Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/06/14

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Subject: [Leica] Budding photographer...
From: scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)
Date: Tue Jun 14 15:37:51 2005
References: <6.1.0.6.2.20050614032300.06093048@192.168.100.42> <42AEDC80.30809@adrenaline.com> <6.2.1.2.2.20050614103646.00c67800@pop.med.cornell.edu> <6.1.0.6.2.20050614130623.05598d68@192.168.100.42>

I think it's supposed to be basic chemistry. Lots of fresh developer on the
highlights prevents "highlight exhaustion" yielding higher contrast negs.

Similarly, constant agitation prevents a subtler effect of relative 
developer
exhaustion on dark/light boundaries, particularly with non-solvent 
developers,
decreasing accutance (and thus perceived sharpness).  You can get 
good/great
accutance with more dilute developers and less agitation.

For both of these reasons, with HC-110 (and Rodinal with a few slower 
films),
I like more dilute soups and rather intermitent and minimal agitation. A 
lower
contrast negative is also favored by my Nikon Coolscan, and I just like the
look of a "sharp negative".  I still have to crank up the dilution on 
Rodinal to
1:100 and HC-110 beyond (H), but I imagine I'll get around to that.

I wonder if what you're seeing with XTOL in your Jobo tank is more
sodium sulfite sloshing around with greater grain solvency effects.
Dunno, just pure speculation.

BTW, after you get going, you might find "The Film Developers Cookbook"
a good read. Fascinating stuff, especially when you can start to relate 
it to
one's own experimentations and results.

Scott

I wonder if the

Richard wrote:

> Thanks for all the info. Certainly the pictures look nice and smooth.
>
> I am still looking for the magic formula for my workflow though - Jobo 
> and scan. One thing I notice is that conventional wisdom can be off. 
> For example, almost all sites mention that Jobo's constant agitation 
> would increase contrast and lower sharpness. I have tried 5-6 
> different films in Xtol soup, and while I see lowering of sharpness 
> (or may be it's just me), I definitely do not see higher contrast 
> pictures, unless it's Tri-X pushed to 800.
>
> At 08:18 AM 6/14/2005, Chris Saganich wrote:
>
>> .... At first my results were shaky due to processing issues.  The 
>> results were bad enough to send me onto other developers for a full 
>> year, then I came back and discovered that less agitation was the 
>> key....
>
>
> // richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, 
> please use richard at imagecraft.com)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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Replies: Reply from richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard) ([Leica] Budding photographer...)
In reply to: Message from richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard) ([Leica] Budding photographer...)
Message from scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin) ([Leica] Budding photographer...)
Message from chs2018 at med.cornell.edu (Chris Saganich) ([Leica] Budding photographer...)
Message from richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard) ([Leica] Budding photographer...)