Hi,
I am slowly gaining ground in my understandings and now I visit the divided developer.
There are a good number of benefits to the divided developer some of which I see are:
1. Less developer used is less down the drain into the environment
2. Many films can be put through the same batch of developer
3. Development times are not as critical
4. Development temperatures are not as critical - good for hotter climates!
5. No blown highlights
6. Almost impossible to underdevelop to the point of getting nothing - good for rescuing a badly exposed negatives I guess
7. You can develop all sorts of film in the same developer at the same time ?!?!
8. Its relatively cheap ...
The cons may include:
1. It may not bring out the best of any film - more like a generic so-so performance as such ...
2. Not good on low contrast images - too flat
My question is ...
If there is a contrast index that is suited to condenser enlargers and another for diffusion enlargers, wouldn't the contrast index from a divided developer be too low for a good printing outcome? Perhaps my question more relates to the printing side of things in essence. How does printing of flatter than normal negatives work out in practice? I don't see too many saying they like to print from flat negatives too much but I get the impression that one should develop their negative according to the intended printing method!
Thoughts?
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