How long does it take you?

hi eddie

i would say a handful of rolls, maybe a dozen sheets
but im not too choozy ... probably im someone whose
" this looks perfect " is the next persons " WTF was he thinking, this looks like crap"
thats ok, i don't usually give anyone else my film to print

How long? About one hour of time plus the cost of two sheets of 8x10 film which is my regular format.

I do a stepped ten exposure sequence (via darkslide) of my standard front-lit daylight scene which never varies from year to year. The developed negative tells me the film speed for the level of shadow detail I want. Then I re-shoot the scene at the newly confirmed film speed and cut this sheet into five strips in the dark. All the strips go in the developer tray at the same time and come out at defined intervals.

In the end I have ten different exposures and five different developing times and the film no longer no longer has any secrets. For different films and different developers just repeat.

That's a pretty cool idea, Maris. Those two sheets sure supply you with a ton of information!

For a particular film/developer combination, I've been able to get results I like after a mere 3 to 5 rolls.

For 35mm, I always use FP4 and D76 at 1:1 and can't remember the other films, developers I have used for this format. I also can't remember when I last developed a roll I thought was off in terms of chemical/time/temp application, for printing on a condenser enlarger (although I may sometimes get the camera exposure wrong).

Actually, I am using only D76 for about 6 years now and I feel I slowly get a grasp with the 3 different films I use.

Maris said:

I do a stepped ten exposure sequence (via darkslide)...

Click to expand...

When I used to test with a densitometer, I used 5 different drilled darkslides (plus an undrilled one), so I could get 8 zones on one sheet of 4x5. By flipping 1,2, and 3, I'd have 6,7, and 8. Made testing a lot quicker. I've lost them, but it worked like this:

A while. I move a lot. Right now I am in the middle of my 18th move in 18 years! Conditions change for me - I didn't realize what a big difference water made when it came to developing, or the needs of the enlarger you were using. The hard water at my current location meant changing a few variables, and my "new" diffusion enlarger meant developing a little longer for better contrast. If and when I return to Canada I'll probably go back to using a condenser, but I think the negatives should be alright. I have to develop negs to my current situation, not what might be in the future. It's tough though -- I envy those of you (most of you?) who live in the same place and work with the same enlarger year after year -- you can really have your system for developing and printing nailed down.

That being said, I'm tired of figuring things out over time and will try David's system for testing once I move to Kyoto. I imagine I'll have plenty of interesting places to photograph to work on my test rolls.