Minimal Agitation Negative versus Tray Processed Negative

[Steve Sherman]

Two 7"x17" negatives identically exposed.
Top negative is Pyro processed for 24 minutes in a tray with continuos agitation pushing highlight density all the way to 1.79 above film base plus fog.
Bottom negative is Pyro processed with a Semi-Stand processing method for a total time of 45 minutes with only one agitation cycle at the halfway point of 1 Minute in length. Highlight density is only 1.33

Conventional wisdom would dictate that a negative of 1.79 would be much more contrasty than a negative of only 1.33 highlight density. Push processing such as the 1.79 negative merely pushes tonalities farther up the "same slope" of the film's straight line. Minimal Agitation forms of film processing actually "increase the slope" of the straight line effectively separating the identical tonalities in the 1.33 negative more abruptly than those tonalities in the 1.79 negative.

Cheers