2004

After reading Sean's thread, and the thread on the AZO forum about DBI with night vision goggles I have decided to order some and give it a try.

My question is, when developing by inspection what do you look for to know that the negative is "done"?

Thanks!

Jim

Jeremy · Dec 30, 2004

Take a negative that prints very easily and well into the darkroom. Dunk it into some water and compare the developing negs with this one to see when the highlights are about the same. That's my suggestion...

Personally I didn't have any negs to compare so I did a test with 6 negatives to see which film speed and developing time printed the best for a "normal" contrast scene and the next time I went into the dark I just judged based on what the previous negs looked like.

The IR goggles also make loading film holders a snap!

Jim Moore · Dec 30, 2004

Thanks Jeremy.

Jeremy Moore said:
The IR goggles also make loading film holders a snap!

Another reason I want to get one

Jim

Jeremy · Dec 30, 2004

Jim,
I was able to load 36 sheets of 5x7 film in about 10 minutes with zero mistakes, it was great

Peter Schrager · Dec 30, 2004

loading film

Hey Jeremy-I can do the same loading trick with my eyes closed in the darkroom!
Peter

Jeremy · Dec 30, 2004

peters said:
Hey Jeremy-I can do the same loading trick with my eyes closed in the darkroom!
Peter

Me too, but it takes me about 5 minutes/2 holders when I have to do it with my eyes closed

Buster6X6 · Dec 30, 2004

Hi Jeremy
What kind of night vision goggles did you buy? and how do you use them?Just curious.
Greg

eggshell · Dec 31, 2004

Buster6X6 said:
Hi Jeremy
What kind of night vision goggles did you buy? and how do you use them?Just curious.
Greg

Lots of info here:-

Dead Link Removed

Good Luck!

Christian Olivet · Dec 31, 2004

J Moore, only working with TMY400 is worth the trouble of using IR goggles. Any other film can be easily inspected with a dim green light.

Jeremy · Dec 31, 2004

Christian Olivet said:
J Moore, only working with TMY400 is worth the trouble of using IR goggles. Any other film can be easily inspected with a dim green light.

I really wouldn't call it trouble at all. It's like developing film with the room light on once you get used to it. The reason I started doing so is that I have weak night vision and was having trouble inspecting with the dim light.

jim appleyard · Dec 31, 2004

Unblinkingeye.com has a good article on this as well.

matt miller · Dec 31, 2004

JMoore said:
My question is, when developing by inspection what do you look for to know that the negative is "done"?

When I DBI I look at the base side by reflected light from the green safelight. The base side is a milky white color. Check the base side about half way through & you'll see the milky white color without any sign of highlights. Check again at predetermined intervals & you'll see the progression of the highlights getting darker through the milky white base. When my negs are done for Azo printing, the highlights are coming through fairly strong, but not too much. I had to develop & print a few to get comfortable with judging the highlight density I wanted for Azo. It's a lot of fun. The IR goggles really sound like fun.

Flotsam · Dec 31, 2004

I can't even judge my prints under the safelights.
Film dev. is Time/Temp. all the way for me.

Ole · Dec 31, 2004

There's a difference depending on the developer. Non-solvent developers were called surface developers for a good reason: The emulsion side turns black long before you see anything through the base. So you should know what to expect with the developer you use...

DBI ~ What To Look For?

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