Semi Stand Development - What Could Have Gone Wrong...

[IanBarber]

I have been using semi stand development on 4x5 sheet film for about 6 week with some pretty good results apart from today.

My usual method for this type of development is

• HC110 Diluted at 1:63
• 60 Minutes Total Development Time
• First Minute Continuous Gentle Agitation
• 3 Gentle Agitations after 30 minutes

In the top portion of the sky and also on the bottom portion, I am seeing what appear to be lighter areas. My thoughts are that it is un-even development but not entirely sure.

Ignore the mark bottom right, this must have been from the clip I used when hanging the negative up to dry.

[loonatic45414]

As there appears to be a light haze throughout the negative - light leak perhaps?

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[Richard Wasserman]

I have never used HC110 developer, but the majority of problems I've had with stand development have been related to agitation within the first minute or so. I use Pyrocat so don't know if my experience relates directly to yours. I found that agitating vigorously for the first 2 minutes is crucial to avoid splotchiness and uneven development. Are you using trays, or hangers, or???

[j.e.simmons]

I agree with Richard. Lessening the frequency of agitation does not mean gentle agitation. I used to barely jiggle for agitation and got blotchy negatives. Switching to vigorous agitation for limited times took care of the problem.

[sanking]

I agree with Richard. Lessening the frequency of agitation does not mean gentle agitation. I used to barely jiggle for agitation and got blotchy negatives. Switching to vigorous agitation for limited times took care of the problem.

My experience also. The key for me with Pyrocat is vigorous, and fairly long (1-2 minutes), initial agitation, and then vigorous but short (15 -30 seconds) agitation for the other agitation cycles.

Steve Sherman is one of the masters of this type of development, hopefully he will see the thread and offer his insights.

Sandy

[IanBarber]

I have never used HC110 developer, but the majority of problems I've had with stand development have been related to agitation within the first minute or so. I use Pyrocat so don't know if my experience relates directly to yours. I found that agitating vigorously for the first 2 minutes is crucial to avoid splotchiness and uneven development. Are you using trays, or hangers, or???

Sorry, should have mentioned that I develop my 4x5 film using the Paterson Tank and the Mod54 Holder.

Interesting about the agitation method. Maybe, I was been a little to delicate with the way I did the agitations, maybe I need to increase the speed a little.

[Steve Sherman]

I have been using semi stand development on 4x5 sheet film for about 6 week with some pretty good results apart from today.

My usual method for this type of development is

• HC110 Diluted at 1:63
• 60 Minutes Total Development Time
• First Minute Continuous Gentle Agitation
• 3 Gentle Agitations after 30 minutes

In the top portion of the sky and also on the bottom portion, I am seeing what appear to be lighter areas. My thoughts are that it is un-even development but not entirely sure.

Ignore the mark bottom right, this must have been from the clip I used when hanging the negative up to dry.

As Sandy graciously said I have done this type film development since 2003 so I can speak with some certainty about the technique.

As Richard and others have indicated, the initial agitation does need to be aggressive. Early in the discover many friends contacted me with problems of botchy negatives, I suggested a more vigorous initial agitation of at least two minutes, all indicated that solved the problem. Obviously, prior to any chemistry a water presoak of 4-5 minutes is mandatory. I would estimate my inversions of a 18" tube to be approx. 20 inversions in 30 seconds of time while twisting the tube in both clockwise and counterclockwise rotations.

Several questions / observations arise from looking at your technique.
What are you hoping to accomplish with this type film development ?
Why did you choose HC 110 as the developer ?

Observations:
Pyro developers work best with this type technique due in large part to the tanning effects of Pyro, whereas developers that have Sodium Sulfite as a component promote "silver migration" which diminishes acutance and I would hazard a guess that with 60 minutes in solution any gain in adjacency effects could be offset by the silver migration. I have dramatic side by side comparisons of Pyrocat HD versus HC 110 where each film was processed with continuos agitation in a tray. The acutance of Pyrocat HD negative is superior to non Pyro based developers. I am not suggesting that HC 110 won't yield a different look with reduced agitation techniques merely that Pyrocat will be considerably higher in acutance. Since 2003 I have used Pyrocat HD, ABC Pyro and PMK, in all forms of Reduced Agitation forms of development for a variety of reasons too long to share here the Pyrocat family of developers have produced superior Mid Tone / Micro Contrast than all others.

Many photographers don't completely understand how and why the technique can yield such dramatic results. The Reduced Agitation technique which is a broad descriptive term of Stand, Semi-Stand and Extreme Minimal Agitation schemes of processing film. I would suggest that a 1:63 is not that dilute and may in fact contribute to the uneven development of area of even tonality. Further, the technique to fully realize a change to the straight line of the film's curve along with adjacency effects relies on developer exhausting at the boundaries of differing tonalities. With extended time this phenomenon can repeat itself through several cycles. To realize the full effect of this technique it is not necessary to use Stand Development. Semi-Stand and Extreme Minimal Agitation schemes will produce dramatic results so long as the dilution results in developer exhaustion at some point before another agitation cycle introduces fresh developer.

I characterize how and why the technique works as follows: Dilution allows Extended Time which allows Infrequent Agitation which allows Developer Exhaustion at the boundaries of differing densities which leads to Adjacency Effects which gives the Impression of not only higher Acutance but increased Micro Contrast.

[IanBarber]

In reply to Steve Sherman.

It appears that in my original post, I made a typo by saying that the dilution was 1:63 when in fact it was 1:160 (6ml of HC110) total chemistry was 1000 ml

Several questions / observations arise from looking at your technique.
What are you hoping to accomplish with this type film development ?
Why did you choose HC 110 as the developer ?

What are you hoping to accomplish with this type film development ?
I was under the impression that using this method would allow me to develop different types of films in the same Paterson tank at the same time and also this method would help control bright highlights.

Why did you choose HC 110 as the developer ?
After reading up on stand and semi-stand, HC110 seemed to be the developer that was mentioned over and over again which in itself got me interested because this is the developer I use for all my developing.
I have now just purchased some XTOL but I was not going to use this for semi stand.

Workflow
I only 4x5 at the moment and all my work is scanned and then printed via an Epson R3880 printer. I have no enlarger or facilities at the moment to try wet printing. Once I have a better understanding of initial developing and working with negatives, I may think about contact printing but at the moment, trying to understand the developing and initial exposure control is enough to keep me occupied.

Please feel free to shoot me down in flames if my understanding of this process is completely wrong, I need to learn and someone that fully understands and practices the technique is the person which has my full attention.

[loonatic45414]

Mr. Sherman: Would the overall quantity of developer in the tank make a difference? After all, the molecular action of water provides a micro agitation as seen when someone places a drop of dye on the water's surface and it disperses. With the idea that the developer is in fact in some sort of constant motion, adjacent solution may become depleted, however the notion that developer activity completely stops until some sort of agitation takes place would be contradicted. My theory is that not just dilution but overall quantity would also have an effect and agitation after some point would theoretically add nothing to the process. Just wanted your real life experience input regarding this. Thanks.

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[loonatic45414]

My experience is that insufficient pre-soak & agitation would be characterized by areas of insufficient development. What we see here is evidence of localized overexposure and/or overdevelopment. Mr. Sherman, is it consistent with your experience that this occurs?

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