Stand development - first attempt - blank film

Jarvman said:

hi all,

I tried stand development for the first time today after getting disappointing results pushing tri x to 1600 in hc110

I used R09 one shot developer 1+100 (3ml concentrate and 300ml water at 20 degrees)

Presoaked 10 mins
Agitated for the first 30s
Flipped it twice at the half hour mark
Flipped it once at the 1 hr mark
Left it another half hour for 1.5 hours in total.

FIlm is totally blank. Not even frame numbers or writing came out so the developer completely failed. What gives? I mixed the dev fresh today, only thing I can think of is that I didn’t shake the bottle of concentrate. It’s almost a full bit though. Very confusing.

Cheers

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paulbarden said:

I don’t know where you’ve gotten your information about “stand” development, but it’s wrong. You cannot use less than 5ml of Rodinal in the tank (regardless of total volume) and get acceptable results. I suggest you give up on these unpredictable fringe techniques and stick to tried and true processes. Rodinal “stand” development is overhyped and prone to delivering bad results. It’s not worth effing around with. The myth is seductive, but the outcome rarely is.

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Donald Qualls said:

Warnings about minimum developer per roll always come out when someone gets a blank or very thin roll, but generally, Rodinal works fine at 1:100 even for 35mm with minimum working solution (250-300 ml per roll), giving only 2.5 to 3 ml of concentrate. This has to be either a water problem, or a case of pouring the fixer first. If you've used R09 at other dilutions previously and gotten good results, I'm going to have to suggest the latter is more likely -- it's pretty easy to get crossed up and pour from the wrong jug...

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pentaxuser said:

I take it there is absolutely no chance that you developed it in fixer first? It has happened to most of us at some time or another. I find it difficult to believe that if Ed Buffalo's negs are fine with 5ml then yours are blank with 3 or that 3ml in the "wrong" water completely eliminates any vestige of an image including all edge markings

pentaxuser

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Andrew O'Neill said:

No image and no edge signing means no development happened. No development means you developed with just water, or fixer. Or developer they was so weak, it was almost like water. If you've developed before with same tap water and all was well, then you can rule out bad water. Why don't you skip stand which is very risky, and push film the regular way? Or try semi-stand, which gives you basically the same result, with less chance of buggered film. I've only used full on stand it semi-stand to reduce contrast, and enhance edge effects.

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Jarvman said:

Snowballs chance. Absolutely never. The fixer was in a capped bottle in the sink out of reach. I mix my developer directly into a jug for pouring. That’s why I’m baffled there’s nothing there, not even frame numbers. I might test later with a piece of film leader.

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Jarvman said:

Have been developing for years with this tap water and no problems. Definitely didn’t pour fix in. The developer must’ve been too weak to be active. I think this counts as semi stand because it was agitated half way through developing.

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Lachlan Young said:

How long was the mixed solution left sitting before you poured it into the tank? After 20-30 mins development, Rodinal at deeper dilutions (anything over 1+50) has hit exhaustion anyway, so you're realistically not getting anything useful beyond that point. Rodinal is not a developer that enhances shadow speed in any way whatsoever. You'll be better off with something like Microphen or DD-X if you want to squeeze the most speed out of an emulsion.

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Nicholas Lindan said:

Not related to Rodinal, but:

Instead of pushing Tri-X to 1600 try pulling it to 200, it works much better. The gradation is rather lovely when developed in Microdol-X 1:3.

If you really need the speed for shooting in 'available darkness' then use TMZ 3200, and pull that one stop.

And, oh, I use distilled water for all film developers as a matter of course. I haven't had a developing session go all wonky since I made the change. Distilled water, at least hereabouts, is $0.69/gallon - cheap compared to the effort put into shooting a roll of film.

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Jarvman said:

Must be a water problem. 110% never poured fix in first. The developer is orange and the fix is clear so obvious to tell apart.

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Jarvman said:

Is hc110 unhelpful for enhancing shadow speed? Cheers

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Jarvman said:

It was used immediately after fixing. . I have both those developers so should’ve used them for enhancing the speed then. Is hc110 unhelpful for enhancing shadow speed? Cheers

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Lachlan Young said:

I'll put it this way; Kodak's own published information states that D-76, Xtol and T-Max all deliver higher shadow speed than HC-110 - and D-76 has never been seen as a speed-enhancing developer. Maximum emulsion speed does not seem to have been a design aim for HC-110 - it was intended to fulfill a great many other specific needs in the broader industries that used photographic materials.

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Jarvman said:

Here is how the dev looks. Burgundy in concentrate but irn bru orange when diluted 1+100. I left a piece of exposed leader in a litre jug of developer and after an hour nothing has happened. No darkening at all.

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