Stand development and pushing / pulling? I don't quite get it.

[sanking]

Effective higher film speed makes sense with stand. Still seems a bit of a mystery you can push/pull without changing the development times. The developer seemingly would just exhaust itself in any case? But pushing requires more development time so I would think that would otherwise underexpose the negative?

Just to be clear, I did not say one could push/pull without changing development times. What I said was,

"Dilute developers with minimal agitation are able to develop most films to a fairly wide range of Plus/Minus (or expansion/contraction) with time as a development control."

I own a copy of Richard Henry's Controls in Black and White Photography, 2nd edition from 1988. Good methodology in conventional testing, but not much there on either stand development or two-bath development.

To be fair, both stand development and two-bath development were very much out of favor in the period of the conventional Zone system, and in BTZS.

Sandy

[xkaes]

I own a copy of Richard Henry's Controls in Black and White Photography, 2nd edition from 1988. Good methodology in conventional testing, but not much there on either stand development or two-bath development.

While this is true, you can use his approach / testing method with any developing method or technique -- and you can augment them as you wish.

As to developer exhaustion, there are many approaches using this -- such as the 1 + 4 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 4 technique. It is putting the film in a developer for one minute -- without agitation -- simply to absorb the developer into the emulsion. Then the film is placed in a water bath, again without agitation, for four minutes -- where the film is developed until the absorbed developer is exhausted. Of course, it exhausts quicker in the highlights (dark) areas of the negative, while continuing to develop in the shadow (light) areas. This creates lower contrast, of course. (I have a copy of an article discussing this method in detail, if anyone is interested. I think it was from Darkroom Techiques in the 1980's)

But whatever method you use, a negative that is underexposed (i.e., pushed), the shadow areas will need a longer development time to reach the same density. How much longer? That's where Henry's methods / tests come into play.

[Willie]

Am showing my ignorance here but will this result in sharper negatives, cleaner shadows or better highlight control and/or mid tone separation one can actually see in a finished print?

I mainly do contact prints and am willing to try something if it results in prints that are actually better when viewed.

[xkaes]

This all gets into personal opinions, preferences, beliefs, and -- God forbid -- actual definitions.

The good news is that most approaches are easy to try. Just keep good notes and see which prints you prefer.