Your B&W Film Process

Most Used Process

Been trying different things but this is the most common.

Arista EDU 100 in 35mm bulk rolls, 120 and 4x5.
Daylight Tank, No pre-wash
Arista Premium 1+9 for 7 minutes, 6 minutes if I expose at EI 50
Straight water stop for 1 minute
Arista Premium Odorless Fixer 1+9 for 7 minutes
Ilford Wash (10, 20, 40 inversions)
Squeegee, hang and dry (keep the cats away)

If using Ilford Pan F Plus I substitute Rodinal 1+25 (actually Adox Adonal) for the Arista Premium Film Developer for 6 minutes.

Have played around with Arista EDU Ultra 400 in Rodinal 1+100 in stand development but have yet to really master this one, some decent, some not so decent results. Still experimenting which is part of why I enjoy this.

baachitraka said:

what are the consequences if the residual fixer is not washed properly...

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if the film is not washed properly and chemistry is left in the emulsion the negatives won't last very long
how long, well, i don't know ... they say that a properly / archivally washed negative or print will last 900 years
but who knows, since photography was invented in 1839 and nitrate film was only around for a few decades until
(safety)film was created after the cleveland clinic fire of 1929
(http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CCD) when nitrate xray film was a little too close to a lightbulb and ...

i don't think anyone really knows how long things will last ...
and seeing the image permanency institute claims other products will last a long time ( and within a few years colors shift &c )
i don't think they know either ... :munch:

Typical for me:

HP5+ (normally 120 or 4X5)
pre-soak 2 minutes
PyroCat MC 1:1:100 11.5 minutes
slow, gentle inversions for 1st minute
2 gentle inversions each 90 seconds
water stop, 2 exchanges in 1 minute
5 minutes fix in TF-4 1:3 (retained and re-used)
water rinse in Wat-Air washer
a couple of drops of Agepon (a lifetime supply here!)
Hang roll films with a weighted film clip

No curling troubles and just the right amount of edge effects for my eye.... It looks complicated written out but I appreciate that it's basically developer, fixer and water. I follow the same general routine with T-Max and Xtol at 1:2.

PeterB said:

Hi Matt. What is the advantage of using an indicator stop bath in a one-shot fashion? Isn't the point of the indicator to tell you when it has lost its acidic activity ?

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Hi Peter.

There isn't any advantage to having an indicator in the stop when you use it one stop. I use it because it is the most efficient and economical way to arrive at stop bath with a useful strength, given the limited storage area and other constraints I deal with.

The Ilford stop bath is equally convenient to store and use - it just works out to be more expensive per use.

FWIW, I do re-use Kodak stop bath when I am doing multiple processing runs in a short period of time (e.g. on the same day), so on those occasions the indicator is useful..

And I've also used the Kodak stop bath for prints - it is just that I prefer to use the Ilford stop bath when I can for prints, because it has less of a strong odor.

My normal film process is:
Ilford HP5+, Ilford FP4+ or Kodak Tri-x 400
D76 developer 1:1 at 20C with 5 agitations at the beginning then 5 agitations every 30 seconds (10 minutes for Kodak tri-x, around 11 minutes for FP4 and 13 and 1/2 minutes for HP5)
Ilford ilfostop 1:19 for 1 minute with 30 seconds of constant agitation
Fotospeed FX-30 odourless fixer for 5 minutes (3 minutes when fresh) with 15 seconds of agitation at the start and every minute

For rinsing, I use the Ilford method (fill tank with water, do 5 inversions, then 10, 20, 50), then do a deionised water rinse with around 3 mil of Fotospeed RA-50 rinse aid for around 100 agitations.
Then I hang it up in the smaller bathroom, which has been completely steamed up, a quick squeegee action, and then left to dry for around an hour or 2.

but it helpsall the same

no.you are right!the sodium sulfite in hca does wonders when it comes to washing unwanted residues out of processed film.2 minutes well spent in my opinion.

MattKing said:

There isn't any advantage to having an indicator in the stop when you use it one stop. I use it because it is the most efficient and economical way to arrive at stop bath with a useful strength, given the limited storage area and other constraints I deal with.

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Thanks Matt. I also use the Ilford SB+indicator and I mixed up 2L, 13 months ago. I've used it with about 10-15 rolls of 120 and about 25 sheets of 8x10" FB paper but it still hasn't changed colour to blue yet ! (it is obviously yellow). I just measured its pH using a test strip and it is <=4 (the Tetenal fixer test strips only go down to 4). I'll prob mix some more up soon, but only because I will feel too frugal if I don't.

photographers fade before photographs do.

RalphLambrecht said:

photographers fade before photographs do.

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i love that

i be lieve , it's an aa quote.

I'm surprised to see so many use a presoak as I've never found it necessary. After playing around with a variety of developers ranging from ID-68 to FX-1 to Parodinal to Ansco 47, I've settled on good old D-76, which I run replenished (mix up a gallon of developer and a liter at a time of replenisher and replenish until it's had a gallon total of replenisher added, then mix a new batch.) I get remarkably consistent results and drop-dead gorgeous negatives from Plus-x, Acros, Neopan 400, Tri-x, HP5+, Fomapan, Tmax 100, Delta 100, FP4+, PanF, pretty much anything I throw at it. I shoot at box speed and develop for the recommended time (adjusted for the normal ambient room temp here in Florida of 76-78F.)

Here's my standard technique:


I mix my D-76, replenisher, stop bath and HCA from scratch from the Darkroom Cookbook (checked against earlier works for accuracy) and the rest are commercial packages. All the water I use is from my reverse osmosis system, which includes carbon and sediment filters. No problems with spotting, never see streaks or other artifacts from agitation. To determine clearing time for fixing, I save leaders from 35mm and drop them into a beaker of fixer when I'm processing the film. I also keep track of how many rolls have been through the fixer and mix fresh before the clearing time gets to 3 min with something like Tri-X or Foma. This is all good for 35mm and 120, and I'll be testing it soon with 4x5. It may be a "boring, normal" process, but it works for me.

Maybe I should note that I shoot manual (match-needle for most 35mm and hand-held meter -- Luna Pro or Minolta Autometer IV -- for some 35mm and most all 120) and I expose for the scene, which avoids a lot of the need to compensate in development for exposure compromises. The only time I use autoexposure is for color negs, and even then I use the compensation when needed.

Ulysses

Here's some more detail on my process - http://www.bcarlsonmedia.com/projects/

This is the way I do:
Film: TMAX400. (120 & 35 mm)
EI 250
Pre-washed: Water, during 1 minute of constant agitation.
Developer: HC110 (E- 1:47)
Developed two rolls of film, continuous agitation during the first 30 seconds, and then 3 times each 30 seconds.
Time of developing: 8 minutes.
Temperature: 20ªC.
Stop bath: Tetenal Stop, 1:19, and 1 minute with constant agitation.
Fixer bath: Tetenal, 1:9, 10 minutes. The first minute with continue agitation, and then 5 times each 30 seconds.
Henry.

how did thayaffect our negative quality?