 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| PhotoKB HomeDiscussion Groups Digital Photography Digital PhotoDSLR CamerasZLR CamerasPoint & Shoot CamerasFilm Photography 35 mmLarge FormatMedium formatDarkroomFilm and LabsOther EquipmentPhoto Technique Nature PhotographyPeople PhotographyTechnique GeneralGeneral Photo Topics General TopicsAustralian PhotographyUK PhotographyDirectoryPhoto Clubs |
Photo Forum / Film Photography / Darkroom / August 2005Temperature and Technique
Hello, Thank you all for your help on my last question. I've been developing for a couple months now and I have a few questions regarding temperature, if you don't mind. 1) If I develop with the chemicals at 24C instead of 20C, and I make the correct adjustment as suggested by the film manufacturer, will there be ANY difference in the result? I live in Texas where 20C takes a little doing, but I wouldn't want to have worse quality negatives by adjusting upward. 2) The way I have been getting to 20C is as follows. I use D76 1:1. Room temperature is about 78F, so I cool 10oz of water to 58F in the freezer, and mix the chemical, resulting in 68 (I might adjust a little cooler to give myself some time, obviously). Are there any big disadvantages to this method, ie could it negatively impact my development? 3) This isn't related to temperature, but on Ilford's website they have a guide to darkroom technique, and I noticed something that intrigued me. They suggest that after getting the leader out of the 35mm cassette, the spool be returned there and wound onto the reel from the cassette, to avoid letting the spool drop on the floor / get dusty, etc. Now this quite appeals to me (I've been having dust problems -- possibly the subject of a later post if it doesn't improve -- and in general don't know what to do with the spool while I'm winding), but I'm concerned because I bulk load my film and doing it this way would be passing it through the felt one more time and giving another opportunity for scratches. Does anybody have experience/advice regarding this method? Many thanks! Stephen > Hello, > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > a little doing, but I wouldn't want to have worse quality negatives by > adjusting upward. Probably sholdn't make any difference if you are properly adjusting the time for the temp. If you stay within the manufacturer's recommendations, you shoul get the results that the manaufacturer planned for. > 2) The way I have been getting to 20C is as follows. I use D76 1:1. > Room temperature is about 78F, so I cool 10oz of water to 58F in the > freezer, and mix the chemical, resulting in 68 (I might adjust a little > cooler to give myself some time, obviously). Are there any big > disadvantages to this method, ie could it negatively impact my > development? This will work-- you're not extremely cooling or heating anything. But my question is, what about the other chemicals? For best results, everything should be at the same temp. I suggest you get a cheap 'foam cooler (possibly cut it down to maybe 5-6" depth) and fill it with ice/water to get all your chems to the right temp. Between agitation, put the film tank in the cooler. I have a water bath with heater and thermostat for developing color film (100F degrees). > 3) This isn't related to temperature, but on Ilford's website they have > a guide to darkroom technique, and I noticed something that intrigued [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > opportunity for scratches. Does anybody have experience/advice > regarding this method? I like to load 35mm film starting from the spool end, because it's already cut straight and IMHO, easier to clip into the film reel (I use statinless steel reels which load from the center out). As for the end of the film dropping on the floor, how tall are you? For me, it's only a possible issue with 36 exposure film. I think the bigger issue is where is the dust coming from? There are a lot of thngs you can do about dust, depending on your darkroom.  SignatureKen Hart kwhart@aec.nu >Hello, > [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] > > I frequently shoot a whole roll for test purposes and pull out a short piece for a test. I have also pulled the whole roll out for development upon occasion. I have also dropped the whole mess on the darkroom floor after I took it out of the cartridge. never did find it in the dark. I haven't seen any scratches. I think that if you don't get any the first time through, you won't get any the second as long as you make sure there isn't a piece of sand stuck in the felt. If you're worried about dropping. get a small dishpan or the like and load your tank directly above it. Then you can remove the folm from the cartridge all at once or not, as the spirit moves. > If I develop with the chemicals at 24C instead of 20C, > Many thanks! Stephen Try a clip fan. Place all chemistry in a shallow pan of water and let evaporative cooling do the job. I usually process at 72 to 75 F. Dan > Hello, > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > negatives by > adjusting upward. There shouldn't be any difference. 