If you usually photograph 'normal' to high contrast scenes you could try Barry Thornton's Two-Bath developer. It is very simple (just three chemicals that are easy to source here in Europe) and cost effective:
Bath A
750ml Distilled water
80 g Sodium Sulfite
6.5 g Metol
Make up to 1 L with Distilled water
Bath B
12 g Sodium Metaborate (Kodak defined ‘Kodalk’ as Sodium Metaborate Tetrahydrate )
Make up to 1 L with Distilled water
For Part A, dissolve a little bit of Sodium Sulfite (1-2 grams) first, then the Metol, then the rest of the Sodium Sulfite. Having your water pre-heated to 30-35C will help.
For Part B, the temperature doesn't really matter, as sodium metaborate is quite soluble.
A note on mixing the chemicals and use
I mix up 1 litre of Bath A (my tank is the 1 litre version that can accommodate up to 4 films) and store in a 1 litre dark brown glass bottle. This one litre is sufficient for 24 films (but note the following point about Bath B).
I mix up two litres of Bath B at the normal 12g of Sodium Metaborate (which are stored in two 1 litre dark brown glass bottles) and use each bottle of Bath B for 12 films and then discard.
I mix up one litre of Bath B at the N+ dilution of 20g of Sodium Metaborate (which is stored in a 1 litre dark brown glass bottles) and use rarely when needed.
A note on the N-, N and N+ dilutions
99% of all my photographs are developed with the N version of Bath B. I have never had any negative where I felt that it should have been developed using the N- version of Bath B.
The N+ version of Bath B is useful but not in the sense of a strict +1 stop expansion (which can be much better achieved by selenium toning the negative). If I photograph something that has dark shadows and bright highlights but also a significant part of the scene is relatively lacking in mid-tone separation then I use the N+ version of Bath B. This has a significant effect on expanding the mid-tones of a scene that was lacking such a mid-tone separation.
I think at this stage that it is critical to state that I test and develop my films to ensure that they print ’straight’ on #3 when using an enlarger with a diffusion light source. HOWEVER, I always print on #4 (albeit with some dodging and burning) because this suits how I like my prints to look and this also do address the slight ‘dulling’ of the mid-tones resulting from the two-bath’s compensating nature.
In general, I find with my own and student’s equipment that Thornton’s Two-Bath tends towards an EI of 200 with tabular films. With older films (such as Tri-X) there does not appear to be such a speed loss - especially when using older lenses that do not have super coatings. This does, of course, need to be seen in the light of the fact that I want good shadow detail in my own work (even if I decide to print it down later) and always want students to get good technical results before they move on to adapting technique to their vision.
MY PROCESSING TECHNIQUE FOR ISO 400 FILMS RATED AT EI 200 IN THORNTON’S TWO-BATH DEVELOPER
Fill a large bucket with plain water @ 20C and use this for the Pre-soak, Stop, Fix and Wash:
Pre-wash – Plain water @ 20C
Developer Bath A - Undiluted @ 20C
Developer Bath B - Undiluted @ 20C
Stopbath – Plain water @ 20C
Fixer – 200ml of Rapid Fix (at 1 + 4) + 800ml @ 20C
Wash – Plain water @ 20C
Development process / Entwicklungs-prozess:
Pre-wash into the developing tank
Start the clock
00.00 Pre-wash with constant agitation
01.45 Pre-wash out
02.00 Developer Bath A goes into tank
First 30 seconds constant agitation then 1 inversion per 30 seconds.
07.15 Developer Bath A out (Do not throw away!).
07.30 Developer Bath B goes into tank
First 30 seconds constant agitation then 1 inversion per 30 seconds.
12.45 Developer Bath B out (Do not throw away!).
13.00 Stop bathgoes into tank
13.45 Stop bath out
14.00 Fixer
First 30 seconds constant agitation then 1 inversion per 30 seconds.
17.00 Remove film from development tank and wash in a jug until there is almost no more pink dye.
Then:
3 min Place film back into Fixer again
Remove film from tank and place in a jug with plain water
Pour fixer out of tank and thoroughly clean all parts of the tank (this is the important step that Ilford left out of their description of their economical wash sequence)
Fill tank with water, return film to tank and invert 10 times
Pour water out of tank
Fill tank with water, return film to tank and invert 10 times
Pour water out of tank
Fill tank with water, return film to tank and invert 20 times
Pour water out of tank
Fill tank with water, return film to tank and invert 20 times
Open tank, remove the film(s)/spiral(s) and place in a jug of Distilled water at 20C with a few drops of wetting agent
After between 3 - 10 minutes, remove film from spiral, pour the distilled water down both sides of the film and hang to dry.
Bests,
David.
www.dsallen.de
