Fp4 @ 125 + Rodinal 1:100 Semi Stand

I have no experience with stand or semi stand development (what is the difference between the two?). Today I plan to go and shoot some interesting objects on top of a hill near my house. Strange things that have found their way up there. Couches for stargazes, children's toys, ect. I plan to shoot 120 Fp4 at 125asa in minimally harsh light, not exactly soft though. Then develop in Rodinal 1:100 at 20c for 60 minutes. Agitation will be 30 seconds of inversions for the first minute, each inversion lasting five seconds. Then another 30 seconds at 30 minutes.

As I said before this will be my first shot at stand development. Will this technique work to a decent effect? I have chosen the times based on what I've read from others and it seems to be the average. After this test I will evaluate and see what needs to be changed.

Is there much of a difference in stand development between 1hr and 1.5hr?

I personally do not like dense negatives for printing. Is this a bad choice then?

Krzys, first I would ask why you believe you need to use stand development? What are you trying to achieve? Or would you just like to try it out? Anyway, the process you have described would be semi-stand development. Stand development would be letting the tank sit after the first min or two of agitation for the entire time of development with no agitation. I think you would see a difference in density from 1 to 1.5 hours. I would start with the 60 min time and agitate halfway through, as you have stated. I don't think you'll see dense negatives. The process is very forgiving and helps to even out exposure errors and or over development. You'll have printable negatives. Just remember to give a pre-soak of atleast 2 min, agitate atleast the first min, and that with semi-stand or stand development you'll have an increase in grain, fog, and edge effects, which I think is nice and may work well with the graphic subject matter you have described. Good luck and report back with results!

Since this is your first time, and that you are exposing at an EI of 125, you should bracket your exposures. I wouldn't bracket under the 125. Go a stop or two over. Experience in both stand and semi-stand has shown that slightly more exposure than my normal EI is better, especially for stand development. I should add that I develop in pyrocat-hd, which is an outstanding developer for this purpose.

Thanks for the info brian steinberger and Andrew O'Neill. I just want to try it out.

For what it's worth, I get good results with FP4+ and (Agfa) Rodinal 1:200 for 1 hour. 1:100 is my standard dilution for regular development, so it seems a bit strong for stand development to me. I'm interested to see your results...

- Randy