Developing FAQ, where is it?

[RattyMouse]

Some member here has in their sig file an awesome set of FAQ's withe regards to developing. I cant believe that is not a sticky here. Can someone point me to that person's sig file? I lost it yet again.

Thanks.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I generally just head to Digitaltruth.com, but that's just me. I need a t-shirt that says, "I (heart) the Massive Dev Chart".

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Maybe try polyglot?

 

[RattyMouse]

Maybe try polyglot?

Yep, that's what I am looking for. Really, his FAQ's should be a sticky here. How this is not the case is really impossible to understand.

Thank you!

 

[polyglot]

that's me! Sig below...

 

[RattyMouse]

that's me! Sig below...

Yep, others helped me find you.

In your FAQ, you dont mention starting off with just adding heated water to the tank. I thought pre-wetting the film helped control temperature as well as help the developer contact the expanded film. Not as common as I thought?

 

[polyglot]

Are we talking B&W or colour development here? Most people don't pre-wash B&W film at all, in fact some are vehement that it is a bad idea. Efke recommends it, but the big brands (Fuji, Kodak, Ilford) don't.

My FAQ recommends a pre-wash at process-temp for C41 and E6 since they're pretty temp-sensitive and a tank full of film and spirals will almost always be notably colder (probably 12-20C) than process-temp without a pre-wash, so the error in operating temperature could be significant. B&W is so close to most people's room temp (probably within 3C) that the operating-temp errors are smaller and it's also easy to correct minor contrast variations in printing B&W.

A pre-wash will change your developer activity (in a film-dependent way) slightly due to swelling of the emulsion. If you're tuning your development results for a particular contrast, you need to be consistent about always doing or not doing a pre-wash.

 

[RattyMouse]

Thank you for your explanation. I am referring to b & w film. No prewash it is then!

 

[MattKing]

Thank you for your explanation. I am referring to b & w film. No prewash it is then!

FWIW, although it isn't specifically recommended by some of the manufacturers, many of us do pre-wet our B & W film.

It is a great source of argument here on APUG.

I do it because I feel it helps ensure more even development and consistency.

Most importantly, you must ensure that if you are going to do it, you should do it in the same way, each time.

 

[polyglot]

Indeed, there are many excellent arguments for pre-washing B&W. You won't get dribbles across the film when using a wet tank for one thing!

For some reason it is contentious though I don't think I've ever seen a good argument against it, let alone a demonstrably poorer result.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

FWIW, although it isn't specifically recommended by some of the manufacturers, many of us do pre-wet our B & W film.

It is a great source of argument here on APUG.

I do it because I feel it helps ensure more even development and consistency.

Most importantly, you must ensure that if you are going to do it, you should do it in the same way, each time.

Yup. Me, too. The only time I didn't do it was with Diafine, but that's because it's a different beast altogether compared to most other developers.

My workflow went like this: 5 minute presoak, dump out water, develop, dump out water, water stop (3 changes), fix, wash in several changes of water, then do a couple minutes in running water to get the rest.