Thanks : My first roll turned out great!

snaggs · May 10, 2005

Thanks for all the help, my first roll of film I developed turned out just fine. I had the temperature of the developer a little warm (I forgot to cool the XTOL down after mixing it up!). Still, seemed to turn out ok, maybe the times on DigitalTruth for XTOL are too short? I wasn't sure how much to agitate it, so I just did 4 inversions every 4 minutes or so.

Im not sure if you can tell from these negs if they've be overcooked. Its Neopan 1600, XTOL 1+1, 7.5 minutes @ ~26degrees

My sons first haircut

Slide..

Friends full moon party..

Cinema

mark · May 10, 2005

Looks good to me. I like Cinema. Real small guy in a real big place.

Neal · May 11, 2005

Dear Snaggs,

Congratulations. Your first effort and you ended up with shots worthy of an evening in the darkroom.

BTW: Try to avoid heating the water for Xtol above the recommended temperature (85°F I think). I love Xtol and have never had any storage problems. I attribute the majority of the problems others have had to poor handling.

Neal Wydra

TPPhotog · May 11, 2005

That's your first roll?!!!! WOW!!!! Welcome to the addiction they are very impressive and I like. Now I'm off to sulk

Bob F. · May 11, 2005

At 26 degrees, development time should be around a half of the 20 degree time. "so I just did 4 inversions every 4 minutes or so" for 7.5 minutes :confused:
This may be why you didn't get badly overdeveloped negs - very little agitation.

There are basically two favorite agitation regimes - 10 seconds initial agitation followed by either: 10 seconds of inversions every minute (Ilford) or 5 seconds of inversions every 30 seconds (Kodak). Pick one: which doesn't really matter but you need to be consistent. The magic comes from consistency: same temperature, same developer concentration, same developer volume, same agitation, same everything each time. Then, if you find your negs are too dense, you can reduce the time and likewise, if too thin, increase the time.

Having waffled on at length: (shut up at the back - I heard that)... well done. I'm sure those are far better than my 1st negatives (which I can't remember, so I have probably mentally blocked out a deeply distressing experience )...

Cheers, Bob.

highpeak · May 11, 2005

mark said:
Looks good to me. I like Cinema. Real small guy in a real big place.

Small guy? where?

Great job for the first roll.

AndrewH · May 11, 2005

Politely disagree

I have been taught that it is better to allow more time between agitations, say one minute, as this allows for more compensating effect and more edge effect. Everyone has their own style, but I think that in 120 and 35mm, less contrast is better, you can punch it up later. It is easier to expand onto paper than squeeze a scene onto it.

jazzmechanic · May 11, 2005

Bring out the bubbly! Nice job for your first roll. I know how you feel on this one. This is why I went from digital back to film. Love the smell of developer!

Bob F. · May 11, 2005

In principle yes. Semi-stand development with one inversion every 5 minutes, for sure you will see a difference. Likewise, with continuous agitation in a rotary processor I would expect a difference too, but I remain to be convinced that you will see any difference in practice between 10 secs every minute and 5 secs every 30 secs (allowing for any necessary adjustment in overall time to maintain density). Of course, I could well be wrong, so if anyone has done a like-for-like comparison it would be interesting. Hmmm... I have 10 rolls of FP4+ in need of developing tonight (no, scratch that, I only have personal times for rotary development)...

Cheers, Bob.

kaiyen · May 11, 2005

Kind of related to the 10s/minute vs. 5s/30s...

A&T recommend at least 10s of agitation, otherwise flow is not sufficiently disrupted. Any thoughts on that?

allan

snaggs · May 11, 2005

Thanks all.. seems I have lady luck on my side. I was standing by the tank, and couldn't remember how often to invert! Now I know, thanks for the tip!

Daniel.

chuck94022 · May 12, 2005

Congratulations Daniel! Don't fret the temp issue. As you discovered, film is frequently more forgiving than the instructions would lead you to believe! You can recover from lots of little mistakes, and frequently even from a whopper.

I did the opposite of your mistake the other night. I was mixing up some D76 and forgot to heat the water first. I realized it as I was halfway through pouring in the packet. As I had plenty of packets sitting around, I just dumped the lot and started over.

Mix up a little champagne and celebrate!

Donald Qualls · May 12, 2005

Good job, Daniel -- hard to argue with the results. As others have suggested, your low agitation compensated nicely for the overly warm developer (though with other films, you might have had real problems; I think the emulsion might slide right off J&C Pro 100 if you developed at 85 F, though I've done Tri-X at 90, once, with good results). Even so, to my eye those negatives look a tad overcooked, but not enough to be a big problem; print with a #1 filter and you'll be all good. Certainly not bad for a first effort -- and clearly not the first you've shot; the images themselves show a well trained eye and familiarity with the camera and the methods of available light.

Now, go make some masterpieces!

Thanks : My first roll turned out great!

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