I developed my first roll of Delta 400 a few days ago. I used Rodinal 1:50 for 20 minutes with agitation the first ten seconds and then ten seconds every minute (suggested by DigitalTruth with agitation suggestion from the box of film). I'm actually suprised by the results. From what I've heard about Rodinal and Delta 400, I was expecting total crap.
It's hard for me to judge 35mm negatives, but there seems to be good shadow detail and highlight detail, but there doesnt seem to be a lot of midtones. Hopefully I'll get in to a darkroom pretty soon to make a few prints. I'll scan any prints I make and post.
if I am lacking in midtones, like I suspect I am, would less agitation help to bring out the midtones? I think I read somewhere that less agitation helps bring out the midtones, but I dont remember exactly what I read. Any suggestions is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Ok, so here's the prints
I was playing around with contrast filters on this one. I used a grade 5 contrast filter. this picture is actually the side of a building and the sky...
<a href="http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i176/Chronictown82/Delta%20400%20Test%20Prints/?action=view¤t=IMG_0006.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i176/Chronictown82/Delta%20400%20Test%20Prints/IMG_0006.jpg" border="0" alt="Abstraction"></a>
I know these pictures arent great (I didnt even clean the dust off the negatives), but great photos were not what I was going for. Before I started using this film/developer combo to do any professional prints or for my school portfolio, I wanted to shoot a test roll and see if I liked it. I was looking for grain structure, tonality, contrast, and all that fun stuff. (I've stated all this before, but I just felt like sating it again.)
the first picture is contrasty. There is a little highlight detail on the side of the buildings facing the sun, but I dont think it showed up in the scan.
The second one is dark with not much detail in the shadows. I actually like this one. I know it would have looked "better" by most people's standards if I lowered the contrast and perfectly exposed the negative, but I think this print has a dark, ominous look, which I like.
The third one is a picture of my girlfriend. That was just a random picture I took. I didnt pose her or anything. it was like "Hey, look!" and then I took the picture. I think this film/developer is too grainy for portrait work.
The last picture is the only picture I used a contrast filter. It's actually the side of a building and the sky. I used a grade 5 contrast filter.
Overall, I like the grain and contrast, but I dont think I'll use it for portraits. Now that I know how Delta 400 in Rodinal looks, I'm going to spend some time perfecting the combination, and i'll try to post some more professional-looking photos soon.
(Edited to say that Photobucket is acting up. I rotated the images correctly in photobucket, but some are sideways here. I'll fix it when I find out what the problem is)