Strong Wild Agitation and Soft Agitation Difference ?

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

My photography course lecturer - she never lectures , only develop print film - suggested to the listeners wild strong agitation. I dont know why but within that period , nobodys got beatiful images , I got a new minolta 7xi with 28-80 power zoom and circular kenko polarizer and applied 1 minute soft agitation at the start and two soft inversions per 30 seconds and we got the sharpest negatives with fomapan 100 and 1+1 d76 11 minutes.
Did soft agitation saved the day ?

 

[koraks]

With intermittent agitation schemes (i.e. one cycle every 30-60-90 seconds) it doesn't really make a difference whether agitation is wild or gentle.

Too gentle agitation can result in effectively insufficient/no agitation, but you'd have to be reaaaallly gentle to get that.
Too wild agitation can result in damage to the film as it shifts on the reels. But you have to be reeaaaalllly wild to get that.
So in practice, there's a very wide bandwidth that results in virtually identical outcomes.

The reason your classmates got poor photos is likely elsewhere. Prime suspects are:
1: What they pointed the camera at
2: Whether they used the light meter in a competent manner

 

[romosoho]

Define "beautiful." Do you mean sharp? Tonality? Are you asking whether images are less sharp due to agitation strength?

 

[miha]

Hi Mustafa, I would strongly suggest you read these papers from Ilford and Kodak on film processing. Here are the excerpts from the documents on the agitation scheme:

Beginners Guide to Processing Film

Processing film need not be daunting. Our guide on covers the equipment, chemistry and methods for anyone new to processing films.

www.ilfordphoto.com

https://125px.com/docs/techpubs/kodak/z-133-2003_03b.pdf

 

[Tumbles]

Any time I've gotten too vigorous with my agitation, the top and bottom of my frames get over developed and appear brighter compared to the rest of the frame. When my agitation has been too gentle, I've ended with bromide drag problems.

I try too keep it moderate. Since this is a bit on the subjective side, it's hard to describe here. You just have to get a feel for it.

 

[250swb]

The recommendations with high contrast films such as CMS20 was very gentle agitation because you want as much compensating effect as possible, and I don't see why this isn't so on a lesser level with any other film or developer combination.

The time I think most about the exposures I've made is when the film and developer are in the tank, and while I start out in a 'normal' manner of agitation towards the middle and end of the process I'm starting to think about my possible favourite exposures and factor in the agitation amount and time to suit them, adding some compensating effect maybe by missing a go, or making it more vigorous to increase the amount of fresh developer on the film. The 'it doesn't make a difference' approach is just missing out on the fine tuning the the exposure, film, and type of developer allow.

 

[Steve York]

Strong agitation will add to contrast. Soft agitations will help protect highlights. It's all very subtle. Exposure and development more important.

 

[John Wiegerink]

I watch my agitation closely when I do 120 film in a hand tank. I've come to the conclusion that the "Martiny shaker" style agitation is a no-no with 120 film.

 

[cliveh]

Well I stick to 30 seconds agitation after pouring the developer into the tank and there after 10 seconds agitation in each remaining minute. It's not rocket science.