Dirty Photography

I use tap water and have never had a problem even in areas with very hard water.

I use Kodak XTOL replenished because of the fine grain and smooth tonal range. It is supposed to increase the film's ISO, however I have not seen a great effect.
Check out:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/prof...wFilmProcessing/selecting.jhtml?pq-path=14053
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/chemistry/bwFilmProcessing/xtol.jhtml
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j109/j109.pdf

jaydebruyne said:

It's concentrated! I bought them all as a bundle when I got my film developer stuff. At least I'll never need to buy wetting agent again

So after rinsing it 3 times, I should let it soak in water with wetting agent for a while?

With the roll I developed, I rinsed 3 times: first time inverting the tank 5 times, second rinse 10 times and final rinse , including wetting agent, 20 times.

I'm going to run with both hands..

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Are you using hypo clear? That is a step that you can do after fixing to make the final water wash faster. If you aren't doing hypo clear but are going straight to water wash after the fix then I would wash for longer than that. When I home develop, after the fix I run water through the tank for a minute or two to wash out the extra fix. Then I fill the tank with tap water and let it sit for 5 minutes. Pour that out, refill and repeat. I do 6 sets of 5 minutes as my final wash, so 30 minutes total. Of course I'm not just standing there while that is going on, I go off and do other stuff in between. This wash method was recommended by an APUG poster known as photo engineer who used to be a Kodak photo engineer and knows what he is talking about. I would be concerned that a brief wash such as 5/10/20 may not be archival. The goal is to remove all chemicals from the film so the film will still be clean and usable in 20 or 30 years time. If you don't get all the fix out the film might show chemical stains, so I'm prepared to give the film a lot of wash time to be safe.
After all that washing I add a few drops of LFN wetting agent to a tank of tap water and hang the film in the shower to air dry. Never get any water spots. If you do get water spots then do that final soak in something like demineralised water. Before hanging the film to dry I run the shower on hot to steam up the room. As the steam settles it brings any dust down with it. You don't want your wet film hanging in a dusty room.

Michael W said:

Are you using hypo clear?

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Nope. I will certainly do the 30 mins (6 x 5) and then the Infosol before hanging though. Thanks for the tip.

Question: Does the rinse water have to be at the same temperature as the chemicals? I did everything on my first attempt, even the rinses, at 20C.

Cheers
Jay

jaydebruyne said:

Nope. I will certainly do the 30 mins (6 x 5) and then the Infosol before hanging though. Thanks for the tip.

Question: Does the rinse water have to be at the same temperature as the chemicals? I did everything on my first attempt, even the rinses, at 20C.

Cheers
Jay

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The wash temp doesn't matter. If the stop and fix are a couple of degrees over or under it shouldn't matter either. The dev should be at 20C for the given time, but you can adjust the time if it is warmer or cooler. Less time if it's warmer and more time if it's cooler. The Ilford website has a time/temp conversion chart that you can download and print out that shows you how much adjustment to make for any variation.

Michael W said:

The wash temp doesn't matter. If the stop and fix are a couple of degrees over or under it shouldn't matter either. The dev should be at 20C for the given time, but you can adjust the time if it is warmer or cooler. Less time if it's warmer and more time if it's cooler. The Ilford website has a time/temp conversion chart that you can download and print out that shows you how much adjustment to make for any variation.

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Excellent,

Thanks so much for the info, Michael

I'm going to run with both hands..

jaydebruyne said:

I never knew it had to be a deskilled water :/ Everywhere I've seen/read uses tap water?

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Tap water is absolutely fine. General rule of thumb is that if it is safe to drink it will work. I've used tap water for thirty years and not had a problem....despite living in areas with very hard water.

BradS said:

Tap water is absolutely fine. General rule of thumb is that if it is safe to drink it will work. I've used tap water for thirty years and not had a problem....despite living in areas with very hard water.

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Cheers, BradS

beforeyour nexr manipulation, expose at box-speed or 1/3 stop below and developas suggested by Ilford or slightly longer. that will boost contrast. make sure your darkroom is light tightand double fix to see if that improves your negs. good luck.

trythis said:

It sounds as if you are asking permission to work one way or another.

Do whatever YOU want. Are you looking for rules to conform to? Would you change your exploration of photography to satisfy a web site or a bunch of other photographers?

Asking qeustions about how to get contrast or technical advise make sense to me, but your techniques permissibility?

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if in doubt and to be fair to otherspost and just state what you have done to it

when I first got a scanner I thought I'd scan negs and decide what to print... well that didn't last long as I found the prints looked different to the scanned versions. From memory (it was awhile ago!) I found the tonal balance to be different. I could scan a neg to look pretty much like a print, but doing it the other way never seemed to work out beneficial to my process of enjoyment. I went back to proofing negs the old fashioned way and using that as my guide.