For a 5' x 40' print enlargement . . .

[DannL]

. . . is 500 gallons of developer, stop bath, and fixer (each), really enough?

Check out the story in . . . The Photo Critic 1904

 

[Ian Grant]

The Google link isn't showing the print.

However that figure at first sounds like gross overkill.

Back in the 70's early 80's when I had a specialist photographic company we put a life-size photograph of a F1 racing powerboat on the side of a truck, that was 5' x17'. The Developer, stop & fixer were sprayed onto the emulsion. That took a maximum of around 20 litres of Developer, less than 10 litres stop bath and probably 40 - 50 litres of Fixer.

So multiplying those figures by 3 for the 5' x 40' enlargement gives:
60 litres Dev = 16 US gallons,
less than 25 litres stop bath = 6.6 US Gallons
120 -160 litres Fixer = 32-40 US Gallons,

My figures are all erring on the high side. We always processed with over capacity on stop bath & fixer as they kept well, only developer would have been made up in fresh batches, So that indicates those 500 gallon figures are way out of proportion.

Ian

 

[DannL]

The Google link isn't showing the print.

However that figure at first sounds like gross overkill.

Back in the 70's early 80's when I had a specialist photographic company we put a life-size photograph of a F1 racing powerboat on the side of a truck, that was 5' x17'. The Developer, stop & fixer were sprayed onto the emulsion. That took a maximum of around 20 litres of Developer, less than 10 litres stop bath and probably 40 - 50 litres of Fixer.

So multiplying those figures by 3 for the 5' x 40' enlargement gives:
60 litres Dev = 16 US gallons,
less than 25 litres stop bath = 6.6 US Gallons
120 -160 litres Fixer = 32-40 US Gallons,

My figures are all erring on the high side. We always processed with over capacity on stop bath & fixer as they kept well, only developer would have been made up in fresh batches, So that indicates those 500 gallon figures are way out of proportion.

Ian

I updated the link above. The book may take a bit to display, but not more than a few seconds. If you see the book text, but the images are missing , it may mean your acrobat reader is outdated, "maybe", or Java is disabled on your puter. The Photo Critic 1904

Another method is to go to http://books.google.com/

Search for "Photo Critic" on the search line. It should be the first book to list. Then go to page 111 of that book. It's just an interesting story (with pictures) of the process during that time frame.

And here's link to 245 photography books I've compiled which you can download in pdf format . . . http://www.google.com/books?hl=en&uid=11755300410566273582

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Hey, they used Rodinal! According to Guillaume Zuili - it's the 'silent king'.

That's cool! Thanks for posting.

- Thomas