Dilution of Rodinal

Hans Borjes · Mar 19, 2006

I am experimenting with FP4 and Rodinal according to a recipe of Kai Rechtenbach. The current dilution of Rodinal I am using is 1:25, a fresh bath for both first and second development.

It looks like it might be necessary to increase the contrast, but for sure I have to increase the time for the first developer for better transparency.

I am wondering whether I could increase the contrast by using a higher concentrated Rodinal, e.g. 1:12, 1:20 similar.

Stephanie Brim · Mar 19, 2006

The shots Dead Link Removed were done using Rodinal 1:100 with Tri-X at ISO 400. I am also using a bottle of Agfa Rodinal and not another mix. I don't think you really need to lower the dilution to get the effect you want. I started with Rodinal by inverting three times every minute...I've now gone to inverting three times every other minute with much better results. Perhaps altering your agitation sequence will help you out as well.

Disclaimer: I'm relatively new to Rodinal. This is just in my experience with it.

Soeren · Mar 19, 2006

Hans Borjes said:
I am experimenting with FP4 and Rodinal according to a recipe of Kai Rechtenbach. The current dilution of Rodinal I am using is 1:25, a fresh bath for both first and second development.

It looks like it might be necessary to increase the contrast, but for sure I have to increase the time for the first developer for better transparency.

I am wondering whether I could increase the contrast by using a higher concentrated Rodinal, e.g. 1:12, 1:20 similar.

Are you talking Reversal process aka making B&W slides ?
Cheers Søren

Hans Borjes · Mar 19, 2006

@Stephanie Brim
There is not much I can do about altering agitation, because the Jobo processor does 75rpm automatically. But anyway the pictures on your web page look great, just like b/w should be.

@Søren
Yes, I am talking about b/w reversal. I have been using the Kodak kit before (with mixed success, the green cast...) and I have seen one (stunning) result from the Foma kit. Now I am seeing first impressions from light reversal with Rodinal and want to adjust brightness and contrast.

avandesande · Mar 19, 2006

Although I don't have any personal experience jobo+rodinal is supposed to be a disaster. Rodinal shines with decreased agitation.

Hans Borjes said:
@Stephanie Brim
There is not much I can do about altering agitation, because the Jobo processor does 75rpm automatically. But anyway the pictures on your web page look great, just like b/w should be.

@Søren
Yes, I am talking about b/w reversal. I have been using the Kodak kit before (with mixed success, the green cast...) and I have seen one (stunning) result from the Foma kit. Now I am seeing first impressions from light reversal with Rodinal and want to adjust brightness and contrast.

Hans Borjes · Mar 20, 2006

avandesande said:
Although I don't have any personal experience jobo+rodinal is supposed to be a disaster. Rodinal shines with decreased agitation.

Although I have read as well that Rodinal is expected to have better sharpness with non-continuous agitation, according to my results, I would not say that Jobo and Rodinal used together are a disaster.

However, I am happy to suggestions regarding other developers for reversal processing that

come in liquid stock solution,
allow contrast control over dilution,
and can be stored for a long time once opened.

Dilution of Rodinal

Hans Borjes

Stephanie Brim

Soeren

Hans Borjes

avandesande

Hans Borjes

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