68F is standard for historical, not chemical, reasons. sixty five years ago few films would stand processing at much higher temperatures without damage to the emulsion. Modern films, even fairly soft ones like Tri-X and some Ilford films, will take much higher temperatures. 24C/75F is well within the range. Some very old books suggest that high temperature processing produces more grain. This might have been the case where soft gelatin was used in the emulsion because it might have allowed some "grain clumping", modern emulsions are generally too hard for this to happen. > 2) The way I have been getting to 20C is as follows. I use > D76 1:1. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > impact my > development? Sounds fine to me although a tempering bath for all the solutions is also a good practice. BTW, the old advice about keeping all solution temperatures within a degree or so of each other is also a hangover from the days when it was easy to reticulate the emulsion. Its now hard to do even delibrately as a special effect. > 3) This isn't related to temperature, but on Ilford's > website they have [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > get dusty, > etc. I'm not sure I understand this. My technique for 35mm film is to load directly from the cassette spool. I trim the loading tongue off the end of the film and wind it on the reel, cutting or pulling it off the tape at the other end. Mostly I use bulk loaded cassettes. For Kodak cassettes the technique is the same except that one must open the cassette wity a bottle opener. Its also possible to re-use these cassettes by using a leader retriever (you can make one from 35mm film scraps) to pull the film out of the closed cassette. One cuts it off leaving a small tongue to which the new film can be fastened with a bit of tape. I use old Nikor stainless steel tanks. > Now this quite appeals to me (I've been having dust > problems -- [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > experience/advice > regarding this method? See above, it seems unnecessary. > Many thanks! > Stephen BTW, Los Angeles is also a high temperature area. Its over 80F right now and the tap water, after letting it run for a few minutes, is around 77F. I've had it come out at over 80F. Signature--- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA dickburk@ix.netcom.com I think the "excessive grain" at high temps in the old days could have several causes. Overdevelopment (the active ingredients in some developers have equal increases in activity over a fairly short range of temperature--outside that range the "fine grain" ingredients may not get the same energy boost by increasing temp as say the "speed" ingredients. So your D-76 is suddenly acting more like D-19 or D-8! and reticulation (which may have been mistaken for grain on contact prints). 2. It certainly is hard to reticulate Delta, TMax or Tri-X films, can the same be said for "modern" Eastern European, Russian, Chinese and Indian films with any certainty? When in doubt I recommend a conservative approach. As far as "3" some fellows don't rewind their leaders, they then can cut the tongue of the film off straight and use the film cartridge as a film loading aid. Signaturedarkroommike ---------- > > > Hello, [quoted text clipped - 95 lines] > few minutes, is around 77F. I've had it come out at over > 80F. > 2. It certainly is hard to reticulate Delta, TMax or Tri-X films, can the > same be said for "modern" Eastern European, Russian, Chinese and Indian > films with any certainty? When in doubt I recommend a conservative > approach. I've managed to reticulate Ilford HP5 (twice) by running a tap of what I thought was carefully temperature balanced water for washing, but which turned out to have way too much hot in the mix when I came back 15-20 minutes later. I've switched to using HCA and washing with the cold water tap only if I am going to leave the darkroom while the film is washed. As I understand it, cold water is normally not very effective at washing films and paper, but when Hypo Clearing Agent is used, cold water is almost as good as 20c water. There is a back coating of clear gelatin on Maco PO-100 which is far less tolerant of warm water than the emulsion side. Peter. Signaturepirwin@ktb.net Many thanks, to you and all who responded. I should have mentioned that I do cool the other chemicals too, I just didn't think to mention that right now. I will try the water bath though. Thanks, Stephen |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.