Which (DIY) developer for pictorial portraits + FOMA 100?

[olk]

Hello,
which developer do you recommend for pictorial portraits (of course using a soft focus lens) and FOMA 100?
I've access to bulk chemicals:

• p-Aminophenol HCL
• p-Phenylendiamin
• Pyrogallol
• Catechol
• Glycin
• Metol
• Dimezone-S
• Hydrochinon

A rich tonal range is preferred over sharpness. Maybe a staining developer is better suited for FOMA 100?

ty, Oliver

 

[relistan]

Have you already used it in D-76? Given what you have access to and how nice Fomapan 100 looks in it, I'd start there.

 

[koraks]

which developer do you recommend for pictorial portraits

Frankly, I would focus on other things than developer choice. It'll have a marginal effect anyways. There are several factors that do have a profound influence that are far more worthwhile spending time on: conceptual approach behind the portrait and/or building rapport with the model, posing, composition, lighting - all factors that make a world of difference. Choice of developer: a 0.002% difference and any opinions you'll get will vary by a mile and they'll all be 'correct', since the experience is mostly subjective.

Having said that,

Maybe a staining developer is better suited for FOMA 100?

I quite like Fomapan 100 in Pyrocat because it tends to mask the grain somewhat and I find the tonality (whatever the heck that means, objectively) pleasing. I've developed quite a bit of it in D76 some years ago and found it horrible because of the runaway highlights it gave me. Rodinal gave poor shadow detail and coarse grain. 510 pyro had the tendency to give uneven development and I found the tonality (LOL) not as nice as pyrocat. No doubt if I now tried any of those combinations again today, I'd feel different about them. There you go; make of that what you will. If it doesn't help much, remember the first part of this post - that's the part that actually has any significance. The rest of it is just herp-derp sounding interesting and tossing names around, if you're critical.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I've used Fompan 100 (or the rebranded version, .EDU Ultra 100) in Dektol 1+9, Parodinal 1:25 and 1:50, HC-110 dilutions F, G, and H, Xtol replenished stock, Df96 monobath, and D-23 replenished stock. As noted by Koraks, the differences are at a level of subtlety I can't discern, aside from the sharpness of grain in Parodinal and Dektol vs. the more solvent developers. If you're mixing your own developer anyway, I'd suggest D-23, as it's by far the simplest -- just the three ingredients (one of which is water).