Stand developing large sheets.

While moving thing around in my darkroom, I saw a paper safe that I do not use, but I thought of a use for it that you may not have thought of. It will make a good light-tight developing tray for large sheets of film. This is handy when doing stand or semi stand developing and you want to do other things in the meantime. You find trays like this in the Freestyle catalog manufactured by Pfaff. The lid hinges at one end or side. An 8x10 is only about $12 and 11x14 is not much more. I can only see doing one sheet at a time, but a little thought may change that.

I thought that when doing stand and semi-stand development with sheet film, that it had to be in a vertical, not horizontal placement. It sounds like a great inexpensive solution for longer (light tight) developing times though.

Paddy said:

I thought that when doing stand and semi-stand development with sheet film, that it had to be in a vertical, not horizontal placement. It sounds like a great inexpensive solution for longer (light tight) developing times though.

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I remember the same problems with uneven development for film placed horizontally in stand and semi stand.

Paddy said:

I thought that when doing stand and semi-stand development with sheet film, that it had to be in a vertical, not horizontal placement....

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I have not found that to be the case. I stand and semi-stand develop 8x10 sheet film in an 8x10 slosher tray (with the film horizontal) with no problems (Efke PL 100 and Kodak TMY developed in Pyrocat-HD).

I also stand and semi-stand develop 8x10 sheet film (with the film vertical) in J&C tubes with no problems (again Efke PL 100 and Kodak TMY developed in Pyrocat-HD).

gainer said:

While moving thing around in my darkroom, I saw a paper safe that I do not use, but I thought of a use for it that you may not have thought of. It will make a good light-tight developing tray for large sheets of film. This is handy when doing stand or semi stand developing and you want to do other things in the meantime. You find trays like this in the Freestyle catalog manufactured by Pfaff. The lid hinges at one end or side. An 8x10 is only about $12 and 11x14 is not much more. I can only see doing one sheet at a time, but a little thought may change that.

Click to expand...

Incorrigible tinkerer that I am, I actually modified the very same 8x10 paper safe your mention to process some of my 8x10 sheet film. I installed a pour- in inlet in one corner, and a pour-out spout in another. I lined the edges with strips of neoprene so that solutions do not leak out. Making the inlet and outlet light tight is still a gonzo affair, but they work well enough. Calculations show that theoretically I should be able to comfortably process four 8x10 sheet films in one go provided that I have the right kind of separators, but so far I am content with processing two at a time. I use cut-down kitchen sink grill as separators. They're vinyl coated, so I don't get scratches.

Although I have not tested its usefulness for stand or semi-stand development, I can say that I get the edge/adjacency effects of normal intermittent agitation processing compared to the times when I use my Unicolor setup for roller processing. In other words, roller processing doesn't give me the definition that sheets processed in my makeshift daylight tray seem to have.

I keep hitting some key with my left palm that messes me up. I hope this doesn't get repeated.
My experience when I wrote "Agitate or Ruminate?" for Photo Techniques was that if you are going to have problems, vertical or horizontal, emulsion side up or down, do not make a difference except in the shape of the pattern. The streaking stuff adheres to the film the way many liquids adhere to the outside of a drinking glass when you try to pour from it. Everyone knows that experience.

I think the dynamics of successful minimal agitation schemes depend not ony on the chemical constitution of the developer, but also on its physical characteristics like specific gravity, viscosity etc.