(Fwd) Re: Times and Temperatures

["Willem-Jan Markerink" <w.j.markerink@xxxxx>]

On Mon, 28 Oct 1996 23:25:19 +0000 (GMT), George Smyth wrote:

||There's the problem.  You're comparing the time I mentioned for D76 1+1
|with another's time for D76 stock.

No, it was *your* time for 1:1 that was the same as Kodak's/Photo Lab
Index's for full-strength.  And Cor had previously given me identical
information--which I *can* quote because I saved the message:
        I use D76 routinely: for HIE expose through #25 red, through
        the lens metering, camera on 250 ASA, process: D76 1:1
        dilution (as I understand diluted D76 gives less grain, I know
        that Kodak recommends to use D76 undiluted), for 11 minutes at
        20 degC. This gives me good results with not a too dominant
        grain..

The only material difference I can spot is that I believe you
mentioned an EI of 200, instead of 250, but that is not a large enough
difference to explain the fairly thin, very flat negatives I got when
I used your/Cor's developing time with a roll of HIE exposed at EI
200.

If, on the other hand, you are saying that your developing times for
full-strength D-76 would be still shorter (and therefore shorter than
Kodak's recommendation) and that you stand by your time for dilute
D-76, then you presumably are saying that you like such extremely flat
negatives, which isn't consistent with the picture quality I see on
your web page.  I haven't tried enlarging any of the negatives from
the roll I processed at 1:1, but I have had some scanned to Photo CD.
Based on those scans, on the contact sheets of the originals, and on
examination of the negatives themselves, I'm not even sure that a
maximum-contrast paper would be able to bring the negatives up to the
contrast standard of your web photos.  I had to increase contrast
radically--in two passes--in Photoshop to get even mediocre printouts
from those negatives.  So I find it very difficult indeed to believe
that you--or Cor, for that matter--actually get good negatives at EI
200/250 with development for 11 minutes at 68F/20C in D-76 1:1.  In
fact, Cor's work in the Gallery depends on bold contrasts even more
than yours, if anything.  I can get that kind of print quality by
following your/Cor's recipe in all respects but one: I use
full-strength D-76--and, therefore, Kodak's recommended development
time of 11 minutes for full-strength D-76 at 68F.

Perhaps the question is moot in a sense.  Since I like working at room
temperatures, and prefer room temperatures below 68F, I'd need a
proper T&T chart to switch to 1:1.  So maybe I should just forget it
and live with the grain I get.  But at this point I'm getting
increasingly frustrated trying to undersand why I got such poor
negatives when I followed to the letter the recommendations of two IR
photographers whose work I admire and whose objectives appear to be
reasonably close to my own.

The only thing we haven't discussed is agitation.  I invert the tank
and right it three times, for 5 seconds of agitation, every 30
seconds, alternating directions (right hand on the minute, left hand
on the half-minute).  With two reels in the tank, which is my usual
practice, this delivers fairly gentle agitation because the reels
aren't free to slide up and down during inversion; in processing the
one roll with diluted developer I forgot to include an empty reel.  As
a result, the agitation was more vigorous than usual.  What do you do?

Bob Long
(boblong@xxxxxxxxxxx)
--
Bye,

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     _/  _/ illem    _/     _/ an    _/  _/  _/ arkerink
                     _/_/_/  



      The desire to understand 
is sometimes far less intelligent than
     the inability to understand


<w.j.markerink@xxxxx>
[note: 'a-one' & 'en-el'!]

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Topic No. 23