Developing ULF monochrome film

[Megrez]

I wonder if someone would be kind enough to help?

I recently purchased some 10" x 12", 25 ISO panchromatic film from Wephota. The only method available to me is to process this in large dishes. I am aware that agitation, i.e. rocking the dish during development, will cause standing waves and uneven development.

Someone suggested using a two bath development stage. The first bath would contain only developing agent and restrainer in the first bath. The second bath the accelerator. They suggested 4 mins in each bath. However, they would not tell me which developer to use!

Does anyone have experience of processing in this manner, who would be prepared to share which two-part developer they used?

Many thanks in anticipation,

Gary

 

[Ian Grant]

Tray processing doesn't cause standing waves and uneven development Never heard that one before. You do need to rock gently but it's straight forward.

Ian

 

[juan]

Agree with Ian - I've developed thousands of sheets of film in trays/dishes without uneven development. If you are concerned, you might search on this site for "brush development" - which, as the name indicates, uses a brush. For two bath development, search on this site for divided D-23, which is one such developer.
juan

 

[Megrez]

Thanks Ian and Juan. It's very common to experience standing waves in lith printing, thus most people (including Tim Rudman) used a super-sized dish, to avoid standing waves and under development in the centre of the print. I had assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that this would be the same for large sheets of film. Thanks for your replies.

 

[Ian Grant]

Lith printings rather different because of the infectious development.

Ian

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

There's also the shuffle method, which requires careful handling, but is a fairly common method for processing sheet film of all sizes.

One problem with doing a single sheet in a tray, if the tray is too small, is overdevelopment around the edges of the sheet. If you're processing 10x12", you should probably be using a 16x20" or larger tray.

 

[ic-racer]

Here is an easy test with some calcium carbonate crystals to see if you are developing standing waves in your tray. In my own experience, local exhaustion of developer coupled with the increased wave activity at the edges (due to the reflections) that cause problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCnfT2398mc

 

[Existing Light]

trays that have grooves about an inch wide running lengthwise down the tray. When I developed lith film in those trays in one of my photo classes, those grooves showed up as overdeveloped strips. I guess it's possible I had the sheets in there upside down, which caused that. If you have flat trays, you might want to use those, or, at the least, wrap the inside of the tray with plastic wrap to eliminate the groove as much as possible.

Of course, if you decide tray developing isnt for you, this wont be an issue. Also, I dont know if that's a problem with lith film only or with all film, or if I just got a weird batch (arista lith film)

 

[Megrez]

David, Thank you! That is exactly what I am talking about.

ic-racer - Thanks for that. I will have a look.

Existing Light - You are on the same lines as me too. I am rather surprised to hear other members haven;t come across this issue.

I have found a two-part developer and will report back with results as soon as I have process the film.

Many thanks, once again, for all of your replies.