Penalties for Over-Developing?

[kinkedsb]

Is there any penalties for over-developing with D-76 for a minute over the recommended time?

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Yes, by definition if you are "over-developing" then you are developing too much. It depends a lot on what your actual dev time is. If it's 5 minutes then a minute extra is a lot. If it's 12 minutes then that extra minute has a relatively much lower effect.

 

[Pinholemaster]

Over development simply means more contrast and larger grain. Depends on your working solution though. Are you using straight stock solution, 1:1, or 1:3 ratio. At 1:3 the minute over isn't was detrimental as stock solution.

Also depends on your lighting condition. If your film was shot in a flat lighting condition, then the extra minute will help you. If the scenes on your film were very contrasty at the time of shooting, then the extra minute can hurt you.

 

[kinkedsb]

I believe it's straight stock solution, but for some reason I want to say it's 1:3, the reason why I was asking was b/c I was contemplating over, if I diluted it or not. But I don't believe I did afterall.

 

[Chris Breitenstein]

Five minutes in the penalty box. Just kidding.

Those charts are a starting point only. I have always found that using the recommended time produced ugly, flat, difficult negative and prints. I would try and narrow down the development time by increasing it excessively (either %150 or %200 of the recommended time). Depending on how the recommended time turns out.

Say for example the recommended time is 10 minutes, but this time produce flat prints. Double the development time (20 minutes), and this turns out to be too much. Your highlights are totally unprintable and the overall contrast is way too high (you need a grade 0 or 00 filter). You have just surrounded the optimum development time, and can usually rely on intuition as to whether the correct time is closer to ten or twenty minutes. The next step is to develop for the time intuition tells you is correct. The name of the game here is narrowing down the time as efficiently as possible. So rather then slowly creeping up on the correct time, you intentionally over develop in order to set the boundaries. This is a very intuitive approach, so if you are relatively new have either your teacher/mentor/fellow APUGers help you determine the correct time, that is what they/we are here for! It may take a few rolls (3-4) to find the best time, but when you do it will be well worth the effort. And making better prints will become incredibly easy.

Finally always use print quality as a gauge for development time, rather then charts and densitometers. The print is what matters, not how the negative graphs!

Best of luck!

 

[Neanderman]

Is there any penalties for over-developing with D-76 for a minute over the recommended time?

The penalty for a minute more than the recommended time would depend on the recommended time. An extra minute on a 5 min recommended time is going to have a lot more effect than an extra minute on a 15 minute recommended time.

The risk, in any case, is that you will end up with "blocked" highlights. At some point, you reach a point where the contrast of the negative becomes to great to get a good print from it.

Ed