Print Developing Times

I've been reading up and testing Beers' A and B, and mixes of
the two for contrast control with Graded papers. A read of an
article from Photographers' Formulary explained the use of their
TD-30 and TD-31. Those two are of the Beers' A and B type.

In that article they maintain that any less than two minutes time
in a print developer is too little; that the 'tone' will suffer. Is there
much truth to that and how generally does that minimum apply? Dan

we have used that developer many times over a long period of time, and have always used a minimum of 2 minutes as the time, that is because that is the time frame that i have tested my negatives and paper for printing.

I have not read the Formulary's information, and have not used their version as i mix my own from scratch; however, my formula and times where given to me years ago by bob kolbremer. I don't remember him ever discussing a tone suffering, but i have never heard of development times for fiber every being less than 2 minutes; usually between 2 to 3 minutes being the standard, with the user determing the exact times.
Consistency is the key, so i would pick a time and stick with it.

It is a fun developer and very helpful, especially with graded papers ; however, we have used with the MCd papers with success.

Hi Dan.
I recall in Ansel Adams' book "The Print" he had a chart of developing times, with optimal development occuring at about 90 to 100 seconds. I think this was for a developer with similar qualities to Dektol - a basic metol-hydroquinone developer. Since the Beers formulas vary the amounts of those two basic agents, I would think the same curves would apply. You're after the best d-max, without starting to fog the high values. Also, Adams made the point that a print must be fully developed, as opposed to negative materials. And while we're at it, Edward Weston developed his prints in Amidol for 3 minutes. Experiment and have fun.

dancqu said:

I've been reading up and testing Beers' A and B, and mixes of
the two for contrast control with Graded papers. A read of an
article from Photographers' Formulary explained the use of their
TD-30 and TD-31. Those two are of the Beers' A and B type.

In that article they maintain that any less than two minutes time
in a print developer is too little; that the 'tone' will suffer. Is there
much truth to that and how generally does that minimum apply? Dan

Click to expand...

For an easier method of divided development for contrast control, see my article in the Chemistry Recipes section.

Larry

Another "rule of thumb" which I believe I can attribute to Ansel Adams, concerns watching for the appearance of mid-tones during print development. His rule was to time the appearance, then triple this time for optimum development.
For example, Polymax Fine Art in fresh Dektol at 68 degrees begins to show mid-tones at 35 sec. Development would therefore be complete at 105 seconds.
If your paper/developer/temperature combination gives results at 42 sec., then optimum development would be 126 sec., etc.
Note that these are all close to the 2 minutes that most of us use.
Cooking a little longer to taste would be OK, but undercooking would rob you of all the tones you're paying for.
BTW, if I can't remember how old or worn my developer is, I time the first sheet, and if it's over 45 sec., out it goes. During printing sagas I will time the developer occasionally to make certain I have not overused the developer